Exploit its mines or fight climate change, a dilemma for Africa

In Africa many countries are faced with the dilemma of exploiting mines for their economic benefit or, an infrequent decision, to close them so as not to contribute to the global warming.

On June 26, 2019, the Kenyan court halted the construction of a coal plant that required a new deposit.

It is one of the few victories for environmental activists in that East African country.

Omar Elmawi, an activist very committed to the fight against this project, was at the National Environment Court that day. Contacted by phone, he still remembers the “happiness tears” of the inhabitants of Lamu, a paradisiacal place registered in the Unesco world heritage, near which the plant was to be built.

“It is one of the most important moments of my life”, says Elmawi, who saw the light after five years of mobilization and legal action.

The plant, with a cost of 2,000 million euros that was going to be financed by China, was not built, nor was the mine from which the coal was to be extracted was excavated.

Although the project promoters, supported by the Kenyan government, appealed the sentence, Elmawi believes that they have a very slim chance of winning.

The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, promised in September 2021 before the UN that his country will not build more coal mines abroad, recalls this activist.

“We set the bar very high”he says, in a country where “90% of energy is green” (hydroelectric, solar, wind).

“4% of global emissions”

Coal, highly polluting, contributes to a large extent to global warming, of which Africa is precisely one of the main victims.

But, in a national context of strong electricity deficit, “it is our way out”, explained Ousseini Hadizatou Yacouba, Minister of Mines of Niger before the recent coup in that country, during a conference on mines in Africa held in Paris in July.

Nigerian soils are rich in uranium, lithium and rare earths, and despite its strong potential for solar energy, “We are not in the logic of saying: ‘We are not going to exploit coal because it pollutes’”he pointed.

“Or is it that a coal factory in Niger generates more emissions that the numerous vehicles and other industries here [en Europa]?”he asked rhetorically.

The reasoning is the same in Côte d’Ivoire, where 22 mines are currently open, most of them gold, 180 exploitation permits have been issued and important oil and gas deposits have been discovered in its territorial waters.

“Even if we managed to curb African emissions right now, it wouldn’t change anything in the rate of global warming,” whereas Africa “contributes only 4% to greenhouse gas emissions” world, reasoned his Minister of Mines, Energy and Petroleum, Mamadou Sangafowa Coulibaly.

The minister boasted of the balance “net zero carbon” from hydrocarbons in your country, where “Each gram of CO2 emitted corresponds to a project that allows it to be absorbed”especially through reforestation.

This is the same argument used by the French giant TotalEnergies, which began exploiting crude oil in the largest national park in Uganda and built a 1,443 km pipeline to transport it to the Tanzanian coast.

“demographic dividend”

Despite criticism from environmental defenders, the Ugandan and Tanzanian governments present this project as an important source of economic income for their countries.

“We cannot stop the development of sovereign countries”, argues Pierre-Samuel Guedj, co-founder of Affectio Mutandi, a consultancy that co-organized the mine conference in Paris.

Guedj insists on “demographic dividend”: by 2050, there will be 2.5 billion Africans, double the number today, who will have to “feed” and therefore “provide jobs”underline.

Benin, whose soils are full of lithium, cobalt, tantalum, chromium and nickel according to its minister of mines, Samou Seïdou Adambi, has in these minerals “one of the engines of its economic development”.

As consolation, Jean-Claude Guillaneau of the French Office for Geological and Mining Research maintains, he recalls that, at least, “solar panels and wind turbines to power the mines are now everywhere” in Africa.

“If mining consumes 10% of the world’s energy and that 10% comes from photovoltaic panels, wind turbines or green hydrogen, that’s something,” it states.

Source: AFP