African nations form "Green OPEC"
This is a special day. What we have been predicting and pushing for all along has finally materialised: African nations have formed what we called a "Green OPEC" - an organization of biofuels producing and exporting countries. Our first goal has thus been achieved, and we are now pushing for the finalization of our "BioPact": linking this "Green OPEC" to our EU policies on North-South development.
But let us first look at what happened: some of Africa's poorest nations are clubbing together to try to position themselves as global suppliers of biofuel, hoping to use everything from shrubs to sugar to offset the economic impact of rising crude prices. Inspired by Brazil, where three quarters of new cars run on a mix of biofuel and gasoline, 13 nations met in Senegal on Thursday to form the Pan-African Non-Petroleum Producers Association (PANPP), aimed at developing alternative energy sources, especially biofuels.
"Our continent should have as its vocation to become the primary world supplier of biofuels," Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade told delegates meeting in the capital, Dakar. "This step to develop clean energy is all the more pertinent because it calls for immense areas of cultivable land, where Africa benefits from a clear advantage," he said.
Investment in biofuels, including ethanol derived from sugar cane and biodiesel from oils, is booming on the back of high oil prices, energy security fears, limited spare refinery capacity and concerns about greenhouse gas emissions. Africa produces a range of crops that could be used to make biofuel, including sugar cane, sugar beet, maize, sorghum and cassava -- all of which can be used to make ethanol -- and peanuts, jatropha and palm oil, whose oil can be used to power diesel engines.
Alassane Niane, a technical advisor at Senegal's Energy Ministry, said that while biofuels were a relatively new concept in much of Africa, progress was being made. Jatropha, a wild shrub, was being used in neighbouring Mali, a mostly desert nation frequently hit by drought, to make biodiesel to run generators and water pumps while Senegal's state sugar company was working on a project to produce ethanol. "It is the first time here that people are consciously saying there is a need for biofuel," Niane told Reuters.
"The raw materials exist here, the technical know-how exists here, we just need the politicians to get behind it," he said.
Do read on:
ethanol :: biodiesel :: biobutanol :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: energy :: sustainability :: Africa ::
AFRICAN SOLIDARITY
The International Energy Agency forecast this month that global biofuel production would nearly double by 2011 -- though it would remain a marginal energy source compared to gasoline and diesel -- driven partly by high global oil prices.
Soaring oil prices are hammering economies in Africa, the world's poorest continent, particularly those without crude reserves, threatening to undermine development efforts and in some cases sparking unrest over the rising cost of basic goods.
"If measures are not taken, non-oil producing African nations ... will inevitably head towards economic regression. The promotion of education and access to health services and clean water will be no more than a pipe-dream," Wade said.
Pump prices are beyond the reach of many consumers in West Africa, who often resort to buying smuggled fuel in old liquor bottles. Niger and Guinea have seen riots over fuel prices this year, while in Nigeria and Benin scores have been killed trying to tap fuel illegally from pipelines or oil tankers.
Wade called for a more even distribution of oil wealth among countries in Africa, saying the borders which separated one nation from crude reserves in a neighbouring country were the arbitrary product of colonisation.
"The frontiers that (African unity) makes increasingly absurd should disappear underground and make oil a common wealth," Wade said. "A solution can be found based on African solidarity."
See Reuters.
But let us first look at what happened: some of Africa's poorest nations are clubbing together to try to position themselves as global suppliers of biofuel, hoping to use everything from shrubs to sugar to offset the economic impact of rising crude prices. Inspired by Brazil, where three quarters of new cars run on a mix of biofuel and gasoline, 13 nations met in Senegal on Thursday to form the Pan-African Non-Petroleum Producers Association (PANPP), aimed at developing alternative energy sources, especially biofuels.
"Our continent should have as its vocation to become the primary world supplier of biofuels," Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade told delegates meeting in the capital, Dakar. "This step to develop clean energy is all the more pertinent because it calls for immense areas of cultivable land, where Africa benefits from a clear advantage," he said.
Investment in biofuels, including ethanol derived from sugar cane and biodiesel from oils, is booming on the back of high oil prices, energy security fears, limited spare refinery capacity and concerns about greenhouse gas emissions. Africa produces a range of crops that could be used to make biofuel, including sugar cane, sugar beet, maize, sorghum and cassava -- all of which can be used to make ethanol -- and peanuts, jatropha and palm oil, whose oil can be used to power diesel engines.
Alassane Niane, a technical advisor at Senegal's Energy Ministry, said that while biofuels were a relatively new concept in much of Africa, progress was being made. Jatropha, a wild shrub, was being used in neighbouring Mali, a mostly desert nation frequently hit by drought, to make biodiesel to run generators and water pumps while Senegal's state sugar company was working on a project to produce ethanol. "It is the first time here that people are consciously saying there is a need for biofuel," Niane told Reuters.
"The raw materials exist here, the technical know-how exists here, we just need the politicians to get behind it," he said.
Do read on:
ethanol :: biodiesel :: biobutanol :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: energy :: sustainability :: Africa ::
AFRICAN SOLIDARITY
The International Energy Agency forecast this month that global biofuel production would nearly double by 2011 -- though it would remain a marginal energy source compared to gasoline and diesel -- driven partly by high global oil prices.
Soaring oil prices are hammering economies in Africa, the world's poorest continent, particularly those without crude reserves, threatening to undermine development efforts and in some cases sparking unrest over the rising cost of basic goods.
"If measures are not taken, non-oil producing African nations ... will inevitably head towards economic regression. The promotion of education and access to health services and clean water will be no more than a pipe-dream," Wade said.
Pump prices are beyond the reach of many consumers in West Africa, who often resort to buying smuggled fuel in old liquor bottles. Niger and Guinea have seen riots over fuel prices this year, while in Nigeria and Benin scores have been killed trying to tap fuel illegally from pipelines or oil tankers.
Wade called for a more even distribution of oil wealth among countries in Africa, saying the borders which separated one nation from crude reserves in a neighbouring country were the arbitrary product of colonisation.
"The frontiers that (African unity) makes increasingly absurd should disappear underground and make oil a common wealth," Wade said. "A solution can be found based on African solidarity."
See Reuters.
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