RSP Books

Get any of our collections on political economy of climate change and climate justice; global politics and international relations; Africa; and Nigeria, in ebook format from the links attached:
1. CLIMATE COLONIALISM THROUGH NUMBERS AND PERSPECTIVES
https://selar.com/a21y76v4r0?currency=USD

2. CLIMATE IMPERIALISM IN AFRICA
https://selar.com/511316?currency=USD

3. CLIMATE JUSTICE IN AFRICA: IN SEARCH OF POPULAR MOVEMENT
https://selar.com/y77l71?currency=USD

4. REVOLT IN THE MAGHREB
https://selar.com/93tg47?currency=USD

5. REVOLUTIONARY PEN: COLLECTED ESSAYS ON NIGERIA AND GLOBAL POLITICAL ECONOMY
https://selar.com/766s7o?currency=USD

6. COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND FALTERING CAPITALISM: ANALYSIS AND ALTERNATIVE
https://selar.com/o54g?currency=USD

7. MISSION 300: A ROUTE TO AFRICA'S DEVELOPMENT OR JUST ANOTHER EMPTY BUZZWORD?
https://selar.com/9w858s?currency=USD

8. FIVE THESES ON NIGERIA'S 2019 ELECTIONS, AND THE BUHARI/APC GOVT.
https://selar.com/vdm6

Summary of 'Mission 300: A Route to Africa's Development or Another Wild Goose Chase?' https://selar.com/9w858s?currency=USD

Mission 300, launched by the World Bank and African Development Bank, aims to connect 300 million Africans to electricity by 2030, focusing on renewable energy. However, this initiative mainly repackages existing, underperforming projects (ASCENT, DARES, ELEAP, RESPITE) with high costs and limited success. Key insights include:
- Mission 300 lacks novelty and consolidates existing efforts without clear success metrics.
- Africa’s energy gap is huge, with 600 million people lacking electricity; yet Mission 300's clean energy contributions (~1 GW) fall far short of the estimated 450 GW needed by 2040.
- The initiative relies heavily on market-based and loan-dependent models that favor multinational corporations, leading to debt burdens and limited long-term impact.
- China’s renewable energy investments in Africa exceed Mission 300, though both models risk external economic control and limited local capacity building.
- The approach reinforces a neo-colonial structure, with minimal emphasis on technology transfer, local manufacturing, or African-centered growth.
- Genuine development requires state-led, people-centered, and regionally-coordinated strategies with robust civil society engagement.
In conclusion, Mission 300 risks repeating past failures and deepening dependency rather than driving sustainable progress.

Key Points
✓ Mission 300 repackages existing, often underperforming World Bank and AfDB projects.
✓ The initiative’s clean energy contribution (~1 GW) is far below Africa's 450 GW target by 2040.
✓ Market-based, debt-heavy models prioritize multinational profit over African development.
✓ China's energy investments in Africa exceed Mission 300 but risk similar pitfalls.
✓ Minimal technology transfer, local production, or industrial development plans exist.
✓ True progress requires state-led, regionally integrated, and people-focused strategies.
✓ Active civil society and political will are crucial to reclaim Africa's development agenda.

https://selar.com/9w858s?currency=USD

Oil Change International CDD West Africa Transnational Institute Pan African Climate Justice Alliance Greenpeace International Oxfam Oxfam in Nigeria International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) Climate Action Network-International Greenpeace Africa Global Greengrants Fund Greenpeace Nederland Natural Resource Governance Institute Corporate Accountability Oxfam Great Britain 350.org 350 Africa Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Kola Ibrahim Kola Ibrahim Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Middle East and North Africa

Preface to the book, CLIMATE IMPERIALISM IN AFRICA

(https://selar.com/511316
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0CN5BRMX2/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0)

The world is going through a turbulent time: economically, socially and politically. These crises change faces and phases at different times; sometimes they are obvious, and other times they are partially hidden. However, the biggest existential crisis facing humanity today is the ominous climate chaos, which is no respecter of social status or race. Its minimal red signals so far have shown what is in store for humanity if we fail to take decisive action.

However, while climate change does not respect geography, social status or race, its causes and effects have economic roots. The rich nations, which have amassed huge wealth from global natural capital, have also contributed hugely to the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) that have been identified since the early 1990s as a major cause of global warming and climate change.

But unlike the honeybee, which takes from nature its food but blesses the ecosystem with pollination and honey, the developed countries and industrialised and semi-developed countries have amassed so much from nature but have given little to it. Just as Marx said in his Critique of the Gotha Programme, capitalists have turned nature into their free capital, taking anything they need without replacing or paying for it. But worse still, the capitalist economic relations, with their current market fundamentalism (neoliberalism) version, have ensured that the wealth and development derived from nature’s exploitation did not spread all over the world. Even in the advanced economies, the wealth is not evenly and generally distributed, although it has raised living standards and consumption levels – which are paid for with excruciating exploitation.

The global capitalist political leadership, led by advanced capitalist countries, faced with the stark reality of the collapse of the system they superintend over, have been compelled to take actions – though belatedly and after initial denials – to address the fallout of unbridled use of nature’s resources without replenishing. However, the nature of the actions has taken the pattern of capitalist division of labour, with the rich countries building adequate adaptation and resilience capacity to contain the fallout of the climate change, while the poor countries are made the guinea pigs.

Furthermore, the capacity and resources to transit to a sustainable economy have been monopolised by the rich countries, who use this not only to further the interests of their capitalist class but also as a tool of geopolitical contest and foreign policy manipulation. This implies that other considerations, aside from saving the planet and humanity, will determine the pace and extent of actions being taken. This means that global capitalist forces consider profits first, and then their preservation, before thinking of humanity. However, given that the quest for profits and its preservation limit the ability to consider the bigger picture, the global capitalist climate regime is therefore leading the world to a blind alley. Nonetheless, this blind alley will be shared disproportionately between rich and poor countries but also between the rich and the poor in the rich countries.

It is within this framework that Africa, which is predominantly a continent of underdeveloped and poor countries, is situated. Despite its human, natural and mineral resources, not to mention its geographical size, Africa contributes very marginally to global emissions, either currently or historically. Yet, it shares disproportionate impacts of climate change. To add insult to injury, it has little or no capacity for adapting to and managing the worst fallout of climate change. Moreover, climate change is already worsening the continent’s underdevelopment with adverse weather conditions, which have reduced productivity and led to higher costs of managing losses and damages. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. A wholesale unravelling of climate change, especially at tipping points, paints a gloomy picture of the crisis ahead. Yet, Africa is nowhere near building the capacity for a climate change-era political economy.

However, the bigger problem is the fact that Africa is nowhere in the global climate stabilisation decision-making. A transition to a green economy and clean energy will leave Africa behind. This, alongside the horrible impacts of climate change, will turn the continent into another prey of a global imperialism under the climate change regime.
This is the basis of climate imperialism in Africa. Yet, if Africa remains stuck with fossil fuels and an unsustainable economic model, it will be left prostrate economically, socially and politically. Therefore, unless there is a radical shift, the continent will be the main guinea pig of global climate chaos.

Oxfam Great Britain Corporate Accountability Review of African Political Economy Greenpeace Unearthed Climate Action Network-International Transnational Institute Pan African Climate Justice Alliance Greenpeace International Oxfam Oxfam in Nigeria US Climate Action Network (USCAN) International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) CDD West Africa Oil Change International Greenpeace Africa Global Greengrants Fund Greenpeace Nederland Natural Resource Governance Institute Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Middle East and North Africa RSP Books Revolt in the Maghreb - Essays Kola Ibrahim Kola Ibrahim 350.org 350 Africa