The Dark Continent and Africans for Energy
People in highly developed countries take energy for granted.
Try living without it.
Millions of Africans still live without electricity. That needs to change. Fast.
Two of CFACT’s most distinguished scholars, Paul Driessen and David Wojick, posted a pair of articles to CFACT.org you should know about.
They discuss international development banks.
The first titled “Multilateral anti-development banks” explains how large development banks have abandoned the energy needs of people in Africa and the developing world and sacrificed them to climate ideology. They placed the huge profits corporations make on climate ahead of people.
“Foreign Operations” appropriation bills now working their way through Congress supposedly provide funding to “advance U.S. diplomatic priorities overseas,” “increase global security,” and continue “life-saving global health and humanitarian assistance programs for the world’s most vulnerable populations.”
The bills include handsome funding for the World Bank and other so-called Multilateral Development Banks: some $1.8 billion in total. The United States is by far the World Bank Group’s largest donor, and a major funder of four other MDBs: the African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, Inter-American Development Bank and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
In recent years, these banks have embraced manmade climate change alarmism as a key foundation for their lending policies. In particular, they refuse to fund the development of electric power generation via fossil fuels – thereby starving impoverished nations and families of desperately needed electricity.
Instead, the MDBs are pouring money into solar and wind power schemes that simply cannot produce affordable, reliable electricity on a large enough scale to help raise their client countries out of poverty.
This is an outrage.
The second titled “Rejecting carbon colonialism” showcases a clear-headed example of bravery and hope.
We recently explained how Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) use manmade climate change alarmism to justify lending policies that reject funding for fossil fuel electricity generation, promote expensive and unreliable renewable sources, and thereby help keep impoverished nations poor.
Now, in a daring show of humanity and common sense, the African Development Bank (AfDB) has broken ranks with the World Bank and its like-minded carbon colonialist brethren. The AfDB has announced that it will once again finance coal and natural gas power generation projects. As AfDB President Akinwumi Adesina puts it, “Africa must develop its energy sector with what it has.”
In a formal statement, Adesina noted: “The key challenge for Africa is the generation of power. The continent has the lowest electrification rate in the world. Power consumption per capita in Africa is estimated at 613 kWh per annum, compared to 6,500 kWh in Europe and 13,000 kWh in the United States. Power is the overriding African priority.
“The investment is expensive, yes, but the long-term returns will be much greater. To fast track universal access to electricity, the Bank is investing US$12 billion in the power sector and seeks to mobilize $45-$50 billion from other partners.”
The big banks may have gone all-in on climate, but the “investments” they are financing will have no meaningful impact on global temperature, while causing real harm to people forced to live without energy.
The African Development Bank is wise to recognize this reality and to put its money on the side of providing real energy and genuine hope for Africa.
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