Virtual Event On Climate, Conflict And Demography In Africa On 14/09/2021

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VIRTUAL ADDRESS BY HIS EXCELLENCY VICE PRESIDENT PROFESSOR YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, AT THE CLIMATE, CONFLICT, AND DEMOGRAPHY IN AFRICA CONFERENCE JOINTLY HOSTED BY THE INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP, THE ROYAL AFRICAN SOCIETY, AND AFRICA CONFIDENTIAL PUBLICATION, ON THE 14^TH OF SEPTEMBER, 2021

PROTOCOLS

Thank you for this opportunity to very quickly share a few thoughts on the front burner issues of climate, conflict, and demography.

There is global consensus that extreme weather and disruptions from drought, flooding, and conflicts over natural resources disproportionately affect the developing world, particularly the most vulnerable in our communities including women and children. Air pollution kills more Africans than childhood malnutrition or contaminated water. Data from the World Health Organization shows that annually, there are 2.2 million environment-related deaths on the continent.

Further, when we discuss climate conflict and demography, the issue of adaptation and resilience cannot be overlooked. West African coastal areas have long provided livelihoods for millions of fishermen. Coastal ecosystems used to provide a range of essential services, including a huge fishery resource that has now been hit severely by rising sea levels, triggering floods, erosion, increased salinity, and disappearance of certain species of fish.

Beyond causing major losses in coastal infrastructure, this also exposes many human settlements to the risk of inundation, which results in inter-regional migration. This results in loss of lives and livelihood, often accompanied by the community and regional conflicts.

Agriculture is the backbone of Africa’s economy and accounts for the majority of livelihoods across the continent. Our exposure and vulnerability to climate change impact this also and is therefore not limited to certain regions or people, but to our economy as a whole – from the macroeconomic impact of rising food prices to health and wellbeing impacts resulting from heat stress.

So, it’s obvious that the global climate, energy, and development conversation can no longer happen on separate tracks. But despite these huge setbacks and despite being negligible contributors to co2 emissions we, continue to be the most adversely impacted by climate change – so much so that public resources that could help modernize the energy mix have to be redirected towards adaptation spending. But worse, we are being compelled to make disproportionately huge sacrifices as the wealthier countries continue full speed on defunding gas projects and insisting that gas projects must be defunded as an important component of the drive towards net-zero emissions by 2030.

But our first obligation will always be to ensure the wellbeing of our people, through access to development services including electricity, healthcare, education, safe jobs, and a safe environment, including access to clean cooking fuels. We must prioritize solutions that align with development and climate agendas – this is absolutely important. The global climate conversation can only be equitable and inclusive by putting all people in all geographies at the heart of the endeavor to save the planet.

We must recognize and plan for growing energy demand; its increase will be critical for driving growth, jobs, and economy-wide progress, and delivering healthcare and education services. Efforts are already underway in my country, Nigeria, and in several countries across the continent to transition to large shares of clean energy sources to do so.

To get the world on track for net-zero emissions by 2050, the amount of investments required in clean electricity – generation and grid storage infrastructure, will need to rise to more than US$1.6 trillion per year by 2030. This is over four times more than what was invested in these sectors in 2020. In regions like Africa, installed electricity capacity will need to double by 2030 and increase at least five-fold by 2050.

Much of the global investment in clean energy will need to go into Africa. However, instead of prioritizing efforts to redirect global capital to our nations, efforts are currently underway to limit the development of gas projects in Africa – violating the principles of equity and justice enshrined in global agreements.

Further, it also poses a grave threat to Africa’s energy transition because of the role of gas as a bridge fuel, to increase the share of renewable energy in the energy mix, and to rapidly transition away from firewood-based cooking fuel to natural gas-based cooking, yields both environmental and health benefits.

But Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) based policies and schemes are critical to realizing require annual global investment in gas for cooking to increase rather than be constrained. The global community must recognize that all fossil fuels are not the same and the critical role of bridge fuels in advancing the energy transition and addressing energy poverty is absolutely crucial.

Making capital available to fulfill the growing energy demand in these regions of the world is central to reaching the goals of the Paris Agreement.

The energy access element of the energy transition and the adaptation and resilience element of climate change must all be interlinked and given equal importance. If energy access issues are left unaddressed, we will continue to see growing energy demand being addressed with high polluting and deforesting fuels such as diesel, kerosene, and firewood.

As a result, efforts aimed to advance climate goals must first and foremost create carbon space for growing economies that have historically made negligible contributions to global emissions and have an obligation to their people to provide access to energy for electricity, cooking, and productive uses.

I would like to say a 120^th happy birthday to the Africa Society and many more years of great impact.

Thank you.