Uganda plans to increase its clean energy capacity more than twentyfold over the next two decades in order to expand electricity access to its 45 million residents. But funding for this ambitious plan will rely on revenues from a controversial oil pipeline being built across the country.
Currently, almost all of Uganda鈥檚 electricity is generated by hydropower and solar energy. However, this existing generation provides electricity for less than half the population. The majority of Ugandans also rely on wood or charcoal for cooking fuel.
Under its energy transition plan released on 5 December at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Uganda would aim to rapidly expand clean energy and improve its grid to achieve universal access to electricity by 2030, and reduce reliance on polluting cooking fuel.
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This will involve an extraordinary expansion of clean energy to increase the east African country鈥檚 total power generation capacity from 2 gigawatts today to 52 gigawatts by 2040, a 26-fold increase in less than two decades. Solar is the main source of expanded capacity in the plan, but it also describes plans for nuclear and geothermal energy sources.
鈥淭he rate of progress to reach universal access is steep, but not unprecedented,鈥� Ruth Nankabirwa, Uganda鈥檚 minister of energy and mineral development, said during an event at COP28.
The International Energy Agency, which worked with Ugandan officials to develop the plan, calls it an 鈥溾�� to reach universal energy access, and says it is in line with the country鈥檚 commitments to reach net-zero emissions from energy by 2065.
For a variety of reasons, African countries have struggled to finance clean energy development, receiving only around 2 per cent of global clean energy investment over the past decade. To solve this problem, Uganda plans to finance its energy transition using revenue from large oil and gas reserves being developed in the country.
鈥淭he oil and gas sector, which we are developing in a sustainable way environmentally, will support us in our energy transition plan by providing the required financing,鈥� Irene Bateebe, Uganda鈥檚 permanent secretary of the ministry of energy and mineral development in October. The outlet reported these reserves are expected to yield $40 billion for Uganda鈥檚 economy over the next 25 years 鈥� but .
鈥淚 do not see how oil will help to support clean energy because the profits will be going out to powerful multinationals,鈥� says at the Civic Response on Environment and Development, a non-profit in Uganda. 鈥淚t is not known how much Uganda will earn because the contracts are shrouded in secrecy. Instead, I foresee a huge social and environmental burden that Ugandans will be exposed to in terms of destroyed ecosystems, pollution, displacement and even the likelihood of spills.鈥�
Uganda does not produce any oil currently but is building the more than 1400-kilometre to carry oil from Lake Albert in western Uganda to the port of Tanga in Tanzania, with plans to begin pumping oil in 2025. The pipeline has attracted intense controversy both because it is new fossil fuel development and because of the .
at the World Resources Institute, an environmental non-profit, applauds Uganda鈥檚 ambition, but says it highlights the challenges of financing clean energy in Africa. 鈥淢aybe this is time to rethink how to make climate finance accessible to countries like Uganda so they don鈥檛 have to use fossil fuel revenue to fund clean energy,鈥� she says.
