Most of the Western world is obsessed with reducing carbon dioxide emissions. This sentiment typically translates into an obsession with cutting back on industry which produces CO2, such as fossil-fuelled power stations, steel foundries, and so on. So, it does not immediately strike one as a good idea to aim to cut down CO2 emissions by building coal-fired power stations in Africa. But it definitely would curtail CO2 emissions a great deal.
Right now, there are 600 million people in Africa who do not have access to electricity. But these people still cook meals for the family and need to keep warm in winter. How do they complete these very human tasks? They light fires. What do they use for fuel? They collect fuel from the immediate surroundings. That fuel consists of materials such as wood and dung. The dung they collect from their cattle, or maybe they get some from wild animals in the neighbourhood. The wood they get from the natural environment. They go out into the surrounding bush and collect dead trees and branches. They also chop trees down. This is hard work, I know that from personal experience because I have collected bush-wood a number of times. On camping trips and day excursions out in the bush, us South Africans quite frequently collect the natural dry dead wood to make a fire to cook lunch or dinner. It is a favourite pastime to do a BBQ, or as we call it, a braai.
For tribal people living deep in a rural area, not connected to electricity, having a braai lunch or dinner is not fun, but rather survival. Collecting the wood is considered women’s work, and it is not unusual to see African women walking long distances with large collections of wood on their heads. It is amazing the loads that they can carry balanced on their heads.
Burning wood and dung creates smoke, plus the gases emanating from all the impurities in the wood and dung, plus loads of CO2. So just imagine millions of fires burning every day. Imagine also how quickly one could cut the CO2 emissions, if all these people were connected to electricity. That would be great. It has to happen in due course. The electricity could be produced using coal-fired power stations, burning coal cleanly with great modern efficiency. Such power stations are known as HELE technology. The HELE is; High Efficiency Low Emissions.
As illogical as it may sound, the construction of HELE coal-fired power stations would be good for the environment and for human health, if built in large numbers in Africa.
But the no-coal zealots would never hear of such a thing. They are not interested in doing the right thing for the environment, they are interested in their will being the dominant force. They are playing a political game.
A while ago I met a Swiss extreme-green who was in South Africa as part of a group of greens who travelled here to ‘teach Africans how to be responsible citizens of the planet.’ During a coffee break discussion with him he said that Switzerland should cut its electricity consumption by 20%, because Swiss people could afford to live a less extravagant lifestyle. He was also of the opinion that Africa should be limited to a 10% increase in electricity consumption. By 10% he meant ever, not per annum. He then produced pictures and waxed lyrical about how Africans should be an example to the world, on how to live ‘in harmony with nature.’ The pictures he produced showed an African woman walking from the river with a bucket of water on her head. Another showed an African subsistence farmer ploughing with a wooden plough, drawn by one ox. The Swiss greenie enthusiastically explained to me how they were living in harmony with nature, leaving a small footprint behind… as if the concept were new to me. I replied that I would rather see the farmer get a tractor and a steel plough. The greenie just about had a fit, and pointed out that not only does a tractor produce CO2 it would also lead to leaks of oil and fuel into the ground…bad for ants, worms, etc. Furthermore, the tractor would cause fuel tankers to have to deliver fuel, he earnestly explained, leading to more CO2 emissions, etc. I also got the lecture on how bad it would be to pump water to the village… that would require pumps and lubricants.
I marvelled at the mentality of the Swiss fellow who really seemed to think that he could convince me that it would be helping mankind and the planet by blocking electricity and fuel into African countries.
Of course, I don’t for one moment expect the large-scale building of HELE coal-fired power stations in African countries to actually take place, even if the countries had coal, which they don’t. But certainly, what can be done is the large-scale electrification of African countries by using nuclear power, particularly Small Modular Reactors. From an environmental conservation point of view, SMRs not only have a very small physical land area footprint, but they also use so little fuel that there’s no large-scale fuel delivery footprint. An SMR can have fuel deliveries three or four times a year, using a truck modified to carry the fuel. There’s no need for a fuel conveyor belt or railway, as required to deliver fossil fuel continuously.
When advocating environmental solutions for the world, it really is necessary to think carefully about the real circumstances of the various people concerned.
Here in Africa it does not go down at all well when people from European countries arrive and sanctimoniously preach to us on how we should be ‘saving the planet’ their way because they say so.