CoP22 revealed Sub-Saharan Africa as the perfect setting to implement renewable energies.

On his last tour, Justin Bieber raised more than 56 million dollars. According to CBS, a 30-second ad at the 2016 Super Bowl costed 5 million dollars. The most expensive English-language words at Google Ad Words are insurance-related; some of them can cost up to US$1.000 for every click.

These themes have little to do with sustainability. Still, on the last years they started to share two important aspects with it. One of them is that they attract the attention of lots of people; thanks to that, issues like the energy development in Africa have started to attract the business sector.

In this sense, the Cop22 unveiled as an opportunity for companies to set agreements related to sustainable development, particularly on the energy sector, which promises to grow substantially in the following years. A proof of this projection is the announcement of companies like Dalmia Cement or Swiss Re, to join the RE100 and EP100 initiatives. These agreements signify a big step towards the provision of sustainable tools to achieve the goals set by the Paris Agreement to replace fossil fuels.

RE100 is a collaborative, global initiative of influential businesses committed to working to increase demand for – and delivery of – renewable energy. It groups businesses from all over the world and from a wide range of industrial sectors – from telecommunications and IT to retail and food. Companies joining RE100 are encouraged to set a public goal to procure 100% of their electricity from renewable sources of energy by a specified year.

EP100 was launched on May 2016, with aims to promote energy efficiency as the ‘first fuel’ of any business activity. The concept is described as ‘getting more economic output from each unit of energy’, for greater economic output. This global initiative supports the growth of energy efficiency among the world’s biggest companies, who are pledging to double their energy productivity and maximize economic output.

November 11th was adaptation day at CoP22; a whole day focused on how to achieve the seventh Sustainable Development Goal. In words of the Executive Director and special representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All initiative, Rachel Kyte “To ensure universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy, that can connect the world’s 1.1 billion people without access to Electricity (or can barely access it) and the 2.9 billion people still relying on hazardous solid fuels”. “Moreover”, she and added, “Closing the energy gap offers us one of the opportunities of our life”.

Cop22 is the most important event related to stopping climate change. Since its creation in 1992, it has been a decision-making entity to “protect the climate system for the benefit of present and future generations” and therefore a beacon for all those who relate directly to issues related to ecology and sustainability.

Truth be told, when compared to developed economies, Africa’s critical lack of infrastructure makes it a magnet to attract international funding. In a way, USA’s reticence to fully commit to reduce its carbon emissions is understandable, for it would mean the dismantling of huge investments, destined to last for many years to come, and replace them with new (and not-so-new) technologies.

The point is that there is a general understanding that with the reduction of the prices of technologies for renewable energy, it is possible to imagine that people in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia will soon have electricity. On this sense, Kyte considered that the private sector will have a key role in this effort for most people would not get their energy from the general network.  “There will be an integrated system where people will receive their energy from small-scale power grids. With the new technologies and the new business models, we can accelerate these processes and close the gap on energy access”.

World yearly CO2 emissions have reached 34.000 million metric tons. African continent is responsible of 3,5% of this total; a quantity slightly inferior to Japan´s emissions.

On this matter, the future prospects look promising. Important companies like Dalmia Cement and Helvetia announced at a press conference their new commitments, in which they have publicly forced to use 100% renewable energy in their operations and join RE100. Additionally, on the last few days, Swiss Re announced its commitment to double its energy productivity and join EP100.

Nevertheless, this objectives need of everybody’s collaboration. Linah Mohohlo, Member of the Africa Progress Panel -Chaired by Kofi Annan, Ex-governor of the Bank of Botswana- announced “African countries need to know when the funds will be available so that they can confidently plan their transition to a low-carbon economy and use the funds to attract co-financing. For all these reasons, it is vital that all developed countries contribute their part of the USD100 billion”.

Another issue mentioned by Kofi Annan was the fragmentation and labyrinthine-like system of the international climate financing architecture. He adverted that “Modest funding has been transferred through overly bureaucratic delivery structures that combine high transaction costs with low impact. There are now 50 climate funds in operation in Africa; most finance has been earmarked for small-scale projects rather than national programmes.”

African continent is the target of approximately 50% of all worldwide international cooperation funds (Statistics from a study made by the Organización para la Cooperación y el Desarrollo (OCDE), “Mapeo de la inversión social para el desarrollo en la Argentina”).

It is important to admit that investors still see Africa as a risky investment, partly because of conflict driven by climate and socio-historic factors, but also because of the region’s chaotic regulatory environment. Public and private investment are usually obstructed by deficient regulatory frameworks, limited infrastructure in financial and economic spheres, corruption, or a political instability. Therefore, economic organizations constantly ask African governments to harmonize energy laws and legal conditions across the continent.

In spite of the doubts and uncertainties that political events constantly bring to the global outlook, economic conditions are slowly turning on favor of a responsible way of living. A huge commitment will be required from all stakeholders, to ensure a sustainable exploitation of the economic and political conditions that our generation is constructing around the globe.

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