The Conversation Wants To Stop Africa Developing Gas Reserves
By Paul Homewood
I don’t know why they call themselves The Conversation – as they never include articles which go against the climate agenda!
The question of whether Africa should be allowed to exploit its gas reserves, estimated at more than 17.56 trillion cubic meters (620 trillion cubic feet) in 2021, has been much discussed at the latest UN climate change summit, COP27, in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.
Former US vice president Al Gore used his speech at the opening session to urge an end to all fossil fuel investment globally, including in Africa. But Macky Sall, the president of Senegal and chairperson of the African Union, argued at the same event that Africa needs space in Earth’s dwindling carbon budget to use its resources for development.
The gas debate centres on two arguments, either for gas or against it. This is too narrow and fails to consider what development might look like for Africa and other regions that are struggling to grow their economies and address widespread poverty while also taking ambitious climate action. It also neglects the question of what kind of international cooperation might be necessary to make climate-compatible development possible.
Those who argue against expanding fossil gas extraction say that exploiting Africa’s reserves is incompatible with keeping average global temperature rise below 1.5°C, the “safe” limit agreed in Paris in 2015. Renewable energy is now the cheapest way to connect millions of people to power networks in countries where energy poverty is rife, they say.
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Those in favour of exploiting Africa’s gas argue that industrialisation – for example, the building of modern transportation systems, hospitals and schools which developed countries enjoy – has relied on burning fossil fuels. Industrialised countries still consume a lot of gas. Germany, for instance, uses the fossil fuel to generate up to 30% of its power.
Natural gas, it is held, could provide enough energy for industrial processes such as steel, cement, paper and pulp manufacturing which renewables such as solar and wind have yet to provide.
A study published in 2021 found that a lack of finance, or the high cost of accessing it, imposes a huge gap between the theoretical and actual cost of generating renewable energy in Africa. And, if African countries are able to diversify their energy portfolio with gas it will, it is argued, increase energy resilience and strengthen the right of African countries to make their own decisions on energy generation, distribution and consumption in a way that they deem appropriate.
Apparently then, Africans are queuing up to get this wonderful, cheap renewable energy, but cannot access the finance. Yet it seems there is plenty of money to spend on developing gas reserves!
Maybe the Africans actually prefer reliable, efficient fossil fuels to intermittent renewables?
But this is something that “The Conversation” don’t get. Their answer is for the West to hand over trillions to pay for wind and solar farms, money which Africa will never be able to repay.
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
It’s always the same with the ecoloons such as Gore, i.e. “do what I say, not what I do.”! They don’t want to help, but to rule, and profit of course.
‘The question of whether Africa should be allowed’
Sovereign nations don’t need their stinkin’ permission.
Climate colonialism. Colonialism is bad, until you put ‘climate’ in front of it. It is impossible to get colonialism out of the hearts of Westerners.
Note that if they can tell ‘Africa’ (sic) what they can do, they can tell YOU what you can do.
The problem is not whether these African nations need the West’s ‘permission’ to develop their gas resources, they don’t, but whether the West will provide the finance to develop them, they won’t.
I’m sure the Chinese will helpfully step in and continue with their policy of annexation of African raw materials.
Yep, the West will once again shoot itself squarely in the foot.
But you can be sure that China will step in with finance if the West doesn’t provide it.
I always recognized that Gore was an entitled and conceited man, but him questioning whether Africa should be “allowed” to use its gas reserves takes the biscuit! For a start Africa is not a country – though many Americans seem to think it is. It is a continent with many individual countries within it. And these countries don’t need anyone’s “permission” to do anything. What part of “sovereign nation” does Gore not understand?
Yep. There are 54 countries in Africa.
I suppose the Conversation thinks Chinese colonialism good; British colonialism bad.
You can help the African nations, humanity and yourselves by investing in companies developing fossil fuels in Africa.
Chariot oil & gas plc has a large gas field offshore Morocco that they are starting to develop.
Thugela Resources runs very profitable coal mines in South Africa. Share price is suppressed by all the ESG greenies refusing to invest in lovely coal, So you get a 30% dividend! They generate enough cash that they dont need outside finance
A bargain available on the London stock exchange that provides jobs and energy for Africa.
Disclaimer: I’m invested in both and will be buying more.
Darn spelling – Thungela
Ah yes ‘The Conversation’, otherwise known as ‘The Monologue’ to those empowered with critical thinking ability.
They should be renamed as The Con.
Bill Gates, Klaus Schwab and Harari want the world’s population reduced from 8 billion to 500 million. Is it any wonder they want to wipe out the African populations? They hoped to do better w/ the scamdemic, but it did not do the job they wanted. We are not dealing w/ nice people or even those with human qualities.
Joan.
Well today the UN announces we are now 10 Billion.
