admingreenhouse gas.
Zimbabwe’s renewed energy at exploiting the vast gas fields in Lupane for power generation must tally with on-going efforts at curbing global warming and climate change.
Compared to carbon dioxide, methane gas has been proved to have a higher potential of causing global warming despite earlier held beliefs that it was much cleaner than coal and other fossil fuels.
The country’s short-term economic development targets must therefore be weighed accordingly to the long-term hazards caused by gas as a fuel on the environment.
This is the balance Zimbabwe must attain – achieving sustainable development in a green economy – if at all it is committed to mitigating the effects of climate change.
It is now believed that methane gas may have caused more than a third of global warming since the industrial revolution, according to new research.
In a period of a century methane gas has proved to have a warming effect on the earth 25 times greater than the same amount of carbon dioxide in the same period.
However, there is 220 times as much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than methane gas.
Zimbabwe is already producing a fair amount of carbon dioxide from its main thermal power stations in Hwange as well as from other industrial activities.
It does not need more misery on the environment from a proven deadly energy source such as methane gas.
We can understand that this is a desperate measure to shore up Zimbabwe’s depleted energy sector, but desperate situations don’t call for desperate responses.
Instead, what is needed is a carefully weighed and well thought out approach that contains the recurrence of a desperate disposition in the future.
The current gas development plans may result in a desperate environmental position, maybe in our age or in the age next but certainly it will fly back in our face.
Government has identified methane gas as a potential energy generator in its ambitious plans to raise Zimbabwe’s power output by 50 percent to more than 2 800MW by 2015.
It targets 300MW from gas in addition to 600MW and 300MW from the expansion of carbon-emitting Hwange thermal and Kariba power stations in that order.
But, of course, it will be deceptively dangerous to assume that Government has not done its homework.
The Environmental Act provides for the conducting of environmental impact assessment on projects to establish, as the name implies, their potential impact on the environment in view of climate change.
The problem is, we do not know whether the outcome of such an assessment will be considered fully especially in a nation that has generally accepted the nourishment of high carbon energies over the unforeseen environmental hazards.
Examples abound of developing nations that prioritise economic development and give a half-hearted approach to global warming and climate change.
In South Africa fossil fuels are a major power source while in India and Iran nuclear energy is also a key energy source.
In addition to power generation, it is clear Zimbabwe has obviously been attracted to methane gas because of its other downstream industrial and domestic benefits.
But these would be short-term compared to long-term environmental problems.
Coalbed methane gas is useful as an industrial raw material for the production of fertiliser, steel and industrial heat as well as “a fuel for rotating machines without having to use coal”.
Harare energy expert Mr Nobert Nziramasanga says: “Coalbed methane is a fossil fuel hence its combustion releases carbon dioxide that increases the carbon content of the atmosphere.”
Most of the global warming in the world is greenhouse gas induced. Although Zimbabwe has experienced the serious effects of global climate change, most of the greenhouse gas emissions have emanated from developed nations.
In the last century, the country’s air temperature has risen by 0,8 degrees Celsius while mean annual rainfall has fallen by between 10 and 15 percent.
This has already seen an increase in the frequency of droughts and has resulted in critical food shortages and hunger.
Vulnerable groups such as women and children have been hardest hit.
Other extreme weather conditions – warmer, longer summers and colder, wet winters have already manifested particularly in urban areas.
Floods and earthquakes have also become common in the last decade. Thus Zimbabwe has some credible evidence of the changes in the climatic conditions and should be able therefore to design appropriate future response strategies.
But before this is done, strategies must also be employed to cut the country’s greenhouse emissions, for as they say, prevention is better than cure. The situation in Zimbabwe is not expected to improve.
A study “Historic and Future Climatic Change in Zimbabwe” revealed that: . . . “It is reasonable to assume that a one degree Celsius rise within the next hundred years will be surpassed depending on the future greenhouse gas emissions.
“The countries of Southern Africa are lands of drought rather than lands of abundant precipitation.
“All future climate security planning should be based on this assumption.”
Wherefore Government plans to promote gas as an energy source and expand other high-carbon thermal stations, it should instead seriously begin to explore such cleaner technologies as solar and wind.
A fortnight ago I talked about attaining sustainable development within the framework of a green economy.
This is the dilemma that Zimbabwe faces today, the need to balance risk and responsibility, and promote development in a sustainable way.
Should Zimbabwe abandon its gas project and other power projects for environmental considerations?
Mr Nziramasanga explained: “It is important to note that there is no single most appropriate source of energy, all options have to be considered as they have their own advantages.
“It may be very difficult to turn away from coal and liquid fossil fuels immediately as current technologies make these the least cost options where resources are available.
“A mixture of the various energy sources is always preferred.”
Investment must be made in the promotion of prudent energy-saving methods particularly targeting households.
Switching off lights, household utensils and other energy-consuming appliances such as geysers when not in use will save energy. Households must be actively and persistently encouraged to replace high energy saving bulbs as well as adopting solar as a power source.
If, for example, more than 50 percent of Harare’s residents were encouraged to use solar for heating, lighting and cooking purposes that would save a lot of energy.
Government could fund a programme to install solar for households that cannot afford and accept repayments over an agreed period of time.
The use of solar driers at an industrial scale in farming areas can be promoted and help reduce the dependence by farmers on thermal-generated electricity and woodfuel.
Zimbabwe is believed to harbour the biggest undeveloped methane gas deposits in Southern Africa.
Coalbed methane is a gas trapped in the coal when it is formed. Unlike natural gas, coalbed methane does not have the pressure to drive it out of the ground once a well is drilled.
Special extraction technologies have to be used to draw it out of the ground.
God is faithful.
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