The United Nations has been
ideating the clean energy shift, as an umbrella organization for nations of the
world. The United Nations has been doing this through conferences, and
therefrom workshops, committees, seminars and so on.
From ideation came agreements
facilitated by the United Nations. The main agreements are 1) United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change- 1992 2) Kyoto Protocol- 1997 and 3) Paris
COP21 Agreement- 2015. The UNFCCC is the basic agreement, whilst the Kyoto
Protocol and Paris COP21 are extensions and improvements on the basic
agreement. The premise underlying these agreements are that a) there is
increase in the mean temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere b) it is caused by
the activities of humans-emission of carbon dioxide for example. The idea was
to cut the emissions, to a level that human activities would no longer
interfere with the temperature of the atmosphere- global warming. Top 3 leading
emitters of greenhouse gases (GHGs) are United States of America, China and
India.
At a UNFCCC meeting it was
acknowledged that:
1) Developed countries were
responsible for greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere
2) Greenhouse gas emission in
developing countries were relatively low
3) With time greenhouse gas
emissions will increase in developing countries
These were factors were to
underlie the implementation of the UN agreements on clean energy shift for
Africa. Africa was to benefit financially and technologically from the developed
countries in a clean energy shift or reliance on renewable energy.
What follows indicates the level
of clean energy usage by countries in the world by November, 2015. To find the
place of Africa in the clean energy shift, Africa should be compared with other
countries in that direction. What is the degree of increase in the use of clean
energy in Africa, which hopefully should result in an inversely proportional
decrease in the usage of dirty energy (oil, coal etc.), within the global
framework of GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions cut?
NO
|
COUNTRY
|
OIL EQUIVALENT IN MILLIONS OF TONS
|
REMARK
|
01
|
United States
|
65.00
|
Wind and solar are
regarded as effective and
affordable sources of
clean energy
|
02
|
China
|
53.10
|
“
|
03
|
Germany
|
31.70
|
“
|
04
|
Spain
|
16.00
|
“
|
05
|
Brazil
|
15.40
|
“
|
06
|
Italy
|
14.80
|
“
|
07
|
India
|
13.90
|
“
|
08
|
United Kingdom
|
13.20
|
“
|
09
|
Japan
|
11.60
|
“
|
10
|
France
|
6.50
|
“
|
11
|
Sweden
|
5.00
|
“
|
12
|
Canada
|
4.90
|
“
|
13
|
Denmark
|
4.10
|
“
|
14
|
Poland
|
3.90
|
“
|
15
|
Portugal
|
3.60
|
“
|
The following list depicts leading
countries in installed capacity of solar energy usage by the end of 2014:
NO
|
COUNTRY
|
INSTALLED CAPACITY
IN MEGAWATTS
|
01
|
United States of America
|
Under 10,000
|
02
|
China
|
Above 7,500
|
03
|
Germany
|
Under 5,000
|
04
|
India
|
Under 2,500
|
05
|
United Kingdom
|
Under 2,500
|
06
|
Spain
|
Under 2,500
|
07
|
Canada
|
Under 2,500
|
08
|
Italy
|
Under 2,500
|
09
|
France
|
Under 2.500
|
10
|
South Africa
|
Under 2,500
|
The first list shows global leadership
in usage of combined items of clean energy e.g. solar and wind. Of the top 15
not a single African country was listed. Curious, I researched for a list of
global leadership in the area of solar energy which is the second list. Why?
Because Africa has an abundance of that resource. But guess what. Only one
African country made the list, at the bottom of the list of top 10 countries.
That African country is South Africa.
That Africa could not make
proportional impact on the lists, given the abundance of solar material it has
shows that it takes more than natural resources of country to develop the
country for the benefit of its people. So within the framework of the United
Nations clean energy development for the developing countries, a proviso was
made for developed countries to pass money and technology to developing
countries.
The advancement of the developing
countries in the progressive development of clean energy is therefore
contingent on the release of funds and technology from the developed countries.
As and when funds and technology are released to developing countries progress
is made in clean energy development. What it implies is that when the developed
countries do not have funds and technology to dispose of as such development in
clean energy should stagnate. What about conditionalities attached to the
release of funds and technology?
To my mind the issues are even
deeper. The most critical resource of a nation is its human resource. Look at
Israel. Look at Japan. In those classic examples it is more of the human
resource than natural resource that has earned them their current status. These
countries have relatively little natural resource, yet look how big they are. It
is the quality of human resource they have that is making the difference.
Education is primarily the key to the human resource development of a nation,
and through the human resource, the effective and efficient application of
natural resource to the benefit and wellbeing of the nation at large, without
overreliance on other nations. Education must be relevantly engineered to meet
the development needs of a nation timeously, interdependently with other
nations on equal footing.
Africa is still talking: we have
yet to walk the talk in earnest. From colonialism to independence (or rather
neo-colonialism) it is still more of talking the talk, rather than walking the
talk!
Reference:
Comments
Post a Comment