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Abstract African countries are in a unique position to reap the socio-economic and environmental benefits of renewable resources as a means for meeting increasing energy demand in a sustainable way. A critical obstacle for the deployment of renewable energy technologies in Africa is the difficulty of attracting sufficient and affordable finance. This paper compares the impact of financial conditions on the cost of electricity generation across six renewable and three fossil-based technologies in 46 African countries. The results show large cost variations and highlight the extent to which renewables are disadvantaged by current financial practices. The energy-economy-environment model TIAM-ECN is used to show how lowering financing costs results in a much higher deployment of renewables. For example, solar PV could account for 10–15% of total electricity generation by 2050, even without explicit climate policy, thanks to financial de-risking programmes. The results demonstrate that changes in financing schemes could outweigh the impact of technology learning. This paper also demonstrates that, once ambitious climate policies are in place, reducing financing costs for renewables could be an efficient way to lower greenhouse gas emissions. Financial de-risking is thus a key ingredient for unlocking the renewable energy potential in Africa. Highlights • We show how renewables are disadvantaged by today's financial practices in Africa. • We show how lower financing costs result in a higher deployment of renewables. • PV can account for 10–15% of electricity generation by 2050 without climate policy. • Changes in financing schemes could outweigh the impact of technology learning. • Financial de-risking is key for unlocking the renewable energy potential in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The African continent is endowed with massive energy resources such as hydropower, solar, wind, natural gas, wave energy, and many more, yet it is the continent with the least energy supply in the world thereby resulting in a lack of sufficient energy to meet its growing energy demand. Though the continent holds 100 GW of wind capabilities, the current installed capacity as at 2018 was 5.7 GW with countries in northern Africa as well as South Africa capturing over 90% of the wind energy share on the continent. Therefore, this paper reviews the wind energy industry in Africa by identifying the current installed and potential capacity of wind energy on the continent. The challenges faced by the wind energy industry such as policy, competition, technical and economic are also reviewed. Transitions, technological innovation systems, and strategic niche management theoretical sustainability transition framework as well as proposed pathways to overcome these prevailing challenges hindering the full exploration of the wind energy sector in Africa are also highlighted in order to uplift the continent's socio-economic status. Basically, this can be achieved through the adoption of strong 'political-will' by African national governments to drive wind energy development. There is also the need for institutional frameworks to ensure the practical adoption of new wind energy technologies. Furthermore, the major benefits Africa stands to gain from investment in wind energy are enumerated by comparing with the benefits realized by other countries' economies as a result of investing in the wind energy industry. For instance, cheap electricity, job creation, industrial growth, and eco-friendly energy source. • Reviewing wind energy industry in Africa and existing challenges. • The challenges faced by African's wind energy industry can be categorized under policy, competition, technical and economic. • Framework for transiting Africa's wind energy industry from small-scale production to large-scale commercial industry.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, land is becoming an important commodity and the land sector in many developing countries has been object of growing foreign acquisitions. The aim of the paper is to analyze whether the requirements set by the EU Renewable Energy Directive introducing biofuels sustainability criteria has induced the European investors acquiring land for producing biofuel feedstocks to adopt more sustainable strategies. First, we review the factors that may induce a corporation to adopt sustainable behavior and corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies in the context of land acquisitions. Second, the paper illustrates our original evidence on European land acquisitions in Africa and on the behavior of the investors involved. Then, we use a logistic model to estimate the variables affecting the investor’s choice to certify its actions and to adopt CSR strategies. Our evidence shows that the main factors influencing the probability that an investor chooses to certify the sustainability of its actions are: the sector in which it operates, the fact of acquiring land in more than one foreign country and the characteristics of origin and destination country. Interestingly, the European economic operators involved in acquisitions for biofuel crops show significantly lower probability of being certified. Therefore, the EU sustainability criteria seem to be ineffective in guaranteeing and verifying the sustainability of the European land investments in Africa. Joint efforts by European Union, Member States, target Countries and private sector operators are necessary to prevent the negative effects of land acquisitions on local stakeholders and the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite its vast natural resources, African is facing serious challenges in sustainable development in an energy sector, if addressed with dispatch could not only check its indispensable needs, but also mitigate some global phenomenon at stake, such as desertification, environmental degradation and green house emission. This paper reviews the prospects of four major renewable energy sources-hydro, solar, wind and biomass- for each of the three leading countries in Africa namely South Africa, Egypt and Nigeria. Based on literature survey of energy efficiency, all the three countries encourage energy