{"id":476639,"date":"2026-10-04T10:23:35","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T17:23:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=476639"},"modified":"2026-10-04T10:23:37","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T17:23:37","slug":"africas-poorest-countries-need-energy-not-empathy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=476639","title":{"rendered":"Africa\u2019s Poorest Countries Need Energy, Not Empathy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Illustration
AI generated by ChatGPT<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From The CO2 Coalition<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Vijay Jayaraj<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mainstream media and policy analysts have been slower than sloths in displaying an understanding of how the United States\u2019 dismantling greenhouse gas limits for power plants is a profound turning point for global energy policy. Moreover, while Washington reclaims industrial common sense, the promise of energy reformation languishes in Africa, especially in nations that sit at or near the bottom of national income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Begin with numbers published by the World Bank. In Mozambique, 81% of people live below the line of extreme poverty, $2.15 a day<\/a>. In Burundi the figure stands at 74%, and in the Central African Republic close to 72%. Malawi sits alongside them with some of the highest poverty rates on the continent<\/a>, and its economy entered 2026 with inflation nearly 30% and public debt approaching 91% of gross domestic product<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Sudan posts the lowest score<\/a> on the U.N.\u2019s Human Development Index. In 2019, more than 97% of people in the Central African Republic, South Sudan, and Burundi cooked with smoky wood, charcoal, dung, and crop waste<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation found that household smoke kills Burundians at high rates<\/a>, and women and girls spend four hours daily gathering fuel. In Egypt where cooking gas is widely used, such hardships are hardly known.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Energy Access and Poverty<\/strong>
One of the primary reasons for these levels of poverty is lack of access to energy, especially electricity. And some of the statistics could come from societies of dark pre-industrial eras.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Central African Republic\u2019s electricity network runs on the hydroelectric power of one waterway. The Boali complex on the Mbali River \u2013 three units totaling less than 39 megawatts<\/a> \u2013 produces far less than a single modern coal-fired plant, which typically generates 1,000 megawatts or more. Of the country\u2019s 5 million people, 4.3 million do not have electricity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Burundi\u2019s entire national grid produced less than 167 megawatts in 2025<\/a>, even with a recent addition of nearly 50 megawatts. The national access to electricity sits below 12%. Burundi\u2019s 14 million people depend on a system that is barely enough for a single American shopping mall<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Sudan\u2019s installed capacity reached roughly 214 megawatts by 2023<\/a>, of which about half worked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why does so little firm power exist in places that need it most? Follow the finance. The World Bank stopped financing coal more than a decade ago. It then would end upstream oil and gas lending after 2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In September 2019, African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina told the U.N. Climate Action Summit that coal belonged to the past and his bank was getting out of it<\/a>, a pledge the bank never formally wrote into policy but has applied in practice<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vijaya Ramachandran of the Breakthrough Institute says blanket bans on financing hydrocarbon projects entrench poverty<\/a>. Addressing climate change and ignoring poverty is \u201ccompletely immoral,\u201d she says. \u201cThe average Ethiopian consumes only 130 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, about the amount the average person in the United States consumes in four days.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms. Ramachandran is not a climate \u201cskeptic\u201d but rather an economist who knows what happens at a clinic that has insufficient electricity to refrigerate its drugs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NJ Ayuk of the African Energy Chamber makes the engineering case. Ending energy poverty, he says, requires every available resource, with coal and oil among the assets that \u201ceach have a role to play.\u201d<\/a> Telling Africans to make do with wind and solar while wealthy countries restart their own coal plants is \u201cnot just unfair (and) unjust, it is dishonest,\u201d<\/a> he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

African governments should demand that the African Development Bank and World Bank restore financing for fossil fuel plants and for the infrastructure to connect them to consumers. This is the bare minimum needed for the continent\u2019s most desperate to escape poverty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally published at PJ Media<\/a><\/em>, September 30, 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vijay Jayaraj is a Science and Research Associate at the<\/em> CO2 Coalition<\/em><\/a>, Fairfax, Virginia. He holds an M.S. in environmental sciences from the University of East Anglia and a postgraduate degree in energy management from Robert Gordon University, both in the U.K., and a bachelor\u2019s in engineering from Anna University, India. He served as a research associate with the Changing Oceans Research Unit at University of British Columbia, Canada.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The mainstream media and policy analysts have been slower than sloths in displaying an understanding of how the United States\u2019 dismantling greenhouse gas limits for power plants is a profound turning point for global energy policy. Moreover, while Washington reclaims industrial common sense, the promise of energy reformation languishes in Africa, especially in nations that sit at or near the bottom of national income.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":476640,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"Discover why Africa's poorest countries desperately need energy solutions, not mere empathy, to combat poverty and improve living conditions.","jetpack_seo_html_title":"Africa's Need for Energy: Beyond Empathy for Progress","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691820276,691833888,691846024,691846025,691820659,691818228,691846027,691846026,691819121,691820465],"class_list":["post-476639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-africa","tag-african-development-bank","tag-burundi","tag-central-african-republic","tag-coal-plants","tag-fossil-fuels","tag-u-n-climate-action-summit","tag-u-n-s-human-development-index","tag-wind-and-solar-power","tag-world-bank","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1ZZJ","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":283491,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=283491","url_meta":{"origin":476639,"position":0},"title":"Powering AI could use as much electricity as a small country","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"10\/16\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The artificial intelligence (AI) industry could consume as much energy as countries like Sweden or the Netherlands. Artificial intelligence (AI) comes with promises of helping coders code faster, drivers drive safer, and making daily tasks less time-consuming. But in a commentary published October 