Africa must set the terms and the time frame for its own energy transition, said South African deputy president Paul Mashatile during a keynote address at Africa Oil Week in Cape Town.
"We recognise the need to reduce carbon emissions, but we are also committed to economic development," said Mashatile on the opening day of the conference.
"Often, we get given resources or money, and we are told we need to transition within a certain period," he said. "We must say no to that. We must be able to look at our own needs and to set our own time frames. As Africa, we must keep the lights on during the transition."
The US, the EU, the UK, France and Germany have offered 131bn rand ($8.5bn) for South Africa to accelerate its efforts to phase-out coal and decarbonise its economy. The Just Energy Transition Partnership (JET-P) was officially announced at the UN Cop 26 climate conference in Glasgow in November 2021.
It subsequently transpired that only 2.7pc of the JET-P funding package was grant money, while the rest was concessional or commercial loans, and so South Africa called on its partners to increase the portion of grants and non-debt instruments.
Developing Africa's oil and gas resources needs to be a component of the continent's energy transition, Mashatile said.
"Mineral resources are the currency that drives economic growth," he said. "Any conversation about developing Africa's resources must come from the perspective of African nations for their own benefit."
Speaking at the same conference, South Africa's minister of mineral resources and energy, Gwede Mantashe, also said that while African countries acknowledged the need for an energy transition, there had to be an "African context" to the transition.
"The energy transition cannot be an imported concept that does not apply to our African realities," Mantashe said. "We cannot be told how to develop."
Oil discoveries offshore Namibia and the Ivory Coast, as well as gas discoveries in South Africa, have proven Africa is well endowed with oil and gas deposits, he said.
But the minister deplored the fact that global developments "are such that Africa does not benefit from this endowment."
Mantashe called for a frank debate on how to ensure that "Africa and her people benefit from these deposits." Because of the extent of energy poverty across the African continent, Africa needs to think carefully about its path to a low-carbon economy, he said.
Mantashe further expressed concern that climate change was "rapidly being weaponised against the least developed."
Instead of considering the realities facing each country, climate change standards are set by developed nations and imposed on developing nations, he said.
In South Africa, "foreign-funded NGOs were being used to weaponise environmental preservation to block development," the minister claimed. "Hence we demand that these NGOs [are] registered and made to declare their source of funding as it is done with political parties."
Several exploration attempts offshore South Africa have been delayed by legal battles and fierce opposition from fishing communities and environmental activists. Shell is seeking to reinstate its right to explore for oil and gas along the country's Wild Coast in the Eastern Cape Province after it was ordered by a South African court to halt its plans.
"Africa cannot continue being a beggar of the world and an import destination for refined petroleum products while it is blessed with a plethora of oil and gas reserves," Mantashe said.
There is no better time than now for Africa to facilitate funding for the exploration of its natural resources and expand its refining capacity, he said.
