Africa -China Review Africa -China Cooperation and Transformation
By Africa China Review Staff Writer
In the next 20 years, Africa will be home to more than 2 billion people. The continent will thus experience a significant increase in its energy needs for transportation, industrial production, air conditioning of buildings and cooling of food and medicine and more. Africa’s energy demand is growing twice as fast as the global average.
As the continent strives to meet the expanding energy needs, it is reducing its over-dependence on natural resources and redirecting its capacity towards manufacturing. This of course risks the increase in the emission of global greenhouse gases. Although its share of energy-related CO2 emissions will only account for 3% of total global emissions by 2040, the continent has been proactive in ensuring it develops its industries in a sustainable way.
China and Africa have agreed to work together on improving Africa’s capacity for green, low-carbon and sustainable development, and to roll-out more than 50 projects on clean energy, wildlife protection, environment-friendly agriculture and low-carbon development. Africa can become the continent where sustained levels of industrialization, urbanization and economic growth can be possible with far less energy and emissions than in other parts of the world.
Africa can learn a lot from China’s strategy in low-carbon development. In 2015, China issued the Vision and Actions on Jointly Building the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Gao Shiji, an expert from China’s Development Research Center of the State Council stressed that efforts should be made to “promote green and low-carbon infrastructure construction and operation management, taking into full account the impact of climate change on the construction.”
This point was reiterated by President Xi Jinping at the Second Belt and Road Initiative Forum for International Cooperation in April 2019, when he said that that “We need to pursue green development. We may launch green infrastructure projects, make green investment and provide green financing to protect the Earth which we all call home.”
China is making huge efforts to advance low-carbon development and has made significant progress in transitioning towards a clean, low-carbon energy consumption structure. However, there is no one-size-fits-all low-carbon pathway for all countries due to the significant differences in each country’s economic structure, natural resource endowment, technological abilities, and stage of development. For African countries wishing to emulate this model, it is up to policy makers to set priorities in accordance with their respective national conditions and sustainable development goals.
Africa’s energy future is not preordained: many pathways are possible, but effective policy choices can guide the continent to a more inclusive and sustainable energy future and accelerate its economic and industrial development.
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