CAN AFRICA SURMOUNT THE RUSKIN CHALLENGE?

Africa is facing the Ruskin challenge. There is an ongoing attempt in Africa to limit the destruction of natural resources by seeking life and eschewing destructive paths. But weak political framing and divergent roadmap paint a negative image of our energy transition. Animated green discussions are on how Africa is moving toward carbon neutrality through two disconnected paths. This poses important concerns that, in some ways, are similar to Ruskin's challenge. Ruskin's issues in the context of Africa are:

·????????Can the continent really turn away from "destruction" and toward "life"?

·????????Will pursuing environmental sustainability divert African economies off their steady course of economic growth?

·????????What other options are there to reach eco-sufficiency without halting development?

These are complex questions with #food, #energy and #economicdevelopment imperative. Yet, it is with a geopolitical undercurrent of how #naturalresources are managed and their ownership. It has been argued that ownership of land and the mines are another eco-capitalist epoch?as it reechoed carbon imperialism in that it also creates a metabolic rift and an unequal exchange. Within #Africa, the emphasis is on decolonizing nature from its entrapment. But it will not limit the metabolic rift rather expropriation will continue in another form. #cdm it is argued pays the carbon guilt of the North while new mining industries in search of lithium are externalizing the cost of reducing the global North's #carbon debt to Africa. In the process increasing our carbon debt and pollution. ?In light of this, we venture the daring question of whether Africa can actually break free from the current carbon trap and carbon imperialism. 'NO' in capital letters and 'YES' in tiny letters are the correct responses. Here's why.?

Natural resource depletion and #agroecological degradation historically occur at the same time and are connected to population growth just as they are with the Industrial Revolution. The world's attention was then more geared toward encouraging expansion towards the infinite rather than reducing the negative carbon production. Africa being latecomers borrowed Western models only to find out that the goalpost has changed. The players who are also the referee have shifted or taken away the goalpost. Given the connections between population explosion and carbon-based growth, it is becoming more and more obvious that decarbonization may either make poverty worse or increase depletion to pay the financial debt of the diffusion of low-carbon technology.?

Where we are

Africa is energy poor as less than 27% of rural Africa has access to power. Energy poverty in the continent is severe. Unfortunately, we are more reliant on #fossilfuels. In 2019, the installed capacity of coal and hydropower was almost 48.3 thousand MW and 35.7 thousand MW, respectively, while natural gas accounted for over 108 thousand MW. #renewableenergy has not yet reached its potential. The difference is steadily closing, though, as more and more energy solutions are developed. Renewable energy sources are becoming more widely used however; there are still some grey areas. The #energy transition can accelerate the production of energy, but it is unable to overcome the growing uncertainties caused by financial, physical, and transition risks. So, decarbonization will result in a large number of stranded assets that are on the point of being abandoned in addition to this.

Where we are headed

In order to overcome the Ruskin Challenge, competing needs for food and energy must utilize energy-smart and climate-smart solutions. We should also examine the underlying cause(s) of food and energy poverty as well as the function that markets serve in maintaining environmental harmony before laying out a roadmap that is carbon-free. Unfortunately, not every market-driven development has promoted coexistence between people and the natural world. Consequently, it is a claim that is more slogan than substantive. Innovative solutions are needed for a complicated transition incorporating these many change drivers. Regrettably, the reward for handling such complexity would encourage disincentives in Africa rather than fostering innovation. Innovations will undoubtedly orchestrate depletion to a new degree while also opening up new commercial opportunities This is not to say innovative technology is not needed but what Africa needs is energy-efficient technologies. This is because carbon colonialism and geopolitical manoeuvring are intrinsic to decarbonization and are deployed to pay back the ecological debt of the global north, leaving Africa at the wrong end of the global carbon gap.

Disentangling from?the Challenge

Africa is caught at the wrong end of the global carbon divide with carbon colonization and geopolitical machination used to repay the ecological debt of the global North. And as such we are really headed for the sixth extinction spasm. Because we are both victims and agents of change, agroecological degenerations will magnify instead of reduce. When viewed in the guise of being a victim of change, the continent is at the receiving end of climate extreme events, even though Africa has only contributed a small percentage of greenhouse gas emissions (3%), the continent is experiencing the effects of climate change. While acting as a catalyst for change, food and energy insecurity has forced many people into greater depletions, reinforcing poverty and contributing to climate change. Implicitly, it will reinforce unequal exchange further inhibiting any real possibility for long-term risk reduction. Therefore, care should be taken that it does not turn the global South into the remnants of history.

As of late, most states have been reexamining their process of dematerialization based on super materialization wherein cost is rendered invisible by spatial or temporal displacement. Such orientation gives the lie to the idea that humankind can buy its way out of limits to growth. Governments' corrective measures are necessary to guide African economies towards other greener alternatives (or even materialization) while also creating new incentives for capitalization by way of providing part of the initial capital for investment. States should provide an amiable environment for the fertilization of ideas in order to encourage businesses to invest in their economy.

Overall, given that there are many forces linked to changing nature, Africa's transformation at the behest of these contrasting perspectives is a venture susceptible to derailing other government ambitions. These forces, which aim to alter nature, include odd bedfellows like local politicians and international capital. Release from these conflicting impulses might either encourage or hinder growth. Depending on whose side of the argument you're on, destruction will result in new life. However, when we produce new life, we will face another life-threatening risk. Then, Martin Luther King Jr.'s prophetic words "Too Late" will be written on the mangled remnants of several African civilizations. As he puts it: “We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. This is not the time for apathy and complacency. This is time for vigorous and positive action”

It is time for vigorous action consisting of the tradeoff between sustainable growth and degrowth. Only time will tell if African leaders can respond to this call to action by setting aside their parochialism and grabbing the chances of the energy transition to establish an environmentally sustainable future.?Time and tide, on the other hand, are not patient. Not least is the tide of physical climate risk, which will stymie the energy just transition by establishing pathways through which the risk of the transition reinforces present disparities and unequal exchange.?

Bapon Shm Fakhruddin, PhD Helle Bank J?rgensen, GCB.D, NACD.DC J?rg Sommer UnniKrishnan Divakaran Nair Ivo Mulder Mohammad Aatish Khan Shadrack Kubyane Olivier Levallois ?? Frank Duffau Ashley Camhi, Ph.D. Usman Manzoor Will Perego Derek Q. Watkins Dr. Eddy Lenusira Wifa John McGettrick John Mc Keown Chuka René Emekoma Olivia Fussell Pablo Kohan Durreen Shahnaz Geoff Bennett