Western Greens to Africa: We know what is best for you

“Many refugees are fleeing Islamist persecution in Libya and the Sahel but as Dr Kandeh Yumkella, UN under-secretary-general, told the BBC, the ‘long-term push factors’ that are driving people to make the ‘miserable journey’ include the lack of energy in sub-Saharan Africa.

“Without abundant fuel and power, prosperity is impossible: workers cannot amplify their productivity, doctors cannot preserve vaccines, students cannot learn after dark, goods cannot get to market. Nearly 700 million Africans rely mainly on wood or dung to cook and heat with, and 600 million have no access to electric light. Britain with 60 million people has nearly as much electricity-generating capacity as the whole of sub-Saharan Africa, minus South Africa, with 800 million.

“As the International Energy Agency recently put it in a recent report, ‘increasing access to modern forms of energy is crucial to unlocking faster economic and social development in sub-Saharan Africa’. Africa is awash with fossil fuels — but not the capital to build plants to turn them into electricity.”

http://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/electricity-for-africa.aspx

Link at http://chicagoboyz.net/