Energy and financial experts have warned that Africa risks losing $415 billion yearly due to climate change by 2030 if necessary steps are not taken to address the situation.
The experts who expressed their worry about sustainable financing for Africa, especially in the energy sector, said Africa needed over $23 billion to upgrade existing refineries on the continent to produce cleaner fuels and displace charcoal with modern fuels.
According to them, without significant improvements in infrastructure resilience, yearly economic losses from natural disasters’ damage to urban infrastructure alone would increase from $300 billion currently to $415 billion by 2030.
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Speaking during the recent African Refiners and Distributors Association (ARDA) Virtual Sustainable Financing Workshop, Executive Secretary of ARDA, Anibor Kragha said that strategic options were needed now more than ever for the financing energy transition in the African downstream petroleum sector.
He maintained that Sub-Saharan Africa’s import needs for transport fuels would continue to grow for the foreseeable future, making the region the world’s largest importer by 2030.
He, however, regretted that complex, inefficient supply chains and intra-African trade challenges impeded the implementation of cost-effective clean energy solutions on the continent, but that the African Continental Free Trade Act (AfCFTA) presented an opportunity for the continent to address these issues and deploy an inclusive, equitable energy transition roadmap that captured the priorities, challenges and perspectives of Africa’s low-carbon emitting countries.
Along with other stakeholders, the ARDA boss insisted that Africa’s share of global emissions remained low, hence the roadmap for energy transition must not prioritise near-term emissions reductions (with relatively little climate benefits) over support for economic development and energy transformation.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
