Energy: A prosperous Africa at what cost

On the 2^nd day of the Alternative Mining Indaba, Action Aid South Africa hosted a an evening talk titled Energy: A prosperous Africa at what cost.

The World Bank has declared 25 of the 54 nations in Africa to be in an energy crisis with the consequences of this heavily felt by women and girls.

The continent has grown industrially over the last two decades and cities have grown exponentially yet this development has not been matched by energy development.

According to Action Aid from 2001 to 2005, GDP in over half of the nations in Sub Saharan Africa 

rose for over 4.5% while generation capacity grew at a rate of 1.2%.

What does this mean; it means that only 30% of the population have access to electricity , a miserly figure compared to 70 to 90 % in other parts of the the developing world.

What does this translate to Children not been able too study adequately, women bearing the burden of picking firewood to cook with a situation which I itself is dangerous.

Trees bear the brunt of humans needing for charcoal and wood to cook with increasing deforestation and of course, this leading to climate change.

The African Agenda Vision 2-063 is Africa’s commitment to renewable energy, which lags behind China, India, Brazil, and Russia.

Less than 1% of the Electricity generated in Africa originates from renewable resources according to the South African White Paper on Energy Policy.

The African Continent has many sustainable resources of energy BUT only a small percentage is been harnessed.

As little as 5% to 7% of the continents hydroelectric potential has been tapped and only 0.6% of its geothermal capacity.

Despite all the dangers of coal there are still 1,199 proposed new coal –fired plants says the World Resource Instititute Global Coal Risk Assessments Data Analysis and Market Research.

This project are spread across 59 countries and in Africa the following countries are highlighted: South Africa is slated to 8 projects, Mozambique 4, Morocco, 2, Botswana 4, Zimbabwe 1, Tanzania 4, Namibia 1, Zambia 1 and Senegal 1.

Coal mining is associated with a number of health and environmental hazards.

It stresses the environment during extraction, benefication, and transportation of coal to a power station.

Mining communities and workers I close proximity to mines are also negatively affected in the coal fuel chain through exposure to a lot of harmful pollutants, injuries, and fatalities.

South Africa has 6000 abandoned mines spilling acid water and heavy metals into the environment.

The main impacts of coal mining are climate change impacts caused by Green House Emissions, human health burdens due to air pollution, fatalities, and injuries due to coal mining and transportation, water pollution and impacts related to land and livelihoods.

 Mining Companies across the continent contravene environmental, labour, and social laws serially.

Action Aids paper states that while it is incontestable that energy is a key driver of economic growth and our continent is in dire need of infrastructural development for sourcing, generation, and distribution of energy; there is nothing that binds us as a continent to dirty energy.

Actually investing in in green and renewable energy would likely create more jobs and more sustainable livelihood opportunities.

This is more sustainable and is an effective multiplier compared to the limited exploitative jobs created through the coal value chain.

It is important for coal mining to be substituted for better state led energy initiatives.

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