The Rising Powers, Clean Development and the Low Carbon Transition in Sub-Saharan Africa

The involvement of Rising Powers in clean energy systems in sub-Saharan Africa is often obscured by popular images of resource- and land-grabs. Seeking to engage more closely with a number of African states, businesses and communities in pursuit of diverse economic and political goals, the Rising Powers have increasingly come to incorporate renewable energy projects into their aid and loan portfolios in Africa. The depth, drivers, and outcomes of this activity are complex and contested in terms of both development and the implications for international energy and climate governance. This interdisciplinary research project seeks to examine how, why and to what extent China and Brazil are enabling the transition to low carbon energy systems in Southern Africa and to assess the consequent implications for the affordability, accessibility and sustainability of energy services in the region. The project will develop new frameworks for analysis in order to systematically compare the roles that China and Brazil are playing in facilitating the transition to low carbon energy systems in Africa and in particular will analyse how they are shaping the provision of energy services for productive uses (e.g. for cooking, lighting and mobility). Further, the project also seeks to assess the implications for the wider governance of energy and climate change at the local, national, regional and global scales. Empirically, the research project will seek to understand the Rising Powers engagement with African energy systems by looking at the range of actors, institutions, partnerships and policy-making processes involved and by identifying the key interests and beneficiaries being served by this co-operation. Using a combination of semi-structured interviews and community-based participatory research methods the research will also explore the dynamics of the transitions being created and enabled by China and Brazil in Southern Africa, which are uneven and differentiated technically, socially and spatially. Across the region they have each championed different technology sectors and energy services. Their impacts are also socially differentiated in that patterns of Chinese and Brazilian investment, innovation and infrastructure development benefit particular groups of society and have differential impacts on poverty and livelihoods. Further, the impacts China and Brazil are having on low carbon transitions appear to be spatially differentiated, not just between different countries in sub-Saharan Africa but also between urban and rural spaces within these countries. Thus the project seeks to examine the consequences of these dynamics for key issues of energy access and affordability, and in relation to wider development strategies.

Addressing three of the ESRC Rising Powers programme objectives (namely 'sustainability and competitiveness', 'well-being and equity' and 'global governance') the project will thus produce detailed knowledge on the nature of Rising Power's investment, innovation and infrastructure development in the renewable energy sector in Southern Africa. It will also provide a detailed analysis of how South-South technology transfer and technology cooperation between the Rising Powers and Africa can work, including insights about the implications for innovation capacity, the appropriateness of specific technologies and the impact of current investment strategies which will be of particular use for government and the private sector, within and outside the region. Involving collaborations with UK government departments, with academic research partners in Brazil and China and with partners from the academic and NGO community in Southern Africa the project seeks to build capacity, to foster knowledge exchange and policy dialogue and to build cross-disciplinary and transnational research networks concerned with the role of the Rising Powers in facilitating low carbon transitions in sub-Saharan Africa.

The likely beneficiaries include government, private and civil society organisations. It will be of relevance to international policy initiatives with which we have links, including the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership, the Global Network on Energy for Sustainable Development, the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st century, the Clean Technology Fund of the World Bank, the South African Renewables Initiative and the Scaling Up Renewable Energy Programme for low income countries. It will also be of potential benefit to national, local and regional governments in China, Brazil, Mozambique and South Africa, and the UK as they seek to develop the low carbon transition alongside improving access to energy services in the region. We have established links with DECC and DfID to ensure that the research reaches these critical decisions makers, and will work with our partners to communicate our research findings to the Ministry of Mines and Energy (Brazil), the National Energy Commission (China), the Ministry of Energy (Mozambique), the Mozambique National Fund for Rural Electrification, the Department of Energy (South Africa), the South African National Energy Agency and the Southern Africa Development Community.

The project will be relevant to companies working in the energy sector (generation, infrastructure development, renewable energy technologies, energy suppliers), including those based in China and Brazil (e.g. Yingli Solar, LongYuan Power Group, Camargo Correa), Southern Africa (e.g. The Clean Energy Company, Electricidade de Moçambique, Eskom) and UK companies who may engage in the emerging market for renewable energy in the region (e.g. Renewable Energy Systems, Sun Biofuels). It will be of interest to civil society organisations concerned with achieving affordable, accessible low carbon energy services, including international organisations such as Practical Action, Oxfam, Action Aid and South African and Mozambican organisations such as the Mozambican Action Group on Renewable Energies and Sustainable Development (GED), Sustainable Energy Africa and the Sustainable Energy Society of Southern Africa (SESSA). We have links with several of these organisations, and will seek to extend our as set out in our pathways to impact plan. We will specifically seek to engage with local communities through our participatory action research. Over the medium-long term, we expect the project will deliver the following principle benefits:

(1) Enhanced capacity to deliver the low carbon transition and affordable energy services in Southern Africa. The project will enhance capacity by: (a) developing the research capacity and skills of two leading organisations; (b) enhancing the knowledge base of a wide range of stakeholders operating in the region; (c) developing a community-based planning toolkit to realise the benefits of low carbon energy technologies in conjunction with development goals.
(2) Contributing to improved energy service and investment decisions in Southern Africa. The project will create insights regarding appropriate technologies and business models for meeting the energy service needs of communities and ensuring a low carbon transition in Southern Africa. Given the rapid rate of growth of energy service needs, this has the potential to foster new forms of green growth in the region, which could have benefits to UK companies seeking to engage in this market.
(3) Fostering effective policy-decisions for the international community and UK Government. Project findings will provide an indication of the potential synergies and conflicts between strategies for ensuring affordable energy services and for developing low carbon energy systems. It will also identify where the UK can add value and differentiate its contribution from other interventions in the region on these policy issues, contributing to the UK's strategic priority of realising low carbon transitions in developing economies.