During his annual whirlwind tour of Clinton Foundation humanitarian projects in Africa, which ended Monday, former U.S. President Bill Clinton sat down with National Geographic News's David Braun in Kigali, Rwanda, for a conversation on how African leaders can unite to fight the energy, climate, and food crises and how the continent is so much more than the disasters that often define it in the media. (Hear the full interview.)
Africa is perhaps more vulnerable than other continents to the food, energy, and climate crises. But can Africa also provide part of the global solution to these problems?
I am trying to work on all three of them. And I am trying to convince Africa that the energy crisis and climate change and Africa's capacity to develop its economy through agriculture and to improve the health of their people through nutrition should be pursued in tandem.
Africans should realize that they might actually be able to skip a stage of development. They don't have to go through the carbon-intensive phase. They can't afford it, unless they have their own oil resources.
A lot of the modeling that's been done about bad things that are going to happen as a result of global warming shows that the biggest consequences in the early phases … will happen in Africa and in other places surrounding the Equator. So Africans have a big stake in avoiding this.
Wherever possible Africa should maximize the use of small-scale solar and wind energy.
In the rapidly urbanizing areas of Africa they should do what the Clinton Foundation has been asked to do [by local governments] in Addis Ababa [Ād s Ābeba], Ethiopia, and Lagos, Nigeria, and in non-African places like Delhi in India—to manage solid waste and municipal water systems with maximum efficiency. Recover the methane gas [released by decomposing trash], turn it into energy. Take all the organic material in landfills and compost it and either use it for energy or make fertilizer.
[Related: "Alcohol, Feces, Carcasses Fuel 'Green' Vehicles in Sweden" (June 25, 2007).]
Organic farming can get rid of the methane contribution to global warming from urban landfills and animal waste by recovering the material and reusing it as compost. [See "Global Warming Feedback Loop Caused by Methane, Scientists Say" (August 29, 2006).]
All of this helps on the energy side, on the climate change problem side, and on the food production side.
Africa is uniquely positioned to produce biofuels that do not displace the production of essential foodstuffs or raise the price of food.
Countries can grow jatropha [a plant that produces seeds containing up to 40 percent oil] on marginal lands, which produces 4 gallons [15 liters] of biofuel for every 1 gallon [4 liters] of gasoline used to produce it.