But before I believe ANYTHING the UN tells us, i think I need to discuss with the faries at the bottom of the garden.
8 billion today is right, peaking at 10.4 by 2080 according to the UN.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/11/15/world-population-hits-eight-billion-today/
But, according to the graphs in the article, the only place where the replacement rate of babies per woman is over 2.1 is Africa, and it’s plummeting there. Less than 2.1 and the population starts to shrink eventually. And where is the baby population shrinking the fastest? It’s in those developed countries with access to electricity and gas! The quicker African countries get there the fewer babies will be born.
All the misanthropes need is a bit of patience, and we can all be happy.
It’s amazing how the ‘intelligensia’ cannot do even the most basic of intelligent thought!
The African population won’t be wiped out; they are too busy moving north!
Does anyone else wonder how the likes of Gates, Schwab, Bezos, Zuckerberg et al will stay rich when they have killed off huge numbers of their customers?
I suspect that these are simply “useful idiots” to those behind the curtains. They should read a bit of history. Should the “real” tyrannical authoritarians manage to take over, these will be the first they eliminate.
The US Constitution guarantees citizens with the “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” first spelled out in the Declaration of Independence. If you don’t have #1, the rest is moot.
Conversation???
Ah! You mean the Diatribe.
“Those who argue against expanding fossil gas extraction say that exploiting Africa’s reserves is incompatible with keeping average global temperature rise below 1.5°C, the “safe” limit agreed in Paris in 2015.”
But it’s OK for Joe Biden’s team of climate experts and “envoys” to deplete the US strategic oil reserves to make fossil fuels for transportation more available and at a lower cost???
As I watch the LNG cargoes from Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, Algeria and Egypt itself line up to discharge in European ports, fetching high prices that will provide income for development of those countries (as well as the bank accounts of their rulers), and as Germany opens the first of several new rapid build LNG terminals to take it, while the US ramps up its own LNG export capacity it is evident that even the West doesn’t really mean it. At least not until it has impoverished itself to the point where it can’t afford the cargoes and has become power than the Africans.
Meanwhile I note that the curve fitting unphysical model of the aptly named Gasser etc al. (2017 – doi:10.5194/esd-8-235-2017 ) is being touted as the best thing in estimating the impact of methane emissions, studiously ignoring the work of Wijngaarden and Happer on Methane and Climate, which completely debunks the earlier work.
There is enormous empirical evidence that energy and transport are the drivers of reduction in poverty. Stopping Africa from extracting its energy reserves is criminal not just stupid.
There is enormous empirical evidence that energy and transport are the key drivers of reductions in poverty. Denying Africa its right to extract energy is criminal not just stupid.
I only continue to subscribe to this Conversation so I can keep up to date with current WOKE THINKING and the latest panicky climate articles.
It used to be quite good but something happened; so now I rarely comment and often just switch it off.
Economics 101: Africa needs gas in order to export it, to generate hard currency. Renewables “investment” would be great, it would allow more of the gas to be exported. If the Climate Mafia wants to reduce exports of gas there is only one way: make gas too cheap for its production to be economically viable … good luck with that.
“The question of whether Africa should be allowed to exploit its gas reserves”
WTF??
Who do these people think they are?
I was going to write this comment but had the good sense – once – to read all the comments before adding my 2p.
They are about to get a big shock. Saudi Arabia is considering joining BRICS rather than continuing to tolerate America’s hegemony. SA is already in and the rest of Africa will gravitate toward it ushering in a new Reserve Currency which will allow them to exploit their own resources.
BRICS may well soon have NetZero by the short and curlies.
Cheap energy for ME, but not for THEE!
As other contributors, the use of the word “allow” demonstrates the extent of the believers’ control freakery.
‘Former US vice president Al Gore used his speech at the opening session to urge an end to all fossil fuel investment globally, including in Africa’
— says well-fed rich man with enormous carbon footprint.
The green west may not want Africactomdevelop its gas but the rest of the west is jumping on it. They need gas.
https://www.cfact.org/2022/11/02/un-cop27-its-a-gas-gas-gas/
There is also strong interest in southern Africa (SA, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Malawi, Tanzania etc.) on developing and using coal for generating electricity.
-Which is why they are trying to bribe the extremely bribeable ANC government of South Africa to give up coal. This at a time when the country is subject to daily ‘load shedding’ because so many of the existing (coal fired) power stations are breaking down.
Meanwhile, in South Australia they are battling with too much renewable energy on their grid following the taking out of the link to Victoria and the wider grid by a storm. Jo Nova has the details and it is a hilarious read. Highlights are some wailing comments about people being unable to charge their Wonderwalls or Tosslas, and sitting in the dark while enlightened neighbours have fired up their diesel generators. Will the BBC cover this? Not a chance as they and the rest of the legacy media ignore the World’s largest protests in Brasil over their rigged election.