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Kenya

Africa still needs fossil fuels to tackle poverty, inequality

Prof Nwajiuba foresees oil producing countries facing adverse economic effects due to reduced crude oil exports as developed economies embrace renewable energy.

“The local currencies will be devalued and I expect inflation, layoffs and increased unemployment, which will worsen social crises and conflicts as well as other related security challenges. If the trend in the international oil market continues, Nigeria will face very challenging times,” he says, adding that the issue of divesting from fossil fuels is going to be driven primarily by developments in technology and economics.

“In international trade and politics, fairness is not a key factor. What is important is the interest of the various contending forces at play. Ultimately, it is the trend of the development in technology and economics that will determine what happens.”

Prof Nwajiuba notes that coal is not as important as it were some years ago due to the same reasons, adding that the African position on divesting from fossil fuels will be known before the coming Conference of State Parties (COP21) in Paris in December this year.

His position is supported by the Director of Climate Action Network Europe, Wendel Trio, who says the world is ready to divest from fossil fuel.

“Actually, this should have started quite a while ago,” says Trio. “For Climate Action Network Europe, the world needs to phase out the use of fossil fuel by the middle of this century and phase in 100 percent renewable energy.”

Trio says this will be the only way to avoid the most dangerous impacts of climate change, and that, “in this effort, Europe and other industrialised countries need to take the lead and achieve this decarbonisation earlier”.

Trio says divesting from fossil fuels will have more advantages than disadvantages to communities who look forward to benefiting from fossil deposits.

For local communities, he says access to decentralised forms of renewable energy offer much more interesting pathways, including cheap energy that is easily available and quickly installed.

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“There are plentiful of studies that show how renewable energy has actually way more advantages for local communities,” says Trio, adding that Europe needs to have a unified approach on how to deal with fossil fuel, which the 28 European Union member states are expected to present at COP21 in Paris.

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