Rethinking Access to Clean Energy for Climate Change Mitigation in Tanzania

Abstract

The effect of climate change is visibly spread with no boundaries all over the world. With multiple effects of climate change, its mitigation mechanisms vary. However, striving for universal access to affordable, reliable, and sustainable clean energy is arguably one of the significant sought mitigation strategies, especially in the context of Africa. This raises concern about whether the road to clean energy in the work of mitigating the devastating climate change is eloquent or a myth. Using ARIMA, the paper forecasted access to electricity to calibrate the reduction of over-dependence on climate change-inducing energy sources such as firewood and charcoal. The paper used time series data from 1992 to 2022, with a forecast of 10 years. The results show that climate change mitigation through clean energy is far from the reality, the level of future access cannot be used to define progress in mitigating climate change. A large percentage of people will remain unconnected while few will be disconnected due to various reasons such as unaffordability and reliability of electricity supply. Along the energy ladder, consumers are likely to remain at the base where unclean energy sources dominate. People are likely to continue with the course of depending more on unclean energy sources thus, making climate change mitigation through access to electricity a less reality, a myth in such short. An equation of the available potential resources for producing more and more reliable modern energy should be balanced by the utility supplier. Expanding the production and distribution levels should also be on a stage. The energy utility should change the monopoly system in the energy sector and embrace innovation and collaboration at large.