China and Europe’s Energy Security in Sub-Saharan Africa: similarities and challenges

9 INTRODUCTION What does energy security mean? The International Energy Agency (IEA) definition of energy security is: “the uninterrupted availability of energy sources at affordable price”. In the short-term it means the ability to respond promptly to abrupt energy supply disruptions; while in the long-term it means encouraging and improving diversification both of energy types and supply sources. 1 Moreover, United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) claims that “Ensuring energy security will require diversification of types and sources of energy, with increasing focus on consumer needs, on indigenous energy supplies, energy efficiency and regional interconnections”. 2 The variety of the energy mix is important to reduce the dependency on fossil fuels and on oil and gas imports. Hence, investments in new technologies development and in renewable energies address both climate change and energy security issues. The bond between climate change, energy security and development is tightening up, having interlinked goals – like encouraging the usage of renewable energies aiming both in reducing greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions and diversify the energy mix. Notwithstanding how important is the impact of renewable energies on countries’ own energy security, their capacity to entirely replace fossil fuels is still a mere ambition. 3 The shares of renewable energy sources (RES) in European Union (EU) and China are increasing, contributing to diversify the 1 International Energy Agency, Energy Supply Security: Emergency Response of IEA Countries, IEA, 2014. 2 United Nations Development Programme, Sustainable Energy, http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/ourwork/environmentandenergy/focus_areas/sustainable- energy.html . 3 European Commission, Green Paper: EU development policy in support of inclusive growth and sustainable development, Brussels, 2010.