President challenges Africa on energy

Addressing the Africa Energy Summit held on the sidelines of the World Energy Forum here yesterday, the Head of State and Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces underscored the right of nations to pursue peaceful nuclear options for power generation.

 

He said it was disheartening to note that Africa was “a case of energy underdevelopment and energy under consumption”.

“The billion-strong African continent accounts for a mere three percent of global power consumption,” said President Mugabe.

“Per capita electricity consumption in Africa, we are told, is about 60KWh compared to 8 000KWh in the United States of America.

“These figures tell a story of energy poverty on the sunny continent of Africa, on a continent of roaring rivers, huge coal reserves and significant oil, and natural gas deposits.”

President Mugabe said Africa’s marginalisation in the global economy replicated itself as the continent’s marginalisation on the energy front.

“We are exporters of primary energy, which is why pipelines and ships daily cart crude oil from the continent for refinement elsewhere in the developed world before the same commodity comes back to us as a huge fossil energy bill which we can hardly afford,” President Mugabe said.

He added: :My own country, Zimbabwe, sits on huge coal deposits we cannot harness. We also sit on significant deposits of methane gas which remain unexploited.

“Between us and Zambia, we have tremendous opportunities for hydropower generation on the Zambezi.”

President Mugabe said Inga Dam in the Democratic Republic of Congo could easily light up the whole continent if fully developed.

“I am raising issues of creating a good, progressive energy policy environment on the continent which ensures we invest in our energy sector while we value add on that same resource for greater energy access to our people and for greater export value to our economies,” he said.

“This is key to resolving the development conundrum that has stalked the continent.”

President Mugabe noted that Sadc was writhing from crippling energy deficit and urged the region to intensify investments in the energy sector as the current state of affairs constrained industrialisation.

“Unlike other regions, we are now fully integrated as the Southern Africa Power Pool, which is why we need to tackle the supply side of the power equation,” he said.

“I am happy to indicate that a number of projects are under discussion in our region which should see us embark on cleaner interstate energy projects for our region.”

President Mugabe observed that the Middle East, which is the biggest source of global   fossil energy, has experienced turbulent times of late.

“Apart from indicating how unilateral efforts at securing energy sources continue to shape global politics, the crisis in the  Middle East dramatises the inherent shared vulnerability of world economy,” he said.

“We are all susceptible to serious shocks in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf. We need to call for the stabilisation of  this vital sub-region, indeed call for the     respect of its sovereign right to shape its politics.”

President Mugabe underscored the need to intensify collective search for more stable and more durable source of energy and noted that progress in harnessing solar energy had been slow, uneven and insignificant as an alternative to fossil fuels.

“We need to harness research towards the generation of green energy technological options which target and reach the poor and marginalised,” he said.

“We need to harness global funds towards energy projects which transform such marginalised communities.

“Our national Rural Electrification Project in Zimbabwe has amply shown how availability of power stimulates income- generating efforts in poor communities, indeed how energy access is key to tackling rural poverty and under-development.”

President Mugabe said the energy was the heart of global governance and urged delegates to the summit to have courage to point this out “so that we do not end with pious resolutions that shy away from core issues of global underdevelopment and global threat”.