GB502 Week 5 Discussion

Unit 5: Lecture

Food for Thought

https://youtu.be/PASI7_MlPZg

How Africa Is Hacking Its Energy Crisis

Sub-Saharan Africa is met with a multitude of energy challenges and opportunities as they are directly related to European Union and U.S. foreign policies and economic benefits. The first challenge is the dearth of access to inexpensive, modern forms of commercial energy. For instance, there are 590 million people in sub-Saharan Africa, mostly in rural areas, without access to electricity, representing nearly 6 in 10 people in the region.  As a consequence, 700 million people, or 70 percent of the population, rely on traditional, non-commercial sources of energy such as biomass for daily meals. With the exclusion of a few oil-producing countries, sub-Sahara African nations do not have huge domestic energy resources and as a result, they rely on imports of energy for over 65 percent of total energy use. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the region spends more on oil imports ($18 billion) than it receives in international aid ($15.6 billion) associated with negative impacts on trade balances, debt and GDP growth.

Thus, important new discoveries have also prompted the IEA to portray Sub-Saharan Africa as the “new frontier” in global oil and gas.  Countries such as Cameroon; Ghana, Equatorial Guinea; Republic of the Congo; Kenya; Tanzania and Uganda are emerging as potentially  major new producers of oil. There have also been discoveries of large offshore natural gas resources in Mozambique and Tanzania, prompting plans to develop  East Africa into a major exporter of liquefied natural gas. South Africa is also estimated to have significant sediment of gas resources as well.  For industrialized countries, failure to expand energy access, reduce energy imports, diversify energy sources and manage newfound oil and gas wealth for the benefit of society, especially the poor, directly impacts their interests. Thus, there is a clear moral imperative for advanced countries such as the U.S., to play a leading role in expanding energy access for hundreds of millions of people in the region.

Active involvement from other countries is not always strictly about expanding energy for the locals. Lessons can be learned in the  conflict in Mali (Links to an external site.) , and  fighting in South Sudan (Links to an external site.) . Helping to lift people out of energy poverty—creating dignified living conditions and expanding economic opportunity— is consistent with the democratic values; and energy poverty may also undermine economic development, fueling political instability and the creation of failed states that can harbor terrorism and threaten advanced countries economic stability. Certainly, there exists a strong association between political stability and electrification rates. Without commercial energy to support economic growth and modernization, the creation of jobs and growth of middle class for hundreds of millions of young people will be hindered, spreading growing dissatisfaction.

Conduct your own research to explore the connection between energy, political, and economic development.

References

· Banks, J. P. (2016, July 29).  Key Sub-Saharan Energy Trends and their Importance for the U.S. (Links to an external site.)  Retrieved from  https://www.brookings.edu/research/key-sub-saharan-energy-trends-and-their-importance-for-the-u-s/ (Links to an external site.)

· South Sudan: What is the fighting about? (Links to an external site.)  (2014, May 10). Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-25427965

· Tran, M. (2013, January 16).  Mali: A guide to the conflict (Links to an external site.) . Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jan/16/mali-guide-to-the-conflict