ABSTRACT
One of the main results that people should remember about the
Copenhagen climate conference in 2009 is the statement of Africa’s
position in the fight against climate change.
Representatives of Africa’s nation states asserted how urgent
it was to bridge the gap between development and environmental
policy, the world’s poorest populations being among those who
suffer the most as a result of climate change. Currently, 3/4 of sub-
Saharan African population has no access to electricity: this amounts
more than half a billion people.a
What makes this such a paradox is the fact that the African
continent is one of the world’s major exporters of fossil fuels and
yet, per capita energy consumption, is the lowest in the world. On
average, it is seven times less than in Europe, with among the lowest
electrification rate of all developing countries
If we are to meet the millennium development goals and win
in the fight against poverty, then provision of energy services need
to be developed, particularly services that can be accessed by the
poorer members of the population for income generation. Many-
who live on the outskirts of towns or in rural areas with low
population densities where the cost of connecting them up to energy
distribution networks is prohibitively high-do not yet have access
to such services.
