As discussions and commitments to climate action take the fore in international relations, there is a growing narrative that developing African countries will hinder global climate targets. In this interview, Todd Moss, Executive Director, Energy for Growth Hub, discusses the illogical fear that African nations pose a threat to the planet as their energy needs grow. Todd emphasizes wealthy nations’ role in climate change and highlights the disproportionate historical emissions between Africa and the developed world. 48 African nations with about 1 billion people have only contributed 0.6 per cent of global emissions. Energy use on the continent is also low; for instance, Americans use more electricity playing video games than Nigeria gets annually.
Typically, the unjustified fear-mongering that increase energy demand in marginalised but emerging regions such as Africa is often cited as a rationale for imposing bans on investments in cleaner fossil fuel projects that would undoubtedly improve energy access. Todd believes that African nations should have the most flexibility in the energy transition. However, this is not the case as developed countries push strict energy transition policies on the continent. High political costs for energy transition mean that developed nations cannot easily transition their energy systems to cleaner sources. Instead, these countries take the easy way out by blaming poorer nations for potential emissions, which they argue will derail their future emissions targets. Todd states that the developed nations need to take on the burden of fixing climate issues.
Todd argues that blaming Africa for future emissions is unjustified fearmongering and not factual. If developing countries double or quadruple their electricity, it will only modernize the economy and improve living standards without a significant increase in global emissions.