There could be more than three thousand clean energy projects producing a combined 170 gigawatts in Sub-Saharan Africa. That's more than twice the region’s current installed capacity. Instead, the region has a dismal 1.4% share of the 3,700 projects in the UNFCCC pipeline, as of September 1. According to a new World Bank report, "the achievable avoidance of future greenhouse gas emissions would total about 740 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year, more than the region’s current annual greenhouse gas emissions (680 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent)."
And for those who think it's not worth the cost premium of installing clean power generation, consider the status quo. According to World Bank energy specialist Reynold Duncan, it is estimated that the cost of load-shedding to the economies of Sub-Saharan Africa, as a result of the current energy infrastructure challenges, is about 2% of gross domestic product. Doing nothing costs more than Sir Nicholas Stern's estimate that it would take 1% of global GDP to address the challenges of global warming.
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