Fossil Fuels, Africa’s Leading Energy Source

The international body, Ember, has released its Global Electricity Review report for the year 2020. According to the report, Africa is still largely dependent on fossil fuels.

The report shows that ”61% of the world’s electricity still came from fossil fuels in 2020”, and ”Electricity demand remained almost unchanged year-on-year, falling 0.1%. It was only the second time this century that electricity demand fell; it fell 0.3% in 2009 due to the global recession”.

In Africa, the report shows, countries are largely dependent on fossil fuels. The data shows that fossil dependency was 81% in Nigeria, 89% in South Africa, and 90% in Egypt.

Global Program Lead Ember Dave Jones speaking on the transition to renewable energy, says, “Progress is nowhere near fast enough. Despite coal’s record drop during the pandemic, it still fell short of what is needed. Coal power needs to collapse by 80% by 2030 to avoid dangerous levels of warming above 1.5 degrees. We need to build enough clean electricity to replace coal simultaneously and electrify the global economy. World leaders have yet to wake up to the enormity of the challenge.”

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