Senegal and Mozambique are looking to develop efficient gas-fired generation, along with renewables, to expand their power capacity, based in part on gas reserves currently being developed in their waters.

Although gas is a fossil fuel and therefore not as clean as renewables, governments argue that it offers a relatively cheap way to scale up power generation more rapidly, with far fewer carbon emissions and reduced levels of local pollution compared to coal and oil-fired plants or small diesel generators.

This is a great example of a rock and a hard place. Building out natural gas in many places of the world is not a long-term sustainable solution, but when talking about these countries that are looking to really get their grid established and have the resources right underneath their feet, it's not an easy solution to say keep it in the ground-- especially coming from people in nations who were built on the back of fossil fuels.