The West's race for African energy is hypocritical and problematic

• 

In May, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz made a never-before trip to Senegal to cement his intent to pursue renewable energy and gas projects with Signal, even going on to invite Senegal and South Africa to the G7 Summit in June. In October, Italian companies signed $600 million worth of gas contracts with Algeria. In November, British Petroleum signed a memorandum of Understanding with Mauritania to explore the feasibility of a large-scale hydrogen production project in London’s quest to capture 10% of the global low-carbon hydrogen market by 2030.

At least to the general public, there is a sudden interest in African energy and projects. But, many are asking: Why did it take a war in Europe for international players to consider serious investments in African energy?

Read next: FP: The West lost Africa through 'Cold War-esque' policies, liberalism

The interests come especially at a time when African countries are abandoning their so-called security pacts with western governments, with Mali and Burkina Faso expelling and denouncing French presence in their countries. There comes an increasing affinity towards the ‘Eastern’ bloc as African nations take more infrastructural projects from countries like China and Russia, which are currently sanctioned by the West today. The West foresaw this neo-Cold War, and now the poorest are taking the brunt of it.

According to S&P Global Platts, 40% of new gas discoveries around the world in the last decade were in Africa, mainly in Senegal, Mauritania, Mozambique, and Tanzania. Investment companies are realizing the benefit of African energy projects, and they’ve been waiting to sink their teeth into trillion-dollar ventures on the exploited continent. 

The hypocrisy, and the real problem with Western energy projects 

So here’s the story: as The Western elite is embroiled in a war they incited in Europe. Material scarcity ensues. Then they wage sanctions on the Russian energy sector. Global energy prices take a hike. European citizens struggle to afford to pay the bills. The Western elite implements a Russian oil price cap. Forget the hike – global energy prices are about to go to the moon.

That’s not even all of the story.

US officials lobby Saudi-headed OPEC+ not to cut oil production – but they go ahead and cut it anyway. Then the US and its corporate-affiliated media wage a slander war against Saudi Arabia and its authorities to take out their frustration. The Western elite blows up Europe’s lifeline, the Nord Stream gas pipeline, and refuses to admit it. European leaders market turtlenecks in their addresses in a subtle ‘save energy’ PR campaign because the European working class is about to feel the crisp cold. The same European leaders then scurry to African countries – even former colonies – to make nice to get some energy alternatives. Along the way, they wage another aggressive campaign against Russian cooperation with African countries. 

Countries that have had visits from European delegations this year include Algeria, Senegal, Mozambique, and Angola.

The problem here is a lot more complex than we think: Africa needs funding for projects. However, Western media and policy think tanks decry said projects as pollutive and against the COP27 and 27’s commitments; the main commitment being reaching zero-carbon emissions by 2050.

Although Western economic superiority was essentially built on fossil fuels, most of Africa’s energy reserves remain untouched, and the West does not have the right to waive its snobbish, gluten-free standards on Africa for infinite reasons. However, the most paramount of them is that Africa’s global carbon emissions only account for 3-4% of the international total over the last 2 decades. Europe and the US make more than 10 times that number.

According to the International Energy Agency, if Africa were to exploit every molecule of its gas resources, its historical global emissions would rise only from 3 to 3.5%. The IEA’s Africa Energy Outlook 2022 report argues that Africa’s industrialization depends on its exploitation of natural gas. That means that if Africa were to move into the 21st century and turn its economic situation upside-down, it will have to undergo the natural process of economic development, which will need the tapping into energy reserves.

Will Africans benefit?

Off the Nigerian coast exists a tiny island, and in it is a plant that produced enough liquefied natural gas (LNG) to power half of the United Kingdom last year, with its most major clients being Portugal, Spain, and France. Around 30 kilometers from the hub is a town – Bodo – where residents use black-market kerosene and other substances to power the most basic necessities – like lamps and stoves. Nigeria holds about 3% of the world’s known gas reserves and has extracted almost none of them. Nigeria is the largest energy-producing country in Africa, according to the IEA in 2020.

This example could be shocking, but it is one of the thousands of cases of deprivation in Africa – one mustn’t look too far from the reality of US and Western-funded infrastructure projects on the continent. Financial institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank have contributed greatly to assassinating economies around the world (You can read former IMF & US Treasury employee John Perkins’ memoir called The Confessions of an Economic Hitman).

The world’s richest elite have only benefited from this bloody war in Ukraine. Pentagon contractors like Raytheon and Lockheed Martin have raked up billions. So, what will make other Pentagon contractors – energy companies like BP, Royal Dutch Shell, and TotalEnergies, any different?