Global CO2 emission reduction policies and West African electricity system: Case for transformational access

Abstract

Based on the UN Human Development Index, the West African sub-region holds one of lowest indices in development around the world. There is a glaring need for the sub-region to increase its electricity capacity; however, stringent global CO2 policies have ‘choking’ effects on the growth of the electricity sector in energy deprived countries, like the West African Member States. This study examines the West Africa electric power sector under a range of technological, economic, and policy-related uncertainties, positing that there is the need to frame policies from the premise of ‘need’ rather than a ‘circumstantial’ perspective, which, in this study, relates to the global policies on CO2 emission reduction. Though CO2 is the inevitable by-product of combusting fossil fuels to generate electricity, it should also be viewed from the perspective of its significant benefits as regards provision of social welfare of individuals. This study evaluated the broad strategies in policy formulation and implementation (top-down versus bottom-up analysis) and applied these strategies to examine investment decision versus pricing regime and electricity system value chain (upstream versus downstream analysis). System dynamics principles were used to forecast what future consumption will look like, which shows that there would be marked increase in demand followed by increased emission without intervention. This study concludes that global CO2 policy would need to be re-considered such that energy deprived countries, like those in West Africa, would be able to implement a sustainable development agenda through growth strategy of bottom-up approach to ‘free’ their electricity system for improved living standard, irrespective of climate change issues.