African nations need to spend about R224bn on their refineries to curb emissions and meet climate-change targets as demand for oil and gas surges, according to an industry lobby group.

Governments on the continent should focus on reducing sulphur levels in petroleum products because Africa’s consumption of fossil fuels will rise quickly in the coming decades, even as the supply of clean energy also expands, said Anibor Kragha, executive secretary of the African Refiners and Distributors Association (Arda). The pan-African body, based in Ivory Coast’s commercial capital of Abidjan, promotes the interests of the downstream oil industry...