Page 9 - AfrOil Week 04 2020

AfrOil POLICY AfrOil
PM Boris Johnson attended the summit on January 20 (Photo: UK government)
UK makes green play in Africa
PM says British DFIs will help continue to help countries that use oil and gas in cleaner ways
REGIONAL
THE UK is to continue providing development financing for African countries that extract and use oil and gas in cleaner ways, despite UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s announcement that his government would no longer support coal mining anywhere.
Speaking at the UK-Africa investment sum- mit in London on January 20, Johnson said London would provide financing for “lower and zero-carbon alternatives” to support Africa’s transition away from fossil fuels.
Yet he also maintained that the UK would provide development financing to support oil and gas technology that reduces those sector’s emissions records.
“First, by helping you to extract and use oil and gas in the cleanest, greenest way possible – and we are world leaders in that and have much to share – but also by turbocharging our support for solar, wind and hydro and all the other car- bon-freesourcesofenergythatsurroundus,”he told the gathering of 16 African heads of state and business leaders.
Among those attending were Egyptian Pres- ident Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Kenya’s Uhuru Ken- yatta, Nigeria’s Muhammadu Buhari and Paul Kagame of Rwanda.
Johnson’s pledge to end support for coal
involves stopping “new direct official develop- ment assistance” to thermal coal mining and coal power plants, including aid money and loan guarantees and support from the UK’s export credit agency.
“There is no point in the UK reducing the amount of coal we burn if we then trundle over to Africa and line our pockets by encouraging African states to use more of it,” he said.
Johnson’s new policy comes as China, Russia, Japan, France, Germany and other developed countries are all competing to invest in African energy.
The continent aims to provide universal power access by 2025, which will cost $60-90bn per year over the next five years, according to the African Development Bank (AfDB). This will require 160 GW of new capacity, 130mn new on-grid connections and 75mn new off- grid connections.
Renewable energy is a key element of provid- ing universal access in less developed rural and urban areas.
Nevertheless, fossil fuels, mainly coal and natural gas, are set to continue to play a major role in providing power for industry in the con- tinent’s industrial powerhouses of South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt.
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