- Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, Nigeria’s Vice President, calls for ultimate support of the African energy transition.
- Osinbanjo believes solar is the future of Africa’s electrification.
Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, Nigeria’s Vice President, has encouraged wealthy countries to commit to ultimately supporting Africa’s energy transition.
In an essay for The Economist magazine headlined “Yemi Osinbajo on the Hypocrisy of Rich Countries’ Climate Policies,” Osinbajo stated that Nigeria needed $400 billion in new investment above and above its current spending to achieve its net-zero goal.
Osinbajo wrote: “First, developed nations should commit to funding, in total, Africa’s energy transition. This is both a moral imperative and an environmental necessity.
“We estimate that Nigeria requires $400 billion of new investment above business-as-usual spending to meet its net-zero pledge. Like South Africa’s, a green energy package should offer at least $10 billion per year over the next two decades. Investments would cover new renewable generation projects and transmission infrastructure, smart grids, data management systems, storage capacity, electric vehicles, clean cooking, and the costs of integrating new distributed energy systems.”
He claimed that “it is high time to extend that kind of help to the rest of the continent” after a promising step was taken last year in Scotland at COP26, the annual UN climate negotiations when South Africa received an $8.5 billion package to expedite its energy transition.
“While solar will provide most of our electricity in the future, we will still require natural gas for baseload and balancing.” Therefore, to preserve the lives of our women and girls and to safeguard our natural environment, we demand that liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) be included as a clean cooking alternative.
“We should aim to generate a national average power output of at least 1,000 kilowatt-hours per person, which, combined with population growth, means that by 2050 we will need to generate 15 times more electricity than we do today. That ambitious goal will require vast resources,” he said.