Efficient Electrical End-Use Technologies for Mitigating Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Africa

Abstract

International concern about the impacts of global warming has resulted in cooperative activity among developed and developing nations to address the issue. Already, developed countries have agreed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2000. At the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC), developed countries agreed to meet the incremental costs of reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases. One possible avenue for effecting the provisions of the FCCC is joint implementation (31) projects involving developed and developing countries. This article looks at a sample of African countries that are at different levels of development. It identifies resource options that, when used in an integrated resource planning context, prove to be cost effective as well as environmentally benign. It investigates these options, particularly energy efficient appliances and compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), in terms of their effects on the planning and operations of electric utilities and on their emission of global warming gases. The authors hope that the article will be helpful in developing criteria for selecting and prioritizing JI projects. It focuses on Africa because it appears that, unlike Asia and Latin America, the least amount of information has been published for this continent in general.