- President Buhari calls on world leaders to seek a climate solution that does not cause an energy crisis in Africa
President Muhammadu Buhari has urged world leaders to avert an energy crisis in Africa as they come together to discuss the global push for net-zero emissions by 2030. World leaders will meet this week in Scotland at the COP26 event to discuss solutions to climate change.
In an opinion piece titled ‘The Climate Crisis Will Not Be Fixed Buy Causing Crisis in Africa, President Buhari urged world leaders not to rush the decision to defund fossil projects which will create a crisis in Africa. ”It is an inconvenient truth, but energy solutions proposed by those most eager to address the climate crisis are fuel for the instability of which they warn. No more clearly can this be seen than in Africa. For today’s 1.3 billion Africans, access to low-cost and reliable energy is the highest of all possible concerns.” Buhari said.
“No more than the Africa of today, the Africa of tomorrow cannot advance using energy production that intermittently delivers. Yet, in our rush to address climate concerns and for western aid agencies and investors to burnish their green credentials, we rush to install the most alternative of energy sources which are often the most unreliable. Wind and solar, the most fashionable of modern energy technologies, are flawed by their reliance on back-up diesel generators or batteries for when there is no wind for the turbines or sun for the panels.” he added.
“There is no single “green bullet” that can be deployed either in Africa or the world that solves concerns of environmentalists while simultaneously offering the power to fuel hope of greater wealth and progress for the extra 1 billion citizens of our African future.”
President Buhari stated that in place of defunding fossil projects, world leaders can advocate for new technologies such as mini-hydropower, a gradual energy transitioning process, the use of nuclear energy for electricity production etc. He called on world leaders to lift the moratorium on funding fossil projects.
”We call on them to lift the moratorium they have placed on fossil fuel investments in Africa…….There is a deal to be done at COP26, but none without the agreement of the nations of Africa. The climate warnings we hear them. We live them. But no one has the right to deny the advancement of our continent.” he concluded.