Energy and Politics in south Sudan

Energy is different in many ways from other commodities. It is the pivotal independent variable for economic and social development. The way energy is consumed in south Sudan is not sustainable, which reflects nations’ inefficient use of energy and power profile. Energy security in south Sudan can be as energy availability at reasonable prices in helping defines own national energy and security policies. In other words, there is no need to divorce the economic imperative from the energy security necessity of resource availability and critical energy infrastructure integrity. It prioritizes energy and power availability in the national interest and logically points towards policy alternatives that enhance the national security imperative. 

For decades ago it has been clear that the way southern Sudanese produce and consume energy is traditional and inefficient. For modern energy production, its seems that we will be addicting to foreign skills, knowledge and technology to produce our energy (petroleum) in decades coming and this puts our economy, our national security and our environment at risk. Southern Sudanese leaders should now recognize that energy security in all its manifestations, from the domestic imperative of the protection of critical energy infrastructure, to the integrity of global energy supply chains, to the use of scarce resources for exacting political and economic leverage by producer countries over consuming ones, entails issues far afield from energy as a narrow resource issue. Energy security mainly petroleum, will be a defining security challenge of the 21st century in south Sudan in the near future. Therefore, politicians and decision makers should have clearly understood the crucially strategic role that energy, most importantly petroleum derivatives for use in the all aspect of life of southern Sudanese.  In short, it has been the politicians and decisions makers’ logistician and not technology engineers who first recognized the strategic role of energy in national security.

The nation that harnesses the power of clean, renewable energy sources will be the nation that leads the 21st century. Our dependence on foreign skills, knowledge and technology to produce our energy (petroleum) may threaten our national security, our environment and our economy. We must make the investments in clean, renewable energy sources that will control our energy future, create hundreds of new jobs and lay the foundation for long-term economic security. This meant that south Sudan might have jump to new technologies to produce its energy. Therefore, government of south Sudan has to take significant steps as part of a comprehensive strategy that will pave the way toward a clean energy future for our south Sudan.

Each of us in south Sudan has a part to play in a new future that will benefit all of us. As we are recovering from five decades civil war, the development of our energy efficiently has the potential to grow our economy and creating of jobs but only if we accelerate that development. Only if we seize the moment and only if we rally together and act as one nation- workers and entrepreneurs, scientists and citizens, the public and private sectors.

Author is a Sudanese based in Finland he can be reach at [email protected]