Africa is largely transitioning "from nothing”, says South Sudan Petroleum Minister Puot Kang Chol.

Speaking on Africa’s agenda for the forthcoming COP28 at the African Energy Week held in Cape Town this week, Chol said to “transition means to move – we need to move to energy first before can talk about an energy transition. We need reliable, affordable and accessible energy, no matter where it comes from.”

“Our responsibility is to make sure there is food on the table – it is a luxury to say how this food must be cooked.”

Chol also noted that Africa, which still had 600-million people without access to electricity out of 1.3-billion, and rising rapidly – needed a global fair, just and sustainable transition that reflected the continent’s realities.

He said developed countries seeking a cut in emissions should not tell Africa what to do, but should rather ask what African countries could potentially do to contribute to a cleaner environment.

Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville) Hydrocarbons Minister Bruno Jean-Richard Itouo echoed Chol, noting that Africa’s starting point was energy poverty, this while the continent had significant oil and gas resources to resolve that poverty.

“If transitioning does not mean eradicating energy poverty, then it makes no sense.” 

Joseph McMonigle, the secretary-general of the International Energy Forum – an organisation of energy Ministers – said one of the biggest challenges in the climate debate was for the global north to recognise that Africa had different energy priorities, and that African countries should be allowed different pathways to transition to cleaner energy sources.

Congo-Brazzaville and South Sudan are both richly endowed with hydrocarbon energy sources.

The 2023 United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference, or Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, more commonly referred to as COP28, will be the twenty-eighth UN climate change conference, and will take place from November 30 to December 12 in Dubai.