Wood Energy in Africa: the next gold rush?

 

 

 

 

Will Africa’s gargantuan wood energy potential turn the continent into the Wild, Wild West?

“Africa’s green energy future!  — BIOMASS IS BIG BUSINESS – the new multi-billion dollar industry”

 

 

 

 

 

OPINION

We were happy to read that entrepreneurs in West and Central Africa are training their sights on wood energy, one of the continent’s most promising sources of renewable energy for low-carbon economic and social growth.

After all, it was only a few weeks ago that we were bemoaning the absence of interest in the sector from high level policy-makers. To be clear, we think wood-energy holds tremendous potential to fill a large portion of Africa’s energy needs, including the need for navigable quantities of sustainably-produced charcoal for domestic consumption.

Whether or not this becomes reality will depend on the willingness of policy-makers to take on the serious business of cleaning a host of regulatory cobwebs that make it difficult for entrepreneurs to invest in sustainable solid biomass projects for domestic and productive energy. The outside world (read multi-lateral institutions and trade organizations) also have a responsibility to ensure that any trade in wood energy coming from Africa adheres to the highest standards of social and environmental responsibility.

Recent news out of Uganda about the displacement of tens of thousands of people from their land to make space for large-scale biofuel plantations raises question about governmental oversight and corporate social responsibility on the part of of foreign investors. Alas, we’ve seen this story before. Let’s hope it’s not history repeating itself.

It is all the more urgent that African nations, with the help of appropriate international agencies, begin putting place the regulatory framework that will lead to the responsible and sustainable exploitation of wood energy resources in the context of low-carbon economic growth and high-value export generation.

Although there was no mention of any social and environmental components in their marketing materials, we hope that the organizers of the Biomass West & Central Africa Congress 2011 will make the sustainable sourcing of wood energy a central pillar of their November event.