Kiraitu says energy transition could worsen poverty

National Oil Chairman Kiraitu Murungi. [File, Standard]

African nations must tread carefully on energy transition to avoid driving the continent further into poverty, National Oil Chairman Kiraitu Murungi has said.

Murungi said oil and gas remain the most lucrative natural resource in Africa, and the continent needs it to solve its basic developmental needs.

"Transition talk is taking place in a sad context of widespread poverty, massive youth unemployment, crippling external debts, and social discontent fuelled by very high food, fuel, and electricity prices," Murungi said at the Africa Energy Forum in Nairobi.

He noted that hydrocarbons are necessary for the continent's socio-economic transformation and called on African policymakers to redesign the pace and shape of the transition to ensure that "it does not condemn our people to perpetual poverty and social backwardness.

The former Energy minister said the commerciality of oil reserves in the Lokichar basin in Turkana had been proven and the Government was setting up the production system.

"Would it now be fair to be told that because of the energy transition, we should not extract our own oil in Turkana to pay our external debts, buy food and medicine and take our children to school?" he posed.

Murungi said it was not feasible to pay external debts with solar and wind power and added it was the fundamental duty of policymakers to act in the best interests of the country.

"We cannot abdicate or transfer this responsibility to outsiders however well-meaning," he said, noting that massive investment over decades in fossil fuel infrastructure in the form of production wells, pipelines, refineries, downstream stations, and even motor vehicles could not be abandoned overnight.

"Massive investments will also be required for renewable energy infrastructure in the form of wind turbines, solar panels, storage batteries, and transmission lines.

"Climate funding has been too slow and elusive. Private capital can lead to high renewable energy costs and make them unaffordable to the majority of our people. This could force them back to charcoal and firewood which lead to further climate change complications," he added.

Mr Murungi said the transition to renewable energy will take several decades since currently, fossil fuels account for 77 per cent of the global energy mix.

He called for the strategic exploitation of short and medium-term fossil fuels to generate revenue for investment in expanding renewable energy infrastructure.