POLICY SPRINT: BUILDING A BIOFUELS INDUSTRY IN AFRICA
ISSUE BRIEF
Atlantic Council
GLOBAL ENERGY CENTER
ISSUE BRIEF
Policy Sprint:
Building a Biofuels Industry in Africa JUNE 2023
INTRODUCTION
The Atlantic Council Global Energy Center develops and promotes pragmatic and nonpartisan policy solutions designed to advance global energy security, enhance economic opportunity, and accelerate pathways to net-zero emissions.
ATLANTIC COUNCIL
MAIA SPARKMAN, WILLIAM TOBIN, AND MAXWELL ZANDI
M
any African nations are faced with simultaneous development imperatives to achieve a high-growth, low-carbon economy, while increasing access to modern energy services. Expansion of the biofuels industry across the continent, particularly in regions outside of North Africa, could potentially serve as a solution, albeit a partial one, to support these imperatives. When produced in localized or regionalized supply chains, biofuels—which are made from plants and other biological materials—can serve as a clean energy source to meet two fundamental needs of developing economies in African regions: transportation and—perhaps less intuitively— cooking. However, ensuring the availability of crops for food security is a prerequisite for expanding the biofuels industry. Dovetailing with this development scenario is the rise in global demand for alternative sources of clean energy and a resulting expansion of the biofuels market. Worldwide production of biofuels has climbed steadily in recent years, and demand is expected to increase by 28 percent by 2026.1 To support both emissions reductions in transport and greater access to clean cooking, the sector will need to grow even more, and countries in sub-Saharan Africa are well-positioned to meet this need. Countries in this region are home to 60 percent of the world’s remaining uncultivated arable land, or around six hundred million hectares.2 As such, these countries have the potential to develop low-cost biofuel feedstocks using crops that farmers already grow in the region, such as sugarcane, cassava, soybean, and sunflower. Additionally, to avoid 1
“Biofuels,” International Energy Agency, December 2021, https://www.iea.org/reports/renewables-2021/ biofuels?mode=transport&region=World&publication=2021&flow=Consumption&product=Biodiesel.
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Matthew Rochat, “The War in Ukraine and Food Security in Africa,” E-International Relations, December 14, 2022, https://www.e-ir.info/2022/12/14/opinion-the-war-in-ukraine-and-food-security-in-africa/.
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