Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Tuesday advised African leaders to tackle developmental issues with vigour without compromising on important issues concerning climate change.
This is part of the focus of his presentation at the High Level Roundtable on “Energy and Climate Change’’, at the Annual General Meeting of the Africa Development Bank (AfDB) in Lusaka, Zambia.
A news release issued by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the Vice President, Mr Laolu Akande, said Osinbajo noted that the major challenge in the continent was development as it needed to meet power needs of the people and industries.
“For us, priority today is development and we have to take development seriously.’’
He said 45 per cent of those who do not have access to power in the world were from Africa and that almost half of that African share were in Nigeria.
“We are faced with a very dire situation and in most of Africa, we simply don’t have power and without power there is very little that can be done.’’
Osinbajo said renewable energy and all of the concern about Climate Change are important, “but we must prioritise development.”
He held that Nigeria was one of the major hydro-carbon enriched countries “and that makes fossil fuels important.
“We have to leverage all that we can get from fossil fuel, coal is also important”, he said.
Osinbajo said arguments about renewable energy were well-noted and Nigeria had the capacity for, and would tap into solar energy, yet “we are dealing with a major (developmental) problem.”
Asked by the moderator if he meant that African leaders would rather get energy now and worry about environment later, Osinbajo said “it is possible to work on both together”, even while prioritizing development.
According to the Vice President, what African leaders are asking from the developed countries is, for instance, the technology to make clean coal.
“We think that we must use our fossil fuel to the maximum; we must use our coal to the maximum.
“We simply call on the support of the developed nations that are aggressive about reducing emissions, especially in coal power plants to give us the technology that is required.
“Obviously, there is technology to make coal clean and we simply call upon them to give us that technology”, he added.
He said while Africa is the least contributor to global emissions yet the continent is also “the hardest hit by the whole consequences of climate change; that is the paradox.
“But that paradox becomes jeopardy when we are being asked to take the greater burden of resolving the problem of climate change; so, we really need the help of the west in particular.”
Osinbajo said that while the continent would embrace renewable energy sources, it was imperative to note that those sources, including solar power, had limitations.
Said he: “we must bear in mind that for industry, the base load power is critical, the base load power is so much more difficult to get from solar power for example.
“So we must understand that our immediate need requires the base load power that can move us forward quickly and that we would get from fossil fuel, hydro power and coal fire plants.”
The release stated that speakers at the panel included the Zambia President Edgar Lungu and President Idriss Deby Itno of Chad, who is also the Chairman of the African Union.
The President of Rwanda, Mr Paul Kagame, Prime Ministers and senior ministers from several other African countries were also in attendance at the opening of the meeting.
The President of the AfDB, Dr Akinwunmi Adesina, said the presence of several African leaders at the meeting demonstrated the expression of their support for the bank. (NAN)