Climate change

andEnergy Poverty
in Africa

ENERGY
FOR
ALL
2030
Author:
Teodoro Sanchez,
teo.sanchez@practicalaction.org.uk
Energy Technology Advisor,
Practical Action
February 2010

European Comission
External Cooperation
Programmes

Energy for all 2030

Climate change andEnergy Poverty in Africa

Abstract

Energy is a basic need. Access to the right energy fuels

and services provide opportunities for development and
improving wellbeing. One fourth of humanity has no access to electricity and nearly half of the worlds population
cook with solid biomass using inefficient technologies
keeping them trapped in poverty with little or no chance
to escape from it. This paper shows that the quantity of
energy required by the poor to fulfil their needs is generally very small. In Sub-Saharan African, most countries with less access to modern energy services are not
on-track to meet the MDGs. It also shows that universal
access to modern energy services in Africa and particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa would contribute negligible
amounts CO2 emission, independent of the sources used
to provide access (fossil fuels or renewables) and therefore argues that in Sub-Saharan Africa, the full mix of
energy technologies should be considered and used based
on their economic performance rather than on environmental consideration. A short case study to show how
the voluntary sector of carbon trading is contributing to
mitigation of greenhouse gases as well as benefiting the
poor in Sudan is also included in this article.

Energy for all 2030

Climate change andEnergy Poverty in Africa

CONTENTS
1. Energy a human need
2. Energy needs and energy consumption ofthe
poor in Sub-Saharan Africa
3. Affordability and unequal opportunities on
energy access
4. Climate change and appropriate energy options
for the poor
5. The moral responsibility of rich countries
6. Case Study: Promotion of LPG for cooking in Al
Fasher, Darfur, Sudan
7. Conclusions
8. Practical Action
9. References

Disclaimer
This document has been produced with the financial assistance
oftheEuropean Union. The contents of this document are the sole
responsibility ofPractical Action and can under no circumstances be regarded
as reflecting the position of the European Union.

OBANSK SDRUEN NGO

Energy for all 2030

Climate change andEnergy Poverty in Africa

01.

Energy a human need

Energy is critical for human

development. It allows people to
access a range of basic services,
including drinking water,
health, education, transport,
communication and other
essential services.

In its Energy and Sustainable Development Overview, UNDP states None

of the Millennium Development Goals can be met without major improvement in the quality and quantity of energy services in developing countries.[1]
TheUN also recognises that eight years after the Johannesburg Summit when
the MDGs were validated, the poorest countries are off-track regarding achievement of the MDGs. And from the existing information, most of those that
are off-track have invested less in energy access for the poor.
There are 1.44 million people around the world in developing countries
without access to electricity and more than 2.5 million are forced to cook and
heat their homes with solid biomass, most of the time using inefficient and
polluting technologies. Despite the huge global investment forecast for the
energy sector of about $26 trillion for the coming two decades, of which about
one third is expected to be invested in developing countries even optimistic
forecasts estimate that about 1.4 billion people will still remain without access
to electricity by 2030. Presently, a large proportion of the worlds population is
confronted with absolute energy poverty.
The situation in Sub-Saharan Africa regarding energy access and achievement
of the MDGs is of particular concern. Of 30 Sub-Saharan African countries,
only 14 are on course to reduce the number of people living with hunger by
at least 25% by 2015[2]. In Sub-Saharan African countries by 2008 the average
electrification rate was only 28.5% in 2008 and in rural areas it was less than
12%, this figure is smaller still when South Africa is excluded. According to
the World Bank, in Sub-Saharan Africa, 56% of total energy use comes from
traditional biomass. If one ranks countries of the World, the top 20 biomass
dependant are all African countries, with the exception of Nepal (fourth in the
list), Haiti (eleventh) and Myanmar (twelfth)[3].
In this region there has been no progress on energy access during the last decade. In fact, while globally the number of people without access to electricity
was reduced by 160 million between 2005 and 2009, in Sub-Saharan Africa
the number of people without electricity has increased from 526 million in
2004[4] to 585 million in 2009.