10 in the journal\u00a0Joule, the founder of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Artificial Intelligence (AI)\"","block_context":{"text":"Artificial Intelligence (AI)","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=artificial-intelligence-ai"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/0artificial-intelligence-3262753_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C653&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/0artificial-intelligence-3262753_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C653&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/0artificial-intelligence-3262753_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C653&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/0artificial-intelligence-3262753_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C653&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/0artificial-intelligence-3262753_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C653&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":348560,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=348560","url_meta":{"origin":476639,"position":1},"title":"Energy Justice in Africa? Energy Exceptionalism Please","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"10\/23\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"A recent release from CarbonBrief, \u201cHow a UK government-backed Company has Fueled Gas Power in Africa,\u201d reported that \u201ca little-known company that is majority-owned by a UK government development body and backed by UK aid money has been pouring investment into gas power across Africa.\u201d","rel":"","context":"In \"Africa\"","block_context":{"text":"Africa","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=africa"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/00Screenshot-2024-10-23-111440.png?fit=1055%2C952&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/00Screenshot-2024-10-23-111440.png?fit=1055%2C952&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/00Screenshot-2024-10-23-111440.png?fit=1055%2C952&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/00Screenshot-2024-10-23-111440.png?fit=1055%2C952&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/00Screenshot-2024-10-23-111440.png?fit=1055%2C952&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":337620,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=337620","url_meta":{"origin":476639,"position":2},"title":"Utah\u2019s The Independent is Right, Climate Activism Ignores or Harms the World\u2019s Poor","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"07\/26\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The Independent, a news site out of Southern Utah, ran an article recently titled \u201cFight Climate Change, Ignore the Poor,\u201d in which writer Howard Sierer claims climate change activism neglects the needs of the poor in favor of their preferred policy goals. This is true. Anti-growth and green policies do\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"climate activism\"","block_context":{"text":"climate activism","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-activism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0african-poverty-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C903&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0african-poverty-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C903&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0african-poverty-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C903&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0african-poverty-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C903&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0african-poverty-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C903&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":384171,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=384171","url_meta":{"origin":476639,"position":3},"title":"G-7: Africans Deserve Real Electricity","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"06\/22\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The G-7 countries are meeting this week in Kananaskis in Alberta, Canada. This G-7 meeting will focus on geopolitical issues. While many disagreements currently prevail among the G-7 countries, all likely agree that African countries deserve a shot at pulling themselves up out of poverty. Africa is the only continent\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"African countries\"","block_context":{"text":"African countries","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=african-countries"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/0Africa-Energy.jpg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/0Africa-Energy.jpg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/0Africa-Energy.jpg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/0Africa-Energy.jpg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/0Africa-Energy.jpg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":241674,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=241674","url_meta":{"origin":476639,"position":4},"title":"Could ChatGPT \u201cClippy\u201d Evolve into a Child Climate Change Propaganda Machine?","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"01\/26\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Will the world\u2019s first strong AI focus on proselytising Net Zero? Will children struggling to write homework essays accept liberal life tips from an AI powered talking paper clip?","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/image-1135.png?fit=800%2C451&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/image-1135.png?fit=800%2C451&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/image-1135.png?fit=800%2C451&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/image-1135.png?fit=800%2C451&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":279064,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=279064","url_meta":{"origin":476639,"position":5},"title":"AI AI, Oh Oh: Artificial intelligence power consumption about to skyrocket \u2013 and no one is prepared","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"09\/16\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Today\u2019s musings go far into left field, but please do tag along. If you care about energy, you\u2019ll want to hear all this.\u00a0","rel":"","context":"In \"Artificial Intelligence (AI)\"","block_context":{"text":"Artificial Intelligence (AI)","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=artificial-intelligence-ai"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/00Artificial-Super-Intelligence-scaled-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C668&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/00Artificial-Super-Intelligence-scaled-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C668&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/00Artificial-Super-Intelligence-scaled-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C668&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/00Artificial-Super-Intelligence-scaled-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C668&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/00Artificial-Super-Intelligence-scaled-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C668&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/0-chatGPT-Africas-Poorest-Countries-Need-Energy-Not-Empathy.png?fit=1536%2C1024&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=476639"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":476645,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476639\/revisions\/476645"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/476640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=476639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=476639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=476639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}