West Urged to Stop Asking Africa to Sacrifice Progress to Fix Climate Crisis It 'Didn't Create'

Sudanese-British magnate Mo Ibrahim, who has previously accused the Global North of hypocrisy and lack of attention to their partners' interests, has called on the West to act responsibly in regards to the climate crisis and the effects it has on Africa, pointing out that the "green" opposition of some "well-meaning countries" to the development of African energy resources for their own use does not help the continent thrive.

"Western countries should take full responsibility for their contribution to the climate crisis and stop asking African nations to sacrifice their development goals to fix a problem they didn’t create," underlined the businessman in a recent Foreign Affairs article.

The statement is a reflection of the fact that Africa is believed to suffer disproportionately from the impacts of climate change, while contributing just two or three percent to global gas emissions.

Contemplating the issue of the continent's development, Ibrahim pointed out that without power, one can "forget about development, education, and health."

"It has not helped that some well-meaning countries and development finance institutions have pushed to end funding for oil and gas projects in Africa and elsewhere. None of them seem to have thought of the millions of African women and children who have gotten sick or died from breathing fumes from unclean cooking fuels. Western countries are now scrambling for access to African gas to offset the loss of access to Russian gas, but many still don’t want Africans to develop such resources for their own use", Ibrahim stated.

Recently, it turned out that Western countries, which are responsible for a large share of greenhouse gas emissions, not only do little to compensate for the impact of global warming, but also tend to shift their responsibility to Africa.

There have been several cases of Western opposition to the development of independent African energy projects.

An “ambitious new climate strategy and energy lending policy” was an explanation for the 2021 termination of financing for hydrocarbon development projects in Africa by the European Investment Bank.

In September 2022, the European Parliament condemned the construction of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), calling on “Ugandan and Tanzanian authorities […] to protect the environment.”

For Ibrahim, such pressure against a region with 600 million people living without access to electricity is unjust.

"...Western countries still resist the obvious solution: putting a price on emissions and letting the market forces they worship play their role. Instead, they focus on reaching carbon neutrality through “energy sobriety” or encouraging people to change their lifestyles and behaviors to reduce emissions. This is a reasonable approach for developed countries that are high emitters, but it makes no sense for low emitters whose populations still lack basic access to energy," the billionaire stated.

Africa

Sudanese-British Magnate Ibrahim Blasts West's Hypocrisy Over Green Agenda, Use of African Resources

4 October 2022, 12:26 GMT

Apart from that, Ibrahim has also deemed Western financial policies towards Africa as inadequate, paying attention to punitive interest rates as well as biased credit ratings. For example, Ghana’s debt-to-GDP ratio of 83.5 percent is lower than Greece’s (206.7 percent) and Portugal’s (130.8 percent), but this did not stop the African state from being placed below the European countries in the 2021 rating by Moody's.

This led to Ghana being charged an interest rate of 9% on 10-year bonds (compared to 1.3 percent and 0.4 percent for Greece and Portugal respectively).

Thus, international rating agencies “engineer the failures they predict.”

Ibrahim also stressed that Africa's challenges are, however, not entirely the West's fault. He encouraged African leaders to carry out internal change and action on economic integration, energy independence, and create enough jobs for the young population of the continent.

What he believes is necessary is a commitment of both African and European leaders “to equal partnership and better governance.”