Reforming Africa’s fossil fuel subsidies
On the African continent, the low level of electricity access remains a major development constraint and under a business as usual scenario, it is estimated that 89 percent of the world’s energy poor will reside in sub-Saharan Africa in 2030. Although the proportion of energy consumption from fossil fuels remained relatively stable over the past two decades (at nearly 40 percent) in the region, new oil and gas discoveries may spur an increase in the use of fossil fuels for energy production. Rapid population and economic growth will also continue to drive increases in per capita energy demand for both power and transport, the latter being heavily dominated by fossil fuels. As African policymakers strive to meet this growing demand, energy choices made in the coming few years have the potential to lock African countries into high emission trajectories for the next few decades.
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