Developing Economies And The Imperatives For A Renewable Energy Future -By Saliu Momodu

The potentials and prospects for renewable energy resources around the world are huge, and this should no longer be ignored. Power blocks and industrialized nations that currently bear the reins on this global fossil fuel economy are already far ahead in the race to arrogate, appropriate and dominate a renewable energy future that is already upon us.

Petroleum and natural gas, both being the darling fossil fuels of eminence and the rallying point of a post-colonial world economy, now risk going out of fashion for renewable alternatives owing to problems of pollution amongst other considerations. Great wealth, power, resources and influence have been extracted and distilled at the behest of global crude oil supply and indulgence but the end of an era beckons and the beginning of another, inevitable. But still, the complete tale of this fossil fuel era comes in contrasting reality depending on where and how you look.

It is certainly an ignoble report upon the modern world that many parts of Africa as well as territories from so-called developing countries from where abundant petroleum and other invaluable natural raw material resources have sprung over the decades continue to lag behind in many key developmental indices. Poverty, malnutrition, crime, insurgency, illiteracy and terrorism continue to menace lives in these places; places that should otherwise pass as textbook cases of an El-Dorado, but for the visionless mismanagement and unsustainability that have endured around for too long.

Several communities like Ogoni in the Niger-Delta region of Nigeria continue to suffer seemingly unresolvable environmental pollution and degradation due to decades of anthropogenic activities stemming from state and non-state resource vampires. As we speak, the supposed Garden City of Nigeria, Port Harcourt, is covered in soot and smoke from the illegal makeshift petroleum refining activities of desperate locals and aliens that have taken business habitation in the creeks further exacerbating the water pollution problems. The environmental hazards aside, the health ones are incalculable.

The story is the same in the North West of the country even if to varying degrees since the trouble there is not exactly energy related. Yet entire communities have been poisoned in Sokoto, Zamfara and environs through groundwater pollution arising from the indiscriminate and reckless mining activities of gold and (other) precious metal hunters.
While these decades-long occurrences are tragic enough by themselves, the fossil fuel and other extractive enterprises have spelt even more doom to overwhelming populations trapped in so-called developing countries. In many parts of the developing world, exploitation of fossil fuel together with other natural resources have fueled corruption, injustice, inequality, sociocultural dissonance, and in many cases, outright war.

Having submitted as above, it would certainly be disingenuous and untrue to pretend that the story of fossil fuel in Africa has only been about tears and woes. Mainly within the last seven decades, the economic, infrastructural and social development in many of these territories and regions of interest have almost entirely come from the crude oil resources pumped out from beneath the earth. But the cost-benefit, developmental and sustainability question to ask is: at what price?

If with the knowledge of hindsight we realize today that things could have been done much better, then it makes sense to take a cue and imbibe some lessons. Could it be that many of the concerned territories and regions of interest, judging by how they have faired with the associated opportunities of their abundant fossil fuel resources, were hardly ready for the happenstance of nature’s gift upon them? By how much has oil producing territories and economies around the world been shortchanged? To what degree have they operated sub-optimally with so much going into economic, political, cultural and environmental wastage? Something of an answer is discernable in the conditions of poverty amidst so much abundance under which people live in these territories- a contradiction.

The ostrich approach over the decades that has made us shy away from asking these uncomfortable questions can no longer be sustained for even if petroleum was to be an infinite resource, which is not, the people of the world and those influencing it’s economic trajectory are now slowly but surely moving on and away from fossil fuel- dropping it like it’s hot. Renewable energy technology and it’s pursuit are the emerging and run-away frontiers in the energy departments of the world today. The last two decades witnessed a speeding-up on research and development in the area of solar, geothermal, wind, biomass and other renewable energy sources and technologies. This is a new year and it is safe to conclude that moving forward, the engines of the world will fire even less on traditional energy supplies.

