Closing the energy gap

Image source - Visual Capitalist

Should the Global South be held to the same standards as the Global North when it comes to energy transitions? This is the inquiry we embarked on for Earth Day, fuelled (pun intended!) by Dr. Rose Mutiso’s enlightening TED Talk “The energy Africa needs to develop -- and fight climate change”.

We came to understand the gap between the Energy Haves and the Energy Have-Nots is so stark that Californians use more electricity playing video games than the country of Senegal. Dr. Mutiso makes the case for Africa being allotted a greater share of the global carbon budget, calling out the hypocrisy of richer nations imposing the burden of climate adaptation on poorer countries before cutting their own energy usage.

We were struck by the fact that if electricity use in sub-Saharan Africa tripled overnight, it would contribute to only 1% of global emissions. The question of funding came up, as international institutions provide the money, and hence hold the decision making power of how electricity is generated. We wondered if private investments could be leveraged to provide no-strings-attached funding, but came to the understanding that investors were less interested in providing long-term loans, and that money was not likely to provide the solution to deep-seated infrastructural inequities.