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Africa’s greatest challenge is how to industrialise but not increase carbon emissions significantly at the same time – otherwise, hundreds of millions of people will be condemned to a life of poverty. The whole of Africa accounts for only 2–3% of the world’s CO2 emissions from energy and industrial sources, according to the UN.
It is roughly the same proportion as Germany and a lot lower than China (27%), the US (15%) and India (7%). Africa’s per capita emissions of CO2 were 0.76 tonnes (t) in 2018 compared with 4.4t globally, according to the World Bank (in the US it was 15.52t and in Australia 17t). Africa’s total population is around 1.3 billion people compared with China’s 1.4 billion, but China’s total carbon emissions are ten to 14 times higher than Africa’s.
The reality is that many African nations are already at net zero. More than 640 million Africans have no access to energy, corresponding to an electricity access rate of just over 40%, the lowest in the world, according to the African Development Bank (AfDB).
Globally, around 87% of the population have access to electricity. Per capita consumption of energy in sub-Saharan Africa (excluding South Africa) is 180 kilowatt-hours (kWh), compared with 13,000kWh in the US and 6,500kWh in Europe. Around 900 million Africans also lack access to ‘clean cooking’, the use of modern stoves and fuels.
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