African countries face new hurdles in their quest to turn on the lights for about 621 million people as global financiers become increasingly reluctant to fund non-renewable energy projects.

It is becoming increasingly difficult for African countries to obtain financing from both the public and private sectors, particularly for coal and fossil fuel projects — with international financial institutions compelling companies to protect the environment or lose financing.

European and North American advocates are pushing multilateral development banks to stop supporting fossil fuel energy investments.

For instance, recent research by the Africa Progress Panel, chaired by Kofi Annan, shows that the World Bank Group has adopted guidelines that only allow coal investment in “rare circumstances” while the US Overseas Private Investment Corporation, which supports companies investing in the developing countries, is effectively prohibited from investing in energy projects involving fossil fuels.

Aid agencies such as Britain’s Department for International Development (DfID) and other EU donors do not provide support for coal-fired power projects.

Yet, across the continent, the deficit in power generation continues to be a major hindrance to business competitiveness, development, education and access to quality healthcare.

Worse still, restricted access to energy leaves the world’s poorest people paying some of the world’s highest prices for power.

Limited access to development finance is also seen as hampering efforts to achieve universal access to energy for all.

“It will not be possible to get out of the dark on renewable energy only within the set time-frame,” said Alex Rugamba, director for the Energy, Environment and Climate Change Department at the African Development Bank, which is spearheading efforts to light up the continent through a new multi-million dollar New Energy Deal for Africa.

“Countries have different endowments and this will determine which energy sources they can exploit for both domestic and industrial use,” Mr Rugamba added.

He urged African countries to use their collective voice to engage with the developed world during this transition period when both conventional and renewable energy sources will be needed.

Double standards

Most African governments argue that prohibiting investment in coal will limit power generation in countries that do not have readily available and affordable alternatives.

They also accuse the developed world of double standards as coal fired generation still makes up a large share of the energy mix of countries such as Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States — with the share being more that the combined share of most countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

These sentiments were repeatedly raised by prominent African leaders at the annual meetings of the African Development Bank held from May 23-27 in Lusaka, Zambia to the dismay of environmentalists from the developed countries, mainly the United States and United Kingdom, who sent a high powered delegation to the meeting to promote clean energy initiatives.

The United States through President Barrack Obama’s $7 billion Power Africa initiative, aims to generate 30,000MW mainly through private sector-led renewable energy projects.

Conversely, the UK Energy Access Campaign is focusing on promoting off-grid connections for households using solar energy.

“Let’s use what we have. We have coal in Africa, let’s use it, when we pollute the environment a little, we will all clean it up,” said Olusegun Obasanjo, former president of Nigeria, during a high level panel on energy, adding that without coal, Europe would not have industrialised.

Yet, there is international concern over coal due to the high carbon content of the energy it generates. On a per unit basis, coal generates roughly twice as much CO2 as natural gas.

Globally, it represented 29 per cent of primary energy supply in 2012 but accounted for 44 per cent of energy-related CO2 emissions.

Mr Obasanjo’s sentiments were echoed by other African leaders like Chad’s President Idriss Déby, Nigeria’s Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo and host Zambia’s President Edgar Lungu during a roundtable about energy and climate change — the overriding theme of the AfDB meeting.

While they acknowledged that protecting the environment is important, they rejected recommendations that Africa abandon coal or fossils fuels in favour of renewable energy, arguing that the latter is unrealistic given the continent’s huge development needs.

They pointed out that donors and environmental groups, having conspicuously failed to decarbonise their own energy systems, are now urging Africa to go green.

Moreover, even if the current trends continue, sub-Saharan Africa’s share in energy related CO2 emissions will increase from two per cent to just three per cent by 2040.

The African leaders urged the developed world to assist them with clean coal technologies to minimise the damage to the environment by having fewer emissions and a lower carbon print.

Despite the gradual reduction in the cost of renewable energy and its ability to boost access to energy as off-grid connections are relatively cheaper and faster to connect, there are limitations on its base load power capacity, which is the consistent ability to generate the electrical power needed to satisfy minimum demand.

Environmentalists led by Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland, who is the current president of the Mary Robinson Foundation-Climate Justice, said Africa is one of the most vulnerable continents to climate change. This situation is further worsened by its poor state of economic development and low adaptive capacity.