Cost, environmental impact and the resilience of renewable energy under a changing climate in Africa

The heavy reliance on fossil fuels in Africa to attain and sustain economic prosperity and the attendant negative environmental consequences have now been ubiquitously recognized as an undeniable threat to achieving SDG Goal 13 – Climate Action: taking urgent actions to tackle climate change and its variegated impacts on our planet. Presently, Africa is the most vulnerable region to the impacts of climate change. Severe climate-induced environmental and economic challenges have triggered endemic poverty which has blurred the horizon of the continent's development trajectories. This paper aims to examine the cost, environmental impact and resilience of renewable energy under a changing climate in Africa. The descriptive quantitative method of data analysis
was employed using secondary data summarized and presented in charts and tables. Findings show that renewable energy sources are abundantly available, but poorly and inadequately exploited in Africa. The evidence further confirmed that while Africa has the most abundant renewable energy resources, its renewable energy utilization is the least developed. It is further established that renewable energy technology costs in Africa have decreased significantly since 2010 with the cost of solar and wind-generated electricity per kilowatt-hour in 2021 being lower than those of fossil fuels. While it is estimated that almost all renewable energy sources have exclusively positive environmental effects, the negative effects associated with some can be mitigated through careful choice and utilization. We recommend that investment in renewable energy in Africa should be accelerated and funded to address the current climate and environmental challenges facing Africa, African national governments should address the key issue of cost in the energy transition process and policy reforms by internalizing the environmental and economic costs of different energy types in the transition
agenda.