Across the industrialized world, more and more reasons are being tabled as to why humanity should transit quickly away from fossil fuel sources into the renewables. Even industrial chemical feedstocks like hydrogen, ethanol and many C2+ compounds, as currently being exclusively obtained from crude oil, are beginning to be sourced through alternative test-run supplies from biomass (biofuels) and solar-driven fuel cells. The incentives are many as they range from far less pollution, climate preservation, long-term affordability, portability and of course renewability. Cars and homes would run on these emerging technologies, and so would our communication, manufacturing, healthcare, defense, robotics, aviation and our social services.

It is important to point out that in the frenzy of renewable energy consideration, people and policy thrust could easily run an error of equating renewable energy utilization to zero extractive activities for raw materials. The contrary is the case in reality. Despite a drift towards the renewables, humanity and industries would continue to seek out natural resources on land and sea for one application or another. The difference at the time would only be a matter of resource kind and quantity as demanded by the perculiarities of a new era. Understandably, hunger for precious and rare metals like gold, silver, platinum, nickel etc., together with water resources and biomass would rise sharply as smart cutting-edge technological may warrant. This is more reason developing nations that currently depend heavily on the fossil fuel and extractive industries should quickly reassess their position and potentials against the expected. In the same vein, waste and waste management interests would feature prominently. A renewable energy economy would altogether require a new kind of waste management and disposal philosophy that must cover extraction, use, collection and recycling. A surge in quantity and risk of electronic waste streams seem imminent hence developing countries must watch out for the tendency of being used as dumping grounds for decommissioned and secondhand technologies from industrialized nations.

Aside the new-age focus on renewable alternatives, hydropower technology and the associated systems continue to occupy a formidable place in the ranks of renewable energy endowments. The direct agro-applicability of hydro-power technology, beyond just electricity generation, puts it in a priority place in the quest for affordable clean energy which is the seventh (7th) item in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations.
So, the question for Africa and other developing countries of the world is simple: what place are we intentionally securing in an imminent renewable energy future. The thrust of this question and the kind of answer it elicits are not merely expedient for our own sake, but for the sake of our children who shall be negotiating, navigating and striving to survive that future. If petroleum had unceremoniously happened upon our unprepared and novice forebears, what excuse shall we afford our children to not have tactfully and strategically engaged with the wider world and for not adequately grappling with prevailing realities for the best interest of their collective futures.

The dawn of an era for alternatives in solar, biomass and other renewable energy sources is not difficult to envisage, the real and sensible challenge before us right now is how to envision our place in it. Failure to be adequately proactive is to yet again be disadvantaged into a second fiddle place in a renewable economy just as it has pitiably been the case in a fossil fuel one. Such an unimaginable scenario could span another century or more if things do not change for the better.

To act right and fast in mitigation of this impending situation to revisit our educational curricular and overhaul our educational system. We must prioritize the place of vocational and technical training in our national educational psyche. The technical manpower required to survive and thrive before a renewable energy economy cannot almost be adequately supplied by our universities and polytechnics however the number of times we seek to multiply them. It is more a matter of technical pedagogy than it is of academics and literacy. The overall course of action and direction must be sincerely driven by policy; policy that is well backed with research and development outcomes; research and development that command local and international pedigree.

Developing economies must not play catch-up as has been typical of their abysmal response to the fossil fuel economy and technology of the passing century. What for example the Nigerian government attempted with the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) in seeking to fast-track human capacity development for the petroleum industry in now long overdue for the renewable energy economy of the immediate future. This exposition should engender both a political and a social call to duty for government, professionals, researchers, statesmen, academics, entrepreneurs and private individuals.

Developing economies must realize that borrowing to run countries with fast growing populations that already number into hundreds of millions is bad enough as an economic strategy. Even worse would be a scenario where such economies cannot find a footing at the theatre of a renewable energy future that would compromise the value of the fossil fuel which at the moment is generously and recklessly being pump for sale. Solar energy is abundant, that fact would surely and significantly count for something very soon. There has to be a better, clever and sustainable way to go rather than waiting at the receiving end.

The stone you see, we are told, should not be allowed to take your sight.
A stitch in time saves nine.

Saliu Momodu.
Saliu Momodu can be contacted via saliumomoh123@gmail.com