U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright has signaled a change that could mean the difference between life and death for millions in Africa. Speaking at the “Powering Africa Summit” in Washington, D.C., Wright told leaders of a continent of 1.5 billion people that the Trump administration “has no desire to tell you what to do with your energy system.” This is a departure from the Biden regime, which was aligned with much of the Western climate juggernaut imposing Green New Dealism on developing countries that couldn’t afford it and stood to suffer by it.
“It’s a paternalistic post-colonial attitude that I just can’t stand,” Wright said of the climate evangelism that sought to force others to abandon fossil fuels and adopt largely useless technologies like solar and wind energy.
Africa has languished under paradoxical political and economic pressures: Nations that had built their prosperity on coal, oil and natural gas have spent decades discouraging Africans from tapping their own wealth of fossil fuels. The continent was shackled by a sanctimonious agenda of Western elites who used their financial and geopolitical leverage to press Africans into a campaign against a fabricated climate crisis.
But where is the evidence for this “existential threat”? Global life expectancy has doubled since 1900, hunger rates have plummeted and climate-related deaths have dropped 98% over the past century. Predictions of global overheating are fearmongering resting on pseudoscience, and purported solutions to prevent catastrophe have no hope of working in any case.
So, these climate policies forced upon Africa aren’t environmentalism; it’s eco-imperialism that perpetuates the poverty and deprivation that only sensible energy policy can reverse. Poor education, ill-health and shortened lives would remain the lot of Africans being promised an ecological nirvana.
“If you trace the evolution of energy on the world or on a country, it is the evolution of human possibility, human opportunity, and the quality of life,” said Wright. Exactly.
Repeating his message at the Houston CERAWeek energy conference, Wright noted that millions of people use solid fuels such as wood, straw and animal dung for cooking and heating.
“The indoor air pollution from this activity alone is estimated to kill over two million people annually,” he said. Where, he asked, is the global conference to address this crisis?
Deafening is the silence from the climate establishment, which seeks to block development of natural gas deposits that would eliminate these deaths.
Roughly a billion people worldwide enjoy the comforts of modern life, consuming annually the energy equivalent of 13 barrels of oil per person, Wright said. In Africa, that figure plummets to less than one barrel per capita.
“We wear fancy clothes, mostly made out of hydrocarbons. We travel in motorized transport. The extra lucky of us fly across the world to attend conferences,” he said. Meanwhile, African women walk miles to carry fresh water, wash clothes by hand and forgo education because a lack of electric lighting precludes doing homework at night.
“Beyond the obvious scale and cost problems,” Wright said, “there is simply no physical way that wind, solar, and batteries could replace the myriad uses of natural gas.” The same goes for replacing coal and oil.
Africa sits atop a treasure of energy riches. Nigeria, Angola, Algeria and Libya are oil giants; Mozambique and Tanzania boast world-class gas fields; South Africa and Zimbabwe hold coal reserves that could power entire regions. Yet, much of this wealth is locked up by the arrogance of foreign pressure and the timidity of domestic hesitation.
Wright’s endorsement of fossil fuels is a game-changer. He has thrown open a door that was once bolted shut. His rejection of past impositions and embrace of African energy autonomy is an overdue recognition of realism and opportunity.
Abundant energy is the lifeblood of progress. Without it, Africa remains trapped in a pre-industrial limbo, its people condemned to toil in darkness while the West preaches about an imaginary crisis.
The continent’s leaders must seize this moment with unapologetic resolve. Wright’s words are a challenge for Africans to act decisively.
The African Energy Week conference at Cape Town in September, as Wright noted, will be a critical platform to connect with global investors and accelerate development. From oil rigs in the Gulf of Guinea to coal reserves in the Kalahari basin, the time to build is now. Godspeed, Africa.
Vijay Jayaraj is a Science and Research Associate at the CO2 Coalition, Fairfax, Virginia. He holds an M.S. in environmental sciences from the University of East Anglia and a postgraduate degree in energy management from Robert Gordon University, both in the U.K., and a bachelor’s in engineering from Anna University, India.
Featured Image Credit: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America
