Africa - CDM Opportunities and Challenges

Africa is the continent hard-hit by climate change due to its low adaptive power arising from poverty and frequent natural disasters like flood and droughts.

Though 80% of the population is agriculture dependent, its cultivable land is under-utilized and its agriculture is rainfall dependent. About 550 million people or 75% in the sub-Saharan Africa has no access to electricity or modern energy. There is an over dependence on wood and animal wastes for energy.

Looking at these problems from another perspective, one would see the
great potential developing modern bioenergy in Africa:

Plenty of highly degraded lands

Tropical climate with good rainfall for energy feedstock

Cheap and available human resource

Population heavily dependent on wood resource

Biofuel crop cultivation needs very low chemical input

Certain suitable technologies can be small based

Low technology requirements to grow trees

Related biofuel technologies can be easily transferrable

Yet the trends in African clean development mechanism ( CDM ) participation for this type of project are especially grim. Behind this potential economic returns (facilitated through market-based mechanism like CDM), there are the sticky problem of security risk and numerous implementation challenges:

Assessed from the political, socio-economic and currency instability, many African countries are considered the high and medium risk categories. Few have the eligible credit ratings to facilitate securing of loans for projects. Very often, financial supports with high upfront commitment have to source direct from the interested government, right through to the final stages.

African countries need to have resources and transparencies to attract CDM investments, and to overcome several bureaucratic constraints. This is to be contrasted with China and India that have institutions and designated national authority (DNA) which are better acquainted with the CDM.

In 2004, only two countries across the entire Continent were accessing the CDM—Morocco and South Africa. The country with the largest slice is South Africa with just under 30 registered or in the pipeline, followed by Egypt 12; and Morocco 9. As at 2006, out of 1376 CDM projects in 50 countries, only 34 of these or 2.5% are in Africa.

In Dec 2006, the then Secretary-General Kofi Annan in Nairobi called for an international effort to extend the CDM's reach to the almost non participating Africa.
The Nairobi Framework was set up subsequently, comprising of three UN agencies and two multilateral development banks. Through the set up of the Framework, assistance are offered to sub-Sahara African countries to identify, to clear barriers, develop, submit and process CDM projects.
Numbers are showing some results. By 2008, many African countries have projects up and running or in the pipeline.

Feasibility studies are being conducted in many fields, to set up mini hydro units. Hydropower offers huge potential as presently, only about 5% of the estimated 163 GW has been tapped, limited to the Republic of Congo and the Northern Africa regions. Under utility is due to frequent droughts causing low water flow. Studies are ongoing in the utilization of caolbed methane too.

Afforestation and reforestation in Africa have the basic pre-requisites
required of CDM projects. Awakening participation is just a matter of time!

(Photo FAO)

Solar energy is aplenty and largely untapped. The use is mainly in photovoltaics (PV) and solar water heaters. There are about 20 000 solar PV systems. Centralized PV systems are still of mini-grid scale and are not fed into the national grid system.

Kuyasa has the first registered CDM project in S. Africa. It retrofits houses with solar heaters to provide hot water.
This resident of Kuyasa low-cost urban housing energy upgrade project is seen inserting an evacuated tube into the water tank.
(Photo: Nic Bothma won 1st Place in the CDM 2008 Photo Contest)

Wind energy is currently widely used for water pumping,. Wind electricity capacity of the order of 30 MW is being planned for the coast of Namibia and South Africa.

Renewable energy projects at close to 40% top Africa's access to the CDM followed by a quarter of projects in the methane reduction area.

One interesting but unusual project is from Niger to save the 60% of onion which normally goes rotting, releasing the potent methane gas. The idea is to use solar dryers and other systems to prevent the onions from rotting.

(Solar Dryer: Ncerd-unn.org)

The onion project, like many other CDM projects in Africa, not only helps to cut greenhouse gas emissions, but also improve the farmers' income. It is a rather unusual but small example of the co-benefits arising from so many CDM projects.

PeopleDaily: Sino-African trade passes $100 bln mark in 2008
Sino-African trade reached a "historic" level of 106.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2008, China's Ministry of Commerce said on 27.01.09. Bilateral trade was 10 billion U.S. dollars in 2000 but has since grown at an average year-on-year rate of more than 30 percent, the ministry said.

In view of the close ties and robust Sino-African trade potential, Louis Michel, European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, proposed a "triangular partnership with China and Africa..... to mitigate climate change."

With the set up of the Nairobi Framework to extend the reach to CDM by Africa countries, the door of CDM opens to the world, the EU, Africa and especially China, a new horizon that is far and wide, for a better living of the African people and the well being of the Earth.

References and Related News:

China's eight-measure economic policy on Africa well implemented
China not to reduce assistance to Africa despite financial crisis
African student to help homeland with technology learned in China
Unfcccc: The Nairobi Framework - Catalyzing the CDM in Africa
The Independent: Tanzania develops low carbon economy
Kyoto Protocol and the CDM in Africa: Fao.org
UNFCC - Nairobi Framework
Climate Change AR 4 report.
Climate Action: Sustainable Bioenergy in Africa: Issues and Possibilities
Kyoto Protocol and the CDM in Africa:Fao.org

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