New UN study highlights huge potential for clean energy in Africa

A new UN study has said that less than one per cent of all patent applications relating to clean energy technology have been filed in Africa.
It noted that the development highlights the opportunity for the continent to leapfrog existing fossil-fuel energy sources and in the process, cut greenhouse gas emissions and improve public health.
A UN statement on the study made available to PANA in New York on Monday, said that the study was conducted by the UN Environment Programme and the European Patent Office.
It said Africa had a huge untapped potential for generating clean energy, including enough hydroelectric power from its seven major river systems to serve the entire continent’s needs, as well as enormous potential for other energy sources such as solar, wind and geothermal.
It also said hydro power, the most commonly used renewable energy source, was estimated to be utilised at just 4.3 per cent of the continent’s total capacity.
Although recent years had seen efforts to ramp up clean energy, with North African nations leading in solar and wind categories, Kenya in geothermal, Ethiopia in hydro and Mauritius in bio-energy.
The statement said the study, entitled: “Patents and Clean Energy Technologies in Africa,” also pointed out that intellectual property and patenting in particular had been highlighted as a significant factor limiting the transfer of new clean technologies.
Intellectual property and patents limits the technologies to developing countries and identified them as a barrier to these countries meeting new emission limits for CO2 and other greenhouse gases.
According to the study, while the lack of patents filed meant CETs could be freely exploited in Africa, the lack of these patents to protect their products meant source companies might be reluctant to offer up their know-how to promote technology transfer.
The statement also quoted UNEP spokesperson, Nick Nutall, as stating that the development and transfer of technologies were key pillars in mitigating the causes of climate change and adapting to its effects and that patents were a crucial part of this process.
Nutall also said that in addition to an accelerated response to climate change, boosting clean energy technologies had multiple green economy benefits including benefits on public health.
Nutall said that for example, in sub-Saharan Africa, more than half of all deaths from pneumonia in children under the age of five and chronic lung disease and lung cancer in adults over 30, could be attributed to solid fuel use.
The study also found that of the one per cent of identified CET-related patents filed in Africa, the majority came in from South Africa, meaning there was very little activity in the rest of the continent.
Also, only 10 per cent of African inventors apply for patent protection in Africa.
The majority tend to seek protection in four other regions: the US (27 per cent), the European Patent Office (24 per cent), Germany (13 per cent) and Canada (10 per cent).
The report further added that there were signs that the situation was changing, noting that in spite of low patent application numbers, the overall inventive activity in African countries grew by five per cent between 1980 and 2009, compared to four per cent at the global level.
With a 59 per cent increase, mitigation technologies grew most significantly in that period.
The study, however, said that Africa’s intellectual property system required further development to better support the transfer of technology that could mitigate climate change.
It, therefore, made a number of recommendations, including the development of international policies to promote CET in Africa, without having to consider significant issues relating to patent rights.
PANA/NAN.