“As the world decarbonises, the shift away from oil, gas, and coal will pose risk to the value of the wealth of countries that are already abundant in nonrenewable energy”
By Teddy Nwanunobi
The World Bank Group has said that the wealth value of Nigeria and some countries with abundant nonrenewable energy or recent oil and gas discoveries will be at risk due to a shift from oil, gas and coal.
The Bank said this on Wednesday in the new edition of its Africa’s Pulse report titled: ‘Climate change adaption and economic transformation in Sub-Saharan Africa’.
“Countries with a high share of carbon and carbon-linked wealth are highly exposed to carbon risk and need to avoid policies and investments that might elevate their exposure.
“As the world decarbonises, the shift away from oil, gas, and coal will pose risk to the value of the wealth of countries that are already abundant in nonrenewable energy (for example, Nigeria and Angola), but also that of countries with recent oil and gas discoveries (Mozambique, Kenya, and Senegal).
“The risk of stranded assets in these countries highlights the need to accelerate the reduction of their wealth exposure to carbon risk,” the report read.
It would be recalled that the Federal Government, on Thursday, said that it rejects a single pathway to global energy transition.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, made this public at the Seplat Energy Summit 2021, with the theme: ‘Global Trends in Energy Transition and the Africa Perspective’.
He acknowledged Nigeria’s commitments to net-zero target in terms of the use of hydrocarbons, but stressed that there was no gainsaying the fact that Nigeria required fossil fuel as its base-load energy source.
“This is undoubtedly a major concern for climate activists in developed nations, but the clamour to emphasis only renewable energy as the sole pathway to energy transition is a source of concern for African countries,” Sylva stated.
This, according to him, was because African countries were still working to achieve base-load industrialisation, address energy poverty and ensure reliable power supply.
“This is why in Nigeria, we reject the concept of a single pathway to the energy transition,” Sylva declared.