Europe Competes for African Natural Gas

At the COP27 climate conference, the African Union is advocating for increased investment in fossil gas projects as European leaders seek alternatives to Russian gas imports.

European politicians, caught in an energy crisis and desperate for alternatives to Russian gas, have spent months evaluating fossil fuel projects in Africa.

Their competitors are eager to sell.

Senegal and Mauritania intend to ship Germany liquefied natural gas (LNG). The government of Senegal anticipates supplying Europe’s largest economy with 2.5 million tons of gas beginning in 2023 and up to 10 million tons by 2030. The African Union promotes the expansion of energy infrastructure, notably fossil gas. Uncultivated lands in countries such as South Africa and Tanzania could be worth billions of dollars.

African Union Executive Director Rashid Ali Abdallah told DW, “This is undoubtedly a tremendous moment for Africa.” There are worldwide crises, not only in Europe, and Africa can assist supply global need.

To prevent the earth from warming by 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the demand for fossil fuels must rapidly decline.

Africa, a continent where climate change is wreaking havoc on crops and homes and where 600 million people do not have access to energy, has generated only 6% of the world’s fossil gas to yet. From Nigeria to Egypt and Algeria to Mozambique, countries on the African continent are striving to produce more natural gas — both for themselves and for Europe.

Before the COP27 climate meeting in Egypt, Ugandan Energy Minister Ruth Nankabirwa Ssentamu stated, “Africa has awoken, and we will exploit our natural resources.”

Africa is not Europe’s fuel depot.

The 55 African Union member nations have established a unified attitude in support of the growth of energy infrastructure. The African Energy Commission, the organization responsible for coordinating energy policy across the continent, has argued that gas and nuclear power should play a significant role in development alongside renewable energy sources.

The energy agency stated in a report that if global environmentalists demand an early halt to fossil fuel use, emerging countries in Africa will suffer economically and socially.

According to the International Energy Agency, which is led by energy ministers from primarily wealthy nations, exploration of oil and gas fields cannot continue if global warming is to be halted at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial temperatures by the end of the century. This is the level to which world leaders have pledged to limit global warming. By 2035, only 5% of power would be generated by the unrestrained combustion of fossil fuels if emissions were reduced soon enough.

Prior to its invasion of Ukraine, countries such as Germany relied on Russia for gas to heat homes and power industry. Image: Odd Andersen/AFP/Getty Images

During the climate summit, environmentalists have urged wealthy nations against negotiating new gas supplies with their African counterparts. Environmental nonprofit organizations Powershift Africa, Greenpeace, and Climate Action Network have stated that the conference risks becoming a greenwashing carnival.

Mohamed Adow, the director of the Nairobi-based think tank Power Shift Africa, told journalists at the conference in Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday that Europe was attempting to turn Africa into its “gas station” but was not investing enough in renewable energy.

“We cannot allow Africa, which missed out on industrialisation powered by fossil fuels, to become the victim of short-sighted, egotistical imperialist interests, particularly from Europe,”

Short-term gain, long-term danger?

Exports of oil and gas are a significant source of money for many African nations, accounting for between 50 and 80 percent of total government revenue in some nations. The majority of African gas production is exported.

Still, African nations have a negligible effect on global warming. Less than 4% of climate-damaging greenhouse gas emissions come from the continent. The United States, the European Union, and China account for about fifty percent of world emissions.

This year, the EU designated fossil gas as a transition fuel, designating it as “sustainable” under investment laws. Abdallah stated that this should also apply to African production. “Our consumption of fossil fuels and petroleum products per capita in Africa is only one-third of the global average.” It is unfair to suggest that individuals who contribute so little should save more.

The desire for gas “fizzing out.”

According to Kofi Mbuk, a cleantech analyst at the think tank Carbon Tracker, “Europe’s thirst for gas from the global South, in this case Africa, will wane” as a result of its attempts to clean up its economy. There is a substantial chance that billion-dollar investments in new African gas pipelines would lose value within a few years.

Global LNG projects currently under construction or in the planning stages would absorb 10% of the remaining carbon budget, according to a report published Wednesday by Climate Action Tracker, a joint research initiative of two environmental research organizations. By 2030, there would be an excess of LNG equal to approximately five times the EU’s imports of Russian gas in 2021.

The climate crisis has been superseded by the energy crisis, according to Bill Hare, CEO of Climate Analytics, one of the groups behind the tracker. “Our study indicates that the proposed, approved, and under-construction LNG facilities substantially surpass what is required to replace Russian gas.”

As wealthy nations transition away from fossil fuels, the African Union expects gas exports to drop in the medium term. It was determined that gas should be utilized on the domestic market to accelerate the electrification of the approximately 600 million Africans who are still without power today.

The director of the climate diplomacy program at the climate think tank E3G, Juan Pablo Osorio, stated that fossil fuels are not required for this. “Electricity derived from renewable sources is the cheapest in the world and well-suited for speedy availability in remote locations. It can raise millions of people out of energy poverty in the short future.”