Abstract
Heavy reliance on traditional biomass for household energy in eastern Africa has significant negative health and environmental impacts. The African context for energy access is rather different from historical experiences elsewhere as challenges in achieving energy access have coincided with major climate ambitions. Policies focusing on household energy needs in eastern Africa contribute to at least three sustainable development goals (SDGs): climate action, good health, and improved energy access. This study uses an integrated assessment model to simulate the impact of land policies and technology subsidies, as well as the interaction of both, on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, exposure to air pollution and energy access in eastern Africa under a range of socioeconomic pathways. We find that land policies focusing on increasing the sustainable output of biomass resources can reduce GHG emissions in the region by about 10%, but also slightly delay progress in health and energy access goals. An optimised portfolio of energy technology subsidies consistent with a global Green Climate Funds budget of 30–35 billion dollar, can yield another 10% savings in GHG emissions, while decreasing mortality related to air pollution by 20%, and improving energy access by up to 15%. After 2030, both land and technology policies become less effective, and more dependent on the overall development path of the region. The analysis shows that support for biogas technology should be prioritised in both the short and long term, while financing liquefied petroleum gas and ethanol technologies also has synergetic climate, health and energy access benefits. Instead, financing PV technologies is mostly relevant for improving energy access, while charcoal and to a lesser extend fuelwood technologies are relevant for curbing GHG emissions if their finance is linked to land policies. We suggest that integrated policy analysis is needed in the African context for simultaneously reaching progress in multiple SDGs.
Highlights
Heavy reliance on traditional biomass for household energy in developing countries has significant negative health and environmental impacts (Masera et al, 2015), a problem that is especially acute in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)
10 With 46% of current projects being directed to Africa, this would translate to 12.5-14.5 billion USD being directed to Africa, of which 3.5 billion USD could potentially be focused on eastern Africa which represents about a quarter of the African population
We see that each scenario is in line with global trends with respect to developing regions: Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy access levels increase over time, while relative mortality decreases over time due to a decreasing exposure to indoor air pollution
Summary
Heavy reliance on traditional biomass for household energy in developing countries has significant negative health and environmental impacts (Masera et al, 2015), a problem that is especially acute in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Average GHG emissions per capita in eastern Africa are still relatively low (about 1/3 those of China and 1/6 those of the United States by 2010), but emissions per unit of final energy are relatively high (about 3 times those of China and the United States) (IEA, 2017; Janssens-Maenhout et al, 2017) This is mainly due to the reliance on traditional biomass, which, apart from the land use change emissions due to unsustainable production, causes large amounts of fugitive emissions when combusted (Masera et al, 2015). Ambient air pollution (AAP) is an increasing problem in the region, leading to around 32,000 premature deaths per year by 2015, expected to increase in the decades
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