Energy for all 2030

Climate change andEnergy Poverty in Africa

02.

Energy needs and energy consumption

ofthe poor in Sub-Saharan Africa

The energy needs linked to meet

the MDGs are related to cooking,
space heating, and lighting;
and small amounts of motive
energy to use appliances or
equipment to access improved
services of health, education
and communications as well as
income generation activities.

The quantity of energy required to meet all the MDGs for an individual or
group depends on a range of factors; the physical environment where they live
(people living in warm regions will require little or no space heating compared
to those living cold regions); the type of activities that the poor engage in to
make a living (farming, fishing, business, etc); the physical capital that they
possess, for example subsistence farmers may require energy only for cooking
and lighting while farmers with more land may see opportunities for adding
value to their harvest by transforming their products to sale at a better price in
the markets. The priorities that each individual or groups put on its needs in
most cases those priorities are associated to social or cultural issues.
During the last two decades there have been several studies to determine
the energy consumption of the poor, in order to have a clearer idea of what
it would take to provide energy for all, and the policy and financing requirements to make that possible. Most literature references, surveys, case studies, impact assessments, etc (see Kaufman et al., 2000; World Bank, 2001;
ESMAP[5], University of Cape Town[6], others) agree that the amount of energy
required/consumed by the poor is small; the electricity consumption of families in rural villages or in peri-urban settlements range from about 10kWh/
month to 50 kWh/month, and its growth is very small with time, partly
because the opportunities to engage in productive or transformative activities
are limited. Regarding cooking fuels, literature shows that the amount of clean
cooking fuel required to displace these solid fuels is modest and is estimated
to be about 35 kg of liquid petroleum gas (LPG) per person per year[7].
From the above figures, the present electricity requirement to provide this
service to the 585 million without electricity in Sub-Saharan African Countries amounts to 70.2 billion kWh per year, this represents only 0.43% of the
total electricity consumed worldwide (16,378 Billion kWh[8]), however comparing this with the total consumption in Africa the requirement is significant
(12.8%). Similarly the requirements of modern fuels for cooking (assuming
that 90% of the population that presently cook with solid biomass switch
to LPG); it will require 29.4 million tons of LPG, which is about 13% of the
total consumption of LPG worldwide (2006 the total consumption of LPG
worldwide was 223 million tons)[9].

Energy for all 2030

Climate change andEnergy Poverty in Africa

03.

Affordability and unequal opportunities

on energy access

In developing countries, the

percentage of the family budget
spent on the purchase of low
quality energy fuels for lighting
and cooking is generally higher
than that spent by people with
access to electricity and liquid
and gas fuels.

The most common strategy used by the poor to cope with their energy needs
is to find the cheapest option; however that strategy does not always work for
all; for example in many cases people living in peri-urban areas cannot buy
subsidised LPG simply because they do not have money to pay the upfront
cost of the cookers (or cylinders in the case of LPG) and consequently have to
cook with charcoal or wood fuel paying more to do the same. A study carried
out by Practical Action in Al Fasher, Darfur, in Sudan revealed that people
kept cooking with wood and charcoal despite the fact that the cost of wood
and charcoal was three times higher than LPG, simply because they could not
afford to purchase gas cookers and cylinders, instead they had to buy a few kg
of charcoal or wood on a daily basis (see case study).
Most rural inhabitants cook with costless biomass resources such as agricultural residues, dung and wood (other than the cost of the time taken to
collect it), however in some cases the poorest and those that are landless have
to make greater effort to collect cooking fuels because of the longer distances
to access community forests. The shortage of wood fuels for the poor also
sometimes ends up affecting the quantity and/or quality of food eaten. It is
often the case that, the poorer the family is, the smaller the agricultural land
that they own and consequently the less access to cooking fuels it has. Therefore the poorest families generally have to invest more time to collect fuels for
cooking, or they have to cook for reduce the number of meals during the day.
People with access to electricity are more likely to use it for lighting, however
in many cases costs or unsuitable billing may be the main constraint; for
example when a grid is extended into poor peri-urban or rural areas, in many
cases households are disconnected soon after because people cannot afford
to pay a regular monthly bill, simply because they have no regular monthly
income. Those without access to electricity use a range of energy sources for
lighting, kerosene, wax candles, dry and wet batteries, all of these resources
are generally used through inefficient technologies, therefore people end up
expending a significant proportion of the family budget.

