Sustainable energy access in Mozambique and South Africa

In Mozambique, Indian credit lines have enabled the country to build its first solar PV module manufacturing plant which may help to reduce imports in the longer term.  Many of these firms have been drawn by the ‘pull’ of a favourable policy and investment environment (such as RE-IPPPP in South Africa) or have been ‘pushed out’ by saturated domestic markets and intense competition domestically.

The ‘rising powers’ are also pursuing a myriad of different energy developments in each country (including some around high carbon energy resources such as coal and gas) which may serve to further entrench high carbon development pathways. It is also not the case that ‘rising power’ actors are now completely dominant or exclusively determining the path of low carbon development – established actors (such as European bilateral donors) remain significant whilst actors from other emerging economies (such as South Korea) are also playing an important role. In our research we found that attributing involvement or project ownership in RETs to any one ‘rising power’ can be problematic given that many ‘rising power’ companies are themselves bound up in wider transnational networks (of construction firms, renewable energy development companies, technology providers and national and international investment coalitions). Our work thus highlights the importance of tracking emerging global value chains and production networks around RET’s to better understand these complex economic geographies.

Has there been some controversy surrounding this?

The increasing presence of the ‘rising powers’ in Africa (especially China) has attracted considerable attention and some controversy in recent years with some debate about their roles as ‘new’ development donors and the impacts this is having on key challenges facing the continent around, for example, poverty reduction, democracy and sustainable development. Some observers have referred to a new ‘scramble for Africa’ as the ‘rising powers’ compete for strategic influence in the continent and the spectre of imperialism has loomed large over many of these debates with some commentators arguing that their interventions constitute a contemporary form of colonialism. Many of these narratives are however rather simplistic and often stem from a fundamental misunderstanding of the ‘rising powers’ themselves and the nature of their states and economies or from fears about what this may mean for the declining influence and significance of western donors and companies.

It is becoming clear however that the rise of Southern investors and donors like China, India and Brazil and the growing importance of South-South technology transfer is beginning to change the face of international development co-operation.

In Mozambique there has also been some concern about ‘rising power’ investments in high carbon resources like coal and gas (and in particular around how much the revenues generated will benefit ordinary people) whilst some of the large scale energy access solutions proposed by the Mozambican government and involving ‘rising power’ companies (e.g. large scale hydro-power projects) have been contested by community groups and civil society organisations who have highlighted the social and ecological destruction that they will cause or the lack of popular participation in their planning and design.

Who are the stakeholders in low carbon development in South Africa and Mozambique?

Low carbon development encompasses a complex mix of stakeholders from the public, private, national and international and political and economic spheres. Within each of the ‘rising powers’ there are a wide variety of central and local state agencies involved along with quasi-state agencies (such as export-import banks and credit agencies). There are also a wide variety of non-state actors including a panoply of private firms concerned with both high and low carbon energy sources and technologies.

Different firms and sections of the state within each of these ‘rising powers’ are engaging with different actors in each country in ways which defy simplistic narratives and explanations.  In Mozambique and South Africa there are a range of different state agencies involved (concerned with development and different elements of the energy system). Industrial energy consumers also represent an important constituency here in shaping the nature of each country’s energy system as do national and international NGOs, established European development donors and transnational agencies like the World Bank. Regional development agencies like the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) also have a growing interest in energy access and low carbon transition along with pan-African organisations like the African Union who have sought to mobilise investment in renewables.

One of the most significant (and often most neglected) stakeholders are the communities concerned who have in many cases had limited opportunities to participate in energy planning and discussions around what and who energy is ultimately for. This is particularly true of Mozambique where electricity provision has historically been highly centralised and ‘top down’ with relatively few opportunities for community participation in planning, design and decision-making around energy.  

Who will benefit from these new energy transitions?

This question of who will benefit from the emerging low carbon energy transitions unfolding in the region is absolutely key. There is no question that ‘rising power’ companies have found lucrative opportunities in emerging African markets like South Africa and stand to gain a great deal from these forms of technology transfer and infrastructure development. In terms of geopolitics, South-South trade flows and development cooperation of this kind have enabled the ‘rising powers’ to both widen their spheres of strategic influence on the continent but also to gain greater access to high carbon energy resources like coal and gas which are necessary to fuel their own domestic development. Consequently, there remain concerns that some of the principal beneficiaries to date have been states and business elites and that there have been relatively few benefits so far in terms of poverty reduction and sustainable development in Southern Africa. In our research we have argued that in order to fully understand this question of  ‘who benefits’ it is necessary to better comprehend the specific political, economic and historical contexts of Mozambique and South Africa and the nature of the state (and the interests that they represent) in both countries. Key questions remain around the affordability of energy services given recent electricity tariff increases but also around the longer term sustainability of these energy technologies given the limited evidence of capacity building and skills development (e.g. in relation to the maintenance of RETs in Mozambique). There are also a variety of issues raised by the simultaneous pursuit of both low and high carbon development pathways and the tensions and contradictions that this generates.