Developing nations and renewable energy

Last week as part of my studies, I took part in a mock COP21 debate, which saw us become delegates from each country, who were to come together and decide on emissions cuts to mitigate anthropogenic climate change. The debates ended up highlighting some interesting things – one of which being that developing nations seemingly held little ability to cut their own emissions, mainly limited by funding.

In reality, this is avoided through overseas investment and in recent weeks there have been some major advancements in renewable energy projects funded through foreign investment. For example, Skytron energy has just been commissioned to supervise the ‘Oriana’ solar power plant in Puerto Rico which has been active since September. This plant provides power for 12,000 homes and has a net carbon displacement of 95,000 tons of CO2 per year. This shows that despite having limited funding, developing nations can join the push for renewable energy.

Morocco similarly has had a huge amount of investment from overseas into renewable energy. Around $3.9bn has been invested into the Ouarzazate solar complex which has come from German investment bank KfW, the World Bank and European Investment Bank. This has led to the creation of the 160MW plant, which is being expanded to a total 350MW added to the national grid. In combination with investment in wind power of a further 850MW, this will help to reach Morocco’s aim for 52% renewable electricity generation by 2030.

These plans show that the developing world is not separate to renewable energy, but can use it to develop as exemplar countries with high levels of renewable energy generation. Indeed, Morocco’s wind power plants expect to produce electricity at $0.03 per kWh, which will also help to develop the country through lower energy prices. Perhaps then the argument to allow developing nations to emit as much as they like, due to their lower ability to adapt to new energy systems and their lack of responsibility for past emissions, can be revoked. Many developing nations have land ripe for providing renewable energy, with countries like Morocco prime examples of this – with high solar insolation aiding the implementation of solar power.

As suggested in a previous blog post, one solution to the renewable energy debates is to create a global network of renewable energy, using each energy source in its most efficient location. This in a sense is already being applied with foreign investment funding projects such as those discussed, and perhaps one way for developing nations to pay for these power plants is to provide energy to the funding country, once enough energy is produced for the hosting country. Obviously this is a long way off, but it offers a way for developing nations to hold greater power in global debates such as those at the COP21 meeting.