sectoral economic costs and benefits of ghg mitigation - IPCC

Garba G. Dieudonne
The us of renewable energy can result in significant social, economic, and non-GHG
environmental benefits. It dramatically improves rural life by providing high quality light. By
reducing the need to store and burn kerosene for lighting, it improves household health and
safety. The systems also facilitate access to information and entertainment via radio and
television. Furthermore, socio-economic impact studies have found that many of the systems
contribute to income generation.
New jobs in rural areas
The use of renewable energy technologies will create numerous new jobs in almost all sectors,
including the services sectors. New jobs in small-scale industries and agriculture, many more
jobs than the underlying industries for traditional forms of energy are able to offer.
The introduction of renewable energy would help reduce unemployment of young people in dry
season and limit the rate of migration. The number of persons employed in cooperatives, NGOs,
Community-based organizations (CBOs) and local private sectors would double. However, the
introduction of renewable energy would result in new development and production activities not
just for the production of renewable energy systems themselves, but also systems designed to
exploit renewable energy technologies. This would provide new impetus for the manual trades
and small-scale industries.
Proliferation of NGOs and CBOs
The proliferation of NGOs and CBOs would promote renewable energy sources in rural areas of
the African continent. Their activities would be focused on information, sensibilization,
education, training and dissemination of new, renewable energy technologies.
Opportunities
Introduction of renewable energy would provide an opportunity to reduce administration costs.
Security regulation is needed for renewable energy plants, but no need for emission standards
and waste disposal regulations. Administrative regulations would be needed for the use of
biomass. The more renewable energy is introduced, the lower administrative costs would be for
public and corporate interests.
Foreign exchange gains and elimination of subsidies
Many countries face a problem of balance of payment deficits. By mobilizing renewable energy
potentials, it could dramatically increase the percentage of domestically produced energy. In
doing so, the country would create a large measure of energy security, as it is an important
decentralized and political-neutral energy source.
Agricultural gains
Renewable energy use in Africa would not only mean less pressure on land than in the case of
traditional energy forms, in many cases it would also result in land improvement. With intelligent
use of photovoltaic energy in irrigation systems, it would be possible to mobilize dormant plant
potentials in desert regions in Sahel and counteract the trend towards the destruction of plant
species.
The use of renewable energy sources in Africa will doubtless result in a considerable
improvement in the general level of health especially that of women and children. The example
of solar energy in Sahel would help to protect the fragile ecosystems. It provides the
decentralized areas with opportunities for the economic and ecological humanization for
administrative and social reforms which cannot be implemented under current conditions.
Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) could accelerate dissemination
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