Session moderator Ahmad Damcida, Founder and Principal of Energy Culture of Nigeria, argued that Africa’s energy transition cannot be considered ‘linear’ because of the need to satisfy the Triple A’s ‘in a dynamic manner’ for the continent. He recognised that there is a conflict between Africa’s express need to industrialise and taking an active part in the global push towards the energy transition.

Despite the current debate between promoting fossil fuel developments and rolling out renewables, he pointed out that Africa has been a major player in renewables from day one, ‘having the highest number of hydroplants in the world, as well a lot of carbon sinks – forests – across the continent’. Damcida said it is unrealistic for Africa to abandon investment in fossil fuels reserves that have been discovered lately on the continent, to tap into renewable energy resources alone, while other nations have benefitted from their fossil fuel reserves.

Furthermore, there is the widely-held argument: ‘We didn’t contribute much to these emissions that we are being asked to mitigate… Now it’s our turn to industrialise, how come some of these hindrances are coming to the fore?’ he asked. According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), Africa is only responsible for 2–3% of global greenhouse emissions.