With the average surface temperature on earth the warmest on record in 2024 having unleashed some of the worst floods, fires and hurricanes, I can’t help wondering why the hell are we telling Africans fossil fuels are their future.
But you know something, Energy Secretary Chris Wright just might be telling it like it is or how else are Africans going to bring electricity to more than 600 million people on their continent still without it.
No, our highest-ranking energy communicator may not just be whistling in the dark when cheering for fossil fuels as their future. Wright may be right on the money when it comes to a continent loaded with them but still way behind the energy eightball.
Anyway, that’s what our energy secretary told African leaders the other day who had come to the nation’s capital worried how on earth they’re going to cool off.
Today, many are retooling operations for the Trump era’s embracing fossil fuels full throttle as a solution to our growing energy needs.
Billionaire Bill Gates just announced deep cuts in an operation he funds called Breakthrough Energy, involved in a sprawling range of climate issues.
Secretary Wright’s remarks struck a gusher of encouragement and relief when he assured African leaders to let fossil fuels come to their rescue.
His motivating talk at a hotel a block from the White House raised the spirits of energy ministers and tech founders from across Africa who were feeling whipsawed by cuts to longstanding African energy initiatives.
African leaders liked what they heard having come to the nation’s capital to find the fastest way to bring electricity to millions or Africans living dangerously without it, especially now after President Trump has terminated Power Africa, a major initiative that had supported the continent for a decade.
Was Mr. Trump abandoning them? Hell no, says Wright
In his view Trump’s promises of “global energy dominance” will have the opposite effect. For Africa, he predicts it will be a boon!
Wright gave an impassioned speech on how concerns over climate change should not prevent Africa from charging ahead full steam on a full course of fossil fuel development.
“This government has no desire to tell you what you should do with your energy system,” he said. “It’s a paternalistic post-colonial attitude that I just can’t stand.”
His remarks came just weeks after the administration shuttered Power Africa financing tens of millions of electricity connections since its start in 2023 under President Barack Obama.
Like the rest of the world, Africa faces an immensely consequential choice: exploit fossil fuels that contribute to global warming or forge a new path with renewable energy. Wright said Africa simply needs energy from all sources, including one of the most polluting of fossil fuels, coal.
“We’ve had years of Western countries shamelessly saying don’t develop coal, coal is bad,” Wright said. “That’s just nonsense. Coal transformed our world and made it better.”
And while Wright said climate change was a “real, physical phenomenon,” he said it wouldn’t make his list of top 10 problems the world faces.
Wright’s speech was met with roaring approval. His remarks were in line with what many African energy developers have been urging for years.
They say that Western skittishness to invest in energy projects over concerns about greenhouse gas emissions, is akin to keeping Africa darkly deprived as its population is growing faster than current electrification rates.
Instead of clean energy, officials believe they should opt for their own abundant supplies of fossil fuels. And in a way I have to say that does make sense given their countries have contributed little so far to what’s causing our global warming.
So, here’s my takeaway.
While I understand why Wright’s so gung-ho on fossil fuel, I worry that climate change doesn’t even make his top 10 list of global problems.
Still, for a continent as far behind the eightball on energy as Africa, I have to say fossil fuels of which they have an abundance does make sense.
But that doesn’t change the fact that climate change is real and becoming a bigger threat every year. For America and other more developed parts of the world, I advocate a blend of fossil fuels like oil (petroleum), and certainly natural gas, and yes, even the one I’m least crazy about, coal, certainly in Africa.
Yet, for the good of our planet and people’s lungs, I want to see more emphasis on renewable energy sources like solar, wind, hydropower, geothermal, biomass, and definitely nuclear power.
It’s why I created Planetary Lifeguard, to blow the whistle on climate change.
Why? Because it’s happening too fast and coming on too strong especially for us who live near warming, rambunctious oceans as I do in Florida with another hurricane season just ahead.
Tom Madden is an author whose latest book, his sixth, is Planetary Lifeguard. When he’s not writing books and blogs at www.maddenmischief.com, he’s managing his international PR firm, TransMedia Group, which just opened an office in London, together with his resourceful daughter, Adrienne Mazzone, the President, and his beautiful Brazilian wife, Rita, the CFO.