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US climate envoy John Kerry warned African nations last week not to rely too much on natural gas in their efforts to modernize and bring electricity to millions of people.
Speaking on the sidelines of a conference of African environment ministers in Dakar, Senegal, Kerry told Reuters that gas can be used in the short term to transition to cleaner energy sources.
US climate envoy John Kerry speaks during an interview with a Reuters reporter in Dakar, Senegal on September 15, 2022.
(REUTERS/Christophe Van Der Perre)
“We’re not saying there’s no gas,” Kerry said. “What we’re saying is that over the next few years, gas will replace coal or oil.”
His comments addressed a critical issue for Senegal and other energy-poor nations in Africa. According to the International Energy Agency, more than 600 million people, almost half of Africa’s population, do not have electricity.
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Many African nations say developing their oil and gas resources is critical to boosting electricity production, fueling industries and curbing energy poverty. However, many developed nations, including the United States, are holding back investments in fossil fuels to keep their pledge to transition to cleaner energy by the end of the decade.
“We don’t have to rush to go back, we have to be very careful about exactly how much we’re going to deploy, how it’s going to be paid for, over what period of time and how we capture the emissions.” Kerry said.
President Biden appointed Kerry to lead the State Department’s global climate policy outreach shortly after taking office in January 2021. Since then, Kerry has flown around the world to United Nations climate conferences (UN), to meetings with international heads of state and to the World Economy. Annual Meeting of the Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland.
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Federal data obtained by Fox News in July showed that Kerry’s family plane had emitted 300 metric tons of carbon dioxide since the Biden administration began.
Fox News’ Thomas Catenacci contributed to this report.
