Assesment Of The Nexus Of Energy, Climate Change, Urbanization And Industrialization For Africa’s Transformation

Abstract

Humanity is urbanizing rapidly in Africa, and the demand for energy remains highest amongst other basic goods and services. Scenarios suggest that guarantees for energy poverty alleviation and availability will take longer. The ability to withstand the effects of Climate Change is, evidently, lacking. Many urban dwellers get immensely affected whenever there is an increase in fuel costs and majority of them still rely on kerosene and/or biomass for cooking. Industrialization is influencing R-U migration and the rising costs of industrialization is pushing countries to opt for imports as an alternative due to the high costs of inputs, especially energy. This contributes to the slowing down of Africa’s structural transformation. For this to be ameliorated, I undertake an analysis of (i) the status of energy (ii) structural transformation and the underlying nexus and (iii) Climate Change measures. While there is an increasing amount of research dealing with specific aspects of energy, climate change, urbanization and industrialization, new approaches that merge different knowledge have great potential in finding optimal pathways that could minimize the negative impacts as well as maximize the positive outcomes of the process of Africa’s transformation. The research presented in this thesis identifies policy interventions that foster less carbonintense energy systems, urbanization and industrialization and promote social equity simultaneously. It makes comparisons between four African countries. Particularly, two mechanisms are analysed to achieve these outcomes. The first one considers climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies. The second one looks at institutional and governance structures. A qualitative analysis including textual analysis is conducted to respond to the research questions. Specific policy suggestions on how to maximize positive intervention outcomes are proposed and further discussed.