Why Africa May Be Solution To Global Energy Crisis

Amid the climate, energy and geopolitical crises that have been raging for some years now, it is time the world looked to Africa for energy, President of Tanzania, Samia Suluhu Hassan, has said.

Speaking at a session on “Repowering the World” at the 53rd World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, she said that the continent have everything when talking about green energy – cobalt, copper, nickel, among others.

According to her, you can extract and manufacture in Africa, provide energy to Africa and take it to other countries.

Making an appeal for greater private sector investment in Tanzania, Hassan said Africa needs a lot of energy as many Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies are being applied there and a lot of related manufacturing is carried out there.

“We want to build regional power pools in East African and Southern African… if any region has a shortage, the other could supply it. Instead of Europe, Japan or India pursuing unilateral policies, more concerted efforts are needed to tackle the energy crisis that is truly global in nature”, she added.

Chemistry is the mother of all industries, said Ilham Kadri, CEO and Chairman of the Executive Committee, Solvay, and it is imperative to create diversified supply chains of metals and rare earths such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and copper that are essential components of EV batteries and so many other applications in the energy transition. China has built rare earths value chains for decades and to avoid a “Russian gas supply syndrome”.

She said Europe and countries around the world must find diversified sources of these metals and minerals as well as localise battery assembly. From reskilling workers to issuing permits, Europe needs policies that “get it done quicker”.

In the same vein, Mark Rutte, Prime Minister of the Netherlands, said the IRA is an opportunity for Europe to cut bureaucratic red tape, which would unleash opportunities for innovation, new jobs and working together at a European scale, or else “real action will move to Asia and other parts of the world”.

Asked if Europe had been amiss in continuing to depend on cheap Russian gas for too long, Rutte agreed that Europe could have cut this dependence sooner, but added that it was a collective failure, and not just Germany’s, as it is sometimes made out to be. Natural gas will continue to be used as a transition fuel in the short- to medium term, he said, but longer term, the direction is decidedly towards renewables, green hydrogen and even nuclear.