Stakes are global as Africa faces 'climate dilemma'

Choices made today on how to grow Africa's economies will determine not only if the continent prospers but if global warming can be tamed, diplomats and experts told AFP at UN climate talks in Madrid.

With two-thirds of its population lacking electricity, much of Africa's energy future remains a blank slate.

But unless the continent's leaders can forge a development pathway fuelled by clean and renewable energy, they risk following the same pollution-laden trajectory that causes two million premature deaths in India and China every year.

Growth driven by oil, gas and especially coal would also heat the planet well beyond the safety threshold dictated by science, and enshrined in the Paris climate treaty.

So far, Africa is essentially blameless when it comes to climate change. The continent is home to 17 per cent of the world's population and more than a quarter of its nations, but only accounts for four per cent of the greenhouse gas emissions pushing the planet toward runaway warming.

Remove South Africa and the oil- and gas-fuelled economies of north Africa from the picture, and the share of CO2 pollution drops to one per cent.

But this negligible carbon footprint is due mostly to poverty and underdevelopement -- something, experts say, that could rapidly change.

"Africans have not been responsible for the beginning of the story of the climate crisis, but they will have a huge impact on how the story ends," Mohamed Adow, Director of Power Shift Africa and a veteran of UN climate talks, told AFP.

"The continent is on the cusp of sweeping development that can either go down a clean energy path, or one based on fossil fuels."