Energy for all 2030

Climate change andEnergy Poverty in Africa

03.

Affordability and unequal opportunities

on energy access
A World Bank survey[10] on fuel switching in eight countries in Africa, Asia
and Latin America confirms that there are differences in fuel consumption in
urban and rural areas. It shows that, while solid fuels are used in much lower
proportions in urban areas than in rural areas and that the use of solid fuels in
urban areas declines as family income increases; in rural areas solid fuels are
widely used even within the top expenditure brackets. The study also shows
that urban people expend a larger share of their budget on cooking fuels, it
accounts for about 5% of a household budget as an average for all users. But
it also shows that those using biomass expend a higher share of their budget
on cooking fuels (about 10% to 15%). The different percentages are influenced
by differences in accessibility, in large towns and cities the supplies of liquid
and gas fuels are more reliable and costs are cheaper than in small isolated
towns. The study concludes that for large groups of households particularly in
rural areas of low-income countries, biomass fuels are the most likely fuel for
cooking for the foreseeable future.

04.

Climate change and appropriate energy

options for the poor

The threat of climate change to

humankind and to the planet as a
whole has gradually become more
evident and there is a clear and
frightening link between energy
and climate change.

According to the World Energy Assessment Overview 2004 Update (Johansson and Goldenberg, 2004), 82% of anthropogenic carbon emissions come
from energy-related activities and the other 18% derive from activities that
include agriculture, deforestation, savannah burning, forest burning, agricultural residues and other uncontrolled burning.
The UN has recently proposed an international objective on energy access
for all Ensure Universal Access to Modern Energy Services by 2030[11]. The
UN also considers that access to modern energy services must be reliable and
affordable, sustainable and, where feasible, from low-GHG-emitting energy
sources. The aim of providing universal access should be to create improved
conditions for economic growth, contribute to attaining the MDGs, and enable the poorest of the poor to escape poverty.

Energy for all 2030

Climate change andEnergy Poverty in Africa

04.

Climate change and appropriate energy

options for the poor
An important emerging issue is the reluctance, or low level of support, from
many policy makers, international aid agencies and environmentalists, to
consider the full range of energy options to meet the energy needs of the poor
on the grounds of the need for reducing GHG to the atmosphere. In some
cases this may end up forcing the use of uncompetitive options for particular
realities, for example pumping underground water either for drinking or farming in some cases may be cheaper using small diesel engines than renewable
energy systems.
In Africa and especially in the Sub-Saharan Africa, the full energy mix should
be considered for poor communities with a different emphasis according to
location and opportunities. For urban inhabitants, grid extension for electricity supply and liquid and gas fuels for cooking are often the most appropriate
solutions, although in many cases, biomass for cooking in smaller towns may
still be required. For rural inhabitants, the most appropriate option may be
a combination of grid for those living close to the transmission lines, with
decentralized renewable energy options (including solar PV, micro-hydro and
small wind) for off-grid electricity supply; for cooking biomass is likely to remain the main fuel option for the majority, though more efficient and cleaner
cooking devices may be used.
Emissions of carbon dioxide in Africa represent only a small fraction[12], 3.6%,
out of the total carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per year worldwide, yet 14%
of the population of the world lives in this continent. However the share of the
CO2 emissions among African countries is very unequal. Regionally, emissions (both per capita and in total) are at their highest in North Africa and in
the country of South Africa; Libya, the Seychelles and South Africa are on the
level of the lowest among OECD (i.e. over 7 CO2 tons per person per year),
while 2/3 of Sub-Saharan African Countries emit less that 0.5 CO2 tons per
person per year.
Furthermore, the poor, without access to modern energies, have not shared
in the benefits of wealth created from the intensive use of energy in the last
century; however they are the most affected by the impacts of climate change
due to greenhouse gas emissions.

