As the world rushes to address climate change, Western fossil fuel firms wanting to exploit deposits in Africa must consider the potential danger of regulatory action, as it has on other continents, a US climate envoy warned on Friday.
Speaking from South Africa, US Deputy Special Presidential Envoy for Climate Jonathan Pershing asked Western investors to reconsider whether fossil fuels were still a viable business prospect in Africa or elsewhere.
After being asked about the present rush by Western oil and gas corporations to develop deposits in Africa, he told a virtual media conference, “There’s a risk of regulatory… and financial action, and I believe that’s getting more and more explicit.”
“If you’re a corporation intending to invest in oil and gas, you have to consider if you’ll end up with a stranded asset.” He went on to say that even China has just agreed to stop developing coal plants in other countries.
“I wouldn’t put a lot of faith in a fossil-fuel future.”
Despite the fact that the United States; is a significant producer and exporter of oil and gas, with recent increase fueled by output from shale areas, his remarks are surprising.
Pershing is in Africa as part of attempts to enhance global climate ambition ahead of the United Nations’ COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland next month. South Africa is also hosting climate envoys from the United Kingdom, Germany, and France.
African countries are looking for financial support from the West to help them transition to renewable energy. Due to its reliance on coal-fired power, South Africa, the continent’s top greenhouse gas emitter and the world’s 12th largest, informed the envoys on Tuesday that it requires significant assistance in its energy transformation.
Late Friday in South Africa, British COP26 envoy John Murton told journalists that Britain might provide technical support and bring in private investors. They had discussed matters other than coal, he claimed, such as a net-zero carbon transportation sector, improved energy efficiency, and green hydrogen.
South Africa relies on coal for almost 80% of its electricity generation, and its insolvent national power utility, Eskom, requires billions of dollars to replace it with greener options.
“We’re all in agreement that the energy sector change must be in the forefront,” Murton remarked. “We’ve come to work with South Africa to see how we can manage that transition,” said the delegation.
“Part of what the donors will be attempting to do (is) to help generate concessional money for the South African transition,” Pershing said after meeting with South African politicians, business executives, and trade unions. Neither envoy specified the amount of money on offer.
According to the non-profit Carbon Disclosure Project, Africa contributes only 3.8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet it is the fastest-growing continent. He believes it has the potential to “leapfrog” older carbon-based technologies and embrace renewable, just as it has in many places skipped traditional telephony and gone straight to wireless.
“Africa does not need to follow the West’s high-carbon intensity path. It is capable of going beyond that “he stated
