Most of energy consumed in Africa is not clean. Starting with the firewood and charcoal use in rural areas, to use of electricity in industries as well as fuels on the roads, all these sources lead to emissions of carbon in the atmosphere. With these emissions, there is increased air pollution, rise in health conditions mostly affecting the chest and also destruction of forests. For this reason, sustainable green energy in Africa needs to be adopted.
This green energy source is all from natural sources such as wind, rain, sun, geothermal heat, waves and tide. All these sources provide clean source of power. However, in Africa, these sources are underutilized. This is even though the resources are highly abundant. For instance, the continent receives sunlight in almost all days of the year. When it comes to geothermal heat, a lot of countries have the source of this. As for the tides and waves, many countries with coastlines receive a lot of this.
It is high time that these clean sources completely replace the non renewable sources. Green energy is not renewable, but it is sustainable in the sense that current generation will enjoy using it and so will the future generation. Therefore African nations should make strategies to adopt this clean power sources.
One of the advantages that will result with this adoption is poverty reduction. A lot of people especially in rural areas of Africa live in poverty. This is because there are no employment opportunities for them probably because no industry can be set up in the rural areas as there is no electricity. But with use of say solar power, setting up industries in rural areas can be possible and this will lead to employment of people and hence reduction of poverty levels as people will be earning income.
Clean air will also be achieved and thus less cases of health related conditions from emissions. With green energy, there are no emissions and thus nations will be able to protect their environments. Apart from this, there will be no need to cut down forests for firewood and charcoal and thus forest cover is protected preventing soil erosion and drought situations.
Political problems will also be avoided if sustainable green power is considered. Many communities in African are always fighting over the limited resources. For instance different communities fighting over control of oil sources and this has led to loss of many lives. This has also resulted to political instability. Therefore by considering the alternative power forms, every community will benefit equally from these sources and therefore less fighting.
Adjusting to these clean sources of power may be the ultimate goal of many African countries. But the problem arises in the fact that most of these nations cannot afford on their own to finance infrastructure needed for this switch. Also they do not have enough expertise to set up this system and therefore this has seen the benefits of green energy accrued in small domestic scale.
It is therefore up to the various governments to come up with suitable policies to encourage this switch as well as seek sources of finance to fund this project. The staff working for the government should be accountable when dealing with these funds. Other than this, nongovernmental organizations should be formed to do research of how to tap power from these natural sources easily, implementation process, dissemination activities in rural areas and more networking and lobbying with key stakeholders and investors.
This green energy source is all from natural sources such as wind, rain, sun, geothermal heat, waves and tide. All these sources provide clean source of power. However, in Africa, these sources are underutilized. This is even though the resources are highly abundant. For instance, the continent receives sunlight in almost all days of the year. When it comes to geothermal heat, a lot of countries have the source of this. As for the tides and waves, many countries with coastlines receive a lot of this.
It is high time that these clean sources completely replace the non renewable sources. Green energy is not renewable, but it is sustainable in the sense that current generation will enjoy using it and so will the future generation. Therefore African nations should make strategies to adopt this clean power sources.
One of the advantages that will result with this adoption is poverty reduction. A lot of people especially in rural areas of Africa live in poverty. This is because there are no employment opportunities for them probably because no industry can be set up in the rural areas as there is no electricity. But with use of say solar power, setting up industries in rural areas can be possible and this will lead to employment of people and hence reduction of poverty levels as people will be earning income.
Clean air will also be achieved and thus less cases of health related conditions from emissions. With green energy, there are no emissions and thus nations will be able to protect their environments. Apart from this, there will be no need to cut down forests for firewood and charcoal and thus forest cover is protected preventing soil erosion and drought situations.
Political problems will also be avoided if sustainable green power is considered. Many communities in African are always fighting over the limited resources. For instance different communities fighting over control of oil sources and this has led to loss of many lives. This has also resulted to political instability. Therefore by considering the alternative power forms, every community will benefit equally from these sources and therefore less fighting.
Adjusting to these clean sources of power may be the ultimate goal of many African countries. But the problem arises in the fact that most of these nations cannot afford on their own to finance infrastructure needed for this switch. Also they do not have enough expertise to set up this system and therefore this has seen the benefits of green energy accrued in small domestic scale.
It is therefore up to the various governments to come up with suitable policies to encourage this switch as well as seek sources of finance to fund this project. The staff working for the government should be accountable when dealing with these funds. Other than this, nongovernmental organizations should be formed to do research of how to tap power from these natural sources easily, implementation process, dissemination activities in rural areas and more networking and lobbying with key stakeholders and investors.
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