Energy for all 2030

Climate change andEnergy Poverty in Africa

04.

Climate change and appropriate energy

options for the poor
Therefore it is important to clarify the issue of climate change and energy
access for the poor. Because the poor may need fossil fuels for their development just as the developed world needed them. In fact, several estimates
show that the provision of access to electricity and modern fuels to all will
increase emissions marginally (less than 1% of the current emissions)[13]. If we
consider that the poor in the Sub-Saharan Africa use the same intensity as the
poor in the rest of the world, the total carbon emissions to provide modern
fuels and electricity to all in the Sub-Saharan Africa would increase present
emissions by about 0.4% of the global present emissions.

05.

The moral responsibility of rich countries

Anthropogenic CO2 emissions are

primarily the responsibility of
rich countries; their increase has
been based on the development
of more technologies and more
intensive use of fossil fuels to
power them.

The range of technologies developed and their use has gone beyond the
technologies associated with basic development to include production,
transformation, transport, communications, improvement in living standards,
comfort and recreation, and even sophisticated weapons of mass destruction.
All of these technologies have meant an increase in energy consumption per
capita in developed countries. This energy consumption has gone beyond a
contribution to prosperity, but has also been expended on pleasure and comfort, while poor countries have had opportunities neither for development nor
for pleasure or comfort. Therefore the developed world has a moral debt to the
poor, and now it is time to help them leave the trap of underdevelopment by
providing access to energy for at least basic needs.

Energy for all 2030

Climate change andEnergy Poverty in Africa

Case
Study
Clean cooking Darfur
Low Smoke Stoves
Project, Sudan

10

Energy for all 2030

Climate change andEnergy Poverty in Africa

Case Study

Clean cooking Darfur Low Smoke Stoves

Project, Sudan

Practical Action, in Collaboration

The Low Smoke Stoves project reduces greenhouse gas emissions by facilita-

with the Womens Associations

ting the switch to more energy efficient stoves and cleaner-burning fuel in low

Development Network- WADAN

income communities. This initiative replicates and scales up a successful pilot

of Darfur, is implementing a project

project of the promotion of LPG as cooking fuel that was funded by the UK

on the dissemination of LPG for

Department for International Development (DFID) which started in July 2002

cooking. It aims to reduce carbon

and ended in March 2008.

emissions through the dissemination of the use of LPG for cooking in

The dissemination of LPG stoves and LPG containers is made through a sys-

households in Darfur Sudan.

tem of loans. Carbon Clear provides the financial support against the carbon

This project is implemented with

nnels the financial resources for loans through to WADAN; WADAN provi-

the financial support and guidance

des credits to households through it associations. The leaders of the different

of Carbon Clear. In this case Carbon

associations are responsible for providing loans to households and recovering

Clear is making a direct investment

the loan recovery. This project started in November 2008; so far more than

in this project and in exchange it

5,000 poor families have been benefiting with loans and are now cooking with

will gain ownership of the carbon

LPG in Darfur.

credits, Practical Action manages the project and provides training and cha-

credits produced by the use of LPG

to reduce emissions from burning
unsustainable biomass (fuel wood
and/or charcoal), which is the fuel
of the great majority in Darfur.

11

Energy for all 2030

Climate change andEnergy Poverty in Africa

Case Study

Clean cooking Darfur Low Smoke Stoves

Project, Sudan
The project objectives are to:
>> Reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with burning non-renewable
biomass in a resource-deprived region.
>> Improve the livelihoods of poor families and address energy poverty by
switching to a clean energy source, LPG, for cooking purposes.
>> Reduce indoor air pollution from burning firewood and charcoal, thereby
improving the health and quality of life for women and of children below
age five.
>> Contribute to environmental conservation by reducing pressure on
dwindling forest resources in Northern Darfur
LPG can help the shift towards a low-carbon economy because the fuel features significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions (CO2, N2O andCH4) than
other commercially available fossil fuels such as coal and kerosene, or biomass
fuels like dung, firewood, and charcoal.
This project helps to improve local health by reducing indoor air pollution. Biomass solid fuels such as wood, crop residues, and dung release large
amounts of particulates, carbon monoxide and other pollutants when burned
in simple inefficient traditional stoves. According to the World Health Organization, prolonged exposure to biomass smoke is a major health risk, contributing to acute respiratory infections in children and other ailments.
The growing scarcity of biomass fuel (firewood and charcoal) in North Darfur
increases the energy poverty faced by poor women and their families, and
exacerbates the problems caused by local conflicts. The switch to modern fuels
helps to improve living conditions and reduces the environmental impact of
unsustainable wood harvesting practices.

