Energy Access in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Formidable Challenge : CSE
Date & Time Sep 29, 2023 03:00 PM in India
The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) is a public interest research and advocacy organisation based in New Delhi. CSE researches into, lobbies for and communicates the urgency of development that is both sustainable and equitable. The scenario today demands using knowledge to bring about change. In other words, working India’s democracy. This is what we aim to do.The challenge, we see, is two-pronged. On the one hand, millions live within a biomass based subsistence economy, at the margins of survival. The environment is their only natural asset. But a degraded environment means stress on land, water and forest resources for survival.
It means increasing destitution and poverty. Here, opportunity to bring about change is enormous.But it will need a commitment to reform – structural reform- in the way we do business with local communities. On the other hand, rapid industrialization is throwing up new problems: growing toxification and a costly disease burden. The answers will be in reinventing the growth model of the Western world for ourselves, so that we can leapfrog technology choices and find new ways of building wealth that will not cost us the earth. Our aim is to raise these concerns, participate in seeking answers and in pushing for answers, transforming these into policy and so practice. We do this through our research and by communicating our understanding through our publications.
Description
Over 600 million people in Africa – more than 60 per cent of the continent’s population — do not have access to essential electricity services. The Sub-Saharan African (SSA) region faces the brunt of this energy poverty. Of the 38 countries across the world that fail to provide basic electricity access to their populations, 30 are from the Sub-Saharan Africa.
Undoubtedly, the region faces a formidable challenge. Existing infrastructure is woefully inadequate, falling far short of present needs, let alone the demands of the future. The lack of energy leads to a lack of essential necessities like proper healthcare, sanitation, education, economic development, and employment. When these fundamental services are absent, the risk of social and political unrest significantly increases.
Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has been actively engaged with several countries and organisations across Africa, focussing on a range of development concerns including the challenge of energy access. In order to discuss, understand and delve deeper into the challenges and opportunities related to energy access issues in SSA, CSE cordially invites you to join an online discussion.
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