How the African Tech Sector Can Advance the Continent’s Fight against Climate Change
Tech can help the continent address the challenges of climate change.
Technology and climate change are two interlacing forces in Africa, and bringing them to further interplay could advance the continent’s efforts to sustainability. Corporate climate leadership that integrates the pace of technological change can address adverse effects.
The UN report in 2018 sounded the warning: the continent, like the rest of the world, has 11 years to keep temperatures at a 1.5°C rise till December 31, 2100. If it doesn’t, the consequences might be tragic. Scientists warn the continent’s coral reefs will be completely outdone. The continent will experience more heatwaves, provoking heat-related deaths and recurrent wildfires. One could say that if the planet warms by 2˚C, 10 million more people will be affected yearly by rising sea levels, and that is why all hands need to be on deck to limit warming to 1.5°C.
The extremes of weather in Africa in 2018, especially in the African Sahel, has shown how rapidly the continent’s climate is changing: many of the continent’s major cities recorded temperatures well over 30°C, and in Algeria the continent experienced its hottest documented temperature of 51°C. And there were wildfires in several dry zones of sub-Saharan Africa. One can only expect that this trend would continue unabated, if no sustained action is taken.
So what does demonstrating leadership on climate action mean for the continent? Simply, it means tuning households and businesses in Africa to a 1.5°C target. Africa needs to have a relentless outlook on reducing carbon emissions. For example, each household and business must think of what it could do to reduce carbon emissions up to 85% by 2030 and 100% by 2045. This will put the continent on the road to becoming totally climate-friendly well before 2050. Scientists have advised that this is the only way to circumvent irreversible catastrophic effects of climate change.
This is where the technology sector in Africa could play a pivotal role; it can help the continent harness the needed technological change to support its climate action targets. The Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector presents itself in a very unique way. Firstly, it is reducing its carbon impact yearly. The world’s leading technology and communications companies — with regional offices in Africa — such as Google, Apple, Amazon, to mention but these, have enlisted for a 100% renewable energy by 2020. MTN, Africa’s largest mobile phone network, has launched portable renewable energy systems in many African countries, and would only consolidate this trend.
The results are perceptible even now: the African digital sector’s total emissions has been reduced by 15% between 2010 and 2015. The expectation is that ICT emissions will be lower than 2% of worldwide carbon emissions by 2030. This is encouraging even for businesses — the sum of switching to renewables and energy-efficiency policies could save a company £250m over ten years.
Secondly, and this is perhaps more significant, the digital sector enables other sectors to be more sustainable. Take the example of renewables. Given irregular supply, a smart grid is needed to balance supply with growing demand for energy. Linked technologies make this occur.
The same could be said of the transport sector. Providing travelers with the fastest modes of transport at the needed time can prevent gridlock in African cities. A recent study has shown that by 2025 technologies working together can reduce global circulation of cars by twenty million. Technology will propel and impose electric and autonomous vehicles (already tested in South Africa), reducing air pollution in urban Africa, making streets safer, and saving human lives.
A new study by GeSI, a global NGO focused on sustainability in the technology sector, has revealed what technology could achieve. Every tonne of CO2 emitted in the technology sector saves nearly 10 tonnes in the other sectors.
And as we discovered in a recent WWF report: “The biggest role that the digital sector can play is in contributing effective solutions to other sectors, influencing consumer and producer behaviour and leading the transformation of our energy systems.” Now that the fight against climate change widens, technology brings needed solutions to propel Africa to sustainability.
By the Next Einstein Forum/Kevin Eze.