12

Energy for all 2030

Climate change andEnergy Poverty in Africa

07.

Conclusions

Energy poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa is a big concern, while in other parts of

the world the number of inhabitants without access modern energy services is
decreasing in the Sub-Saharan Africa it is increasing. Urgent action is needed
to reverse the situation. Pro-poor policies, financing and better partnerships
of all sectors are whats needed.
In Africa, and especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, the full energy mix should
be considered for poor communities with a different emphasis according to
location and opportunities; grid and non-grid solutions for electricity supply;
liquid and gas fuels, as well as biomass for cooking. Renewable energy technologies should be welcomed but their choice should be based on social and
economic grounds rather than solely on environmental considerations.
Financing energy access for the poor in Sub-Saharan African Countries and
especially for those living in small and isolated villages is a big challenge. It
requires the intervention of all stakeholders; the governments need to design
pro-poor policies and strategies on energy; the international aid need to increase the amount of funds for energy access for the poor and the private sector
needs to adopt a more social approach and reduce its profit margins.

08.

Practical Action
Practical Action is an international development charity with a difference,
working together with some of the worlds poorest women, men and children,
helping to alleviate poverty in the developing world through the innovative
use of technology.
Practical Actions particular strength is its simple approach: finding out what
people are doing and helping them to do it better. This enables poor communities to build on their own knowledge and skills to produce sustainable and
practical solutions: driving their own development.
Practical Action is currently implementing a range of projects related to energy access for the poor in Sub-Saharan Africa. The charity works in the development and dissemination of appropriate technologies and enabling the poor
to bring their voice to policy debate as well as raising awareness in Europe and
lobbying the EC for more support to Sub-Saharan African countries to tackle
energy needs for the poor (see the project: Energy Access for the poor in the
Sub-Saharan Africa to meet the MDGs, funded by the EC).
13

Energy for all 2030

Climate change andEnergy Poverty in Africa

09.

references

[1] www.undp.org/energy
[2] www.uneca.org/mdgs/goal1.asp
[3] http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTDATASTA/641999551178226923002/21326741/FINALPressReleaseLGDB2007.pdf
[4] www.iea.org/work/2004/eswg/05_weo.pdf
[5] www.esmap.org/esmap/sites/esmap.org/files/ESMAP_PeruNationalSurvey_Web_0.pdf
[6] www.afrepren.org/project/gnesd/esdsi/erc.pdf
[7] www.iiiee.lu.se/publication.nsf/c05cf70b5a5648c8c1256b4a004a5a9f/68
48cd20ca737308c1256f1f00423ac2/$FILE/Goldemberg%20et%20al.pdf
[8] www.eia.doe.gov/iea/elec.html
[9] www.worldlpgas.com/page_attachments/0000/0330/Petroleum_Economist.pdf
[10] www.esmap.org/esmap/sites/esmap.org/files/Report_FuelUseMulticountryStudy_05.pdf, http://eeas.europa.eu/delegations/tanzania/press_corner/all_news/news/2010/20101207_01_en.htm
[11] www.un.org/wcm/webdav/site/climatechange/shared/Documents/
AGECC%20summary%20report%5B1%5D.pdf
[12] http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/emissions_of_carbon_dioxide_in_africa_and_selected_oecd_countries
[13] www.worldenergyoutlook.org/docs/weo2010/weo2010_poverty.pdf

14

European Comission
External Cooperation
Programmes