efficiency in varying degrees. In the course of this review, several national energy policy frameworks of these countries were looked into, especially on how African countries could overcome the persistent energy crisis in the continent by utilizing the naturally gifted renewable energy sources. This could only be achievable if proper technology, awareness and skills for harnessing the resources are provided. Also lingering energy challenges such as energy efficiency measures, needs for grid extension, energy storage technology and seasonal variation were carefully highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper extends the work of Al-Mulali and Ozturk (2015) [1] by re-investigating the Environment Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis for 15 MENA (Middle East and North African) countries using the Ecological Footprint (EF) as a proxy of environmental degradation over the period 1975–2007. Unlike the existing studies, we augment the basic EKC relationship by considering life expectancy at birth, fertility rate and political institutional index variables as new possible determinants of environmental degradation. The estimation of this relationship has been conducted for all MENA 15 countries, for oil-exporting and non-oil-exporting countries sub-samples. The results show that energy use worsens ecological footprint, whereas real GDP per capita exhibits an inverted U-shaped relationship with EF in oil-exporting countries and in the sample as a whole, i.e., the EKC hypothesis is validated. For the non-oil-exporting countries, the relationship between EF and economic growth is U-shaped. Moreover, our findings show that socio-demographic variables such as urbanization, life expectancy at birth and fertility rate improve the environment in the long term. We also found that the improvement of political institutions in those countries has not been accompanied by a reduction of environmental stress. The Granger causality results support evidence of the existence of an error correction mechanism between the EF, real GDP, energy use and the fertility rate. Specifically, in the short term, we found strong evidence for bidirectional causality among the ecological, real GDP and energy-use variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Nigeria is endowed with abundant energy resources, both conventional and renewable, which can potentially provide the country with a sufficient capacity to meet the ambitions of both urban and rural Nigerians of a full, nationwide electrification level. Yet, Nigeria has one of the lowest consumption rates of electricity per capita in Africa. With the demand superseding the generation, there is inequitable access of rural communities to the electricity service in the country. There are inherent obstacles militating against the effective implementation of an orderly energy policy in Nigeria. The inefficiencies overshadowing the allocation of energy resources coupled with the near depletion of fossil fuels, make it imperative for the country to exploit its huge natural renewable resources to avoid a worsening energy supply scenario and provide feasible electricity to rural dwellers. This paper presents a review of renewable energy potentials in Nigeria to be tapped for useful and uninterrupted electric energy supply. The extent of renewable energy resources is described and existing government policies are articulated. Various polices, that could possibly incentivize the realization of wider renewable energy applications in rural Nigeria, are proposed. The challenges and future prospects of renewable energy are also discussed. Dissemination of decentralized renewable energy resources will not only improve the wellbeing of rural Nigerian communities, but also enhance Nigeria's energy and economic prospects for potential global investment. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The term "circular economy" has become more prevalent over the last decade, especially in the areas of sustainability, resource management and productivity. Globally, more national, public and private sector organizations are considering the concept in their daily operations. With growing concerns about the impacts of climate change, there are equally growing debates about curbing the impacts. One such debate is to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. This paper reviewed existing literature relevant to Africa's energy transition – whether it is enabled and can be guided by the principles of a circular economy. Various journal articles and business studies published between 2009 and 2019 were reviewed using a Systematic Literature Review Process. The study found that Africa's energy demand is expected to increase significantly, and it will be driven by industrialization and population growth. Most of sub-Saharan Africa's energy supply comes from renewable energy sources, while countries such as Algeria, Nigeria, Morocco, South Africa and Egypt (the Big Five) are still heavily dependent on fossil fuels. The researchers concluded that a circular economy approach can enable greater renewable energy uptake and transitioning. To support and enable a sustainable energy transition, regional finance institutions such as the African Development Bank and governments, can continue to finance more scalable technologies and adopt 'intentional' regulations which are guided by circular principles and a just-transition. Although data pertaining to how the transition can be underpinned by circularity is limited, there is great opportunity for more scientific and industry research that can provide further contextualized support. • The African Development Bank will no longer finance coal projects from 2020. • Africa's Big Five economies predominantly use fossil fuels such as coal and oil. • Positive economic growth and increasing energy demand are forecasted for the continent between 2030 and 2050. • Africa can leapfrog the transition from fossil fuel to renewable energy sources to sustainably address these forecasts. • Adopting and contextualising Circular Economy principles and models can optimise the energy transition. • However, more research is required to further unpack how this can be done across Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]