Africa is rich in natural resources, yet it continues to face serious challenges in the renewable energy sector. Despite its vast renewable energy potential, the continent struggles to generate enough power to meet its population’s needs. Meanwhile, critical minerals like lithium are being extracted in countries such as Zimbabwe and exported to fuel the green energy revolution in the developed world, leaving many Africans wondering who is really benefiting from their resources.
Africa has abundant solar irradiance, extensive wind corridors, and untapped geothermal and hydropower resources that can help power the continent’s shift to clean energy. Experts say Africa has the potential to add hundreds of gigawatts of renewable capacity by 2030, particularly through large-scale solar and wind projects. Still, much of this potential remains untapped. Fortunately, a report by the CLG Energy Transition Centre identifies Africa as an emerging powerhouse of renewable energy potential, thanks to both its abundant natural resources and a rapidly growing population.
Yet, at the just-ended COP30 in Brazil, tensions intensified as African governments argued that they require “flexibility” to keep fossil fuels in their transition plans, citing the chronic shortfall of climate finance.
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A statement by Oil Change International—a research, communications, and advocacy organization working to expose the actual costs of fossil fuels and facilitate the ongoing transition to clean energy—reveals that the world’s wealthiest nations, which built their economies on the back of centuries of colonial extraction and carbon-intensive industrialization, continue to delay the finance they promised. This position, as outlined by Oil Change International, stands in stark contrast to the accelerating global push for a fossil fuel phase-out and raises the urgent question of who gets left behind as the world moves into a new energy era.
As wealthy nations delay delivering the finance they owe, African countries are being cornered into choices that risk locking the continent into more debt, energy poverty, stranded assets, weakened economies, and another cycle of extractive dependency. There is a need for strong, clear calls for reparations and for system change to decolonize Africa’s energy sector.
Omar Elmawi, the convenor of Africa Movement of Movements, was quoted in the statement saying, “The notion that Africa needs fossil fuels, especially gas, to transition and develop is propaganda pushed by a few fossil-fuel-rich countries. The truth is, fossil fuels have only impoverished our communities in Nigeria, Uganda, Angola, and South Africa. Fossil fuels are not helping our continent. We have enough renewable energy to meet the continent’s energy needs. What we need is grant-based finance and support so Africa can use its resources for its own development.”
Africa is on the cusp of a clean energy revolution, with a €15.5 billion investment campaign led by the European Union aiming to boost renewable energy generation and expand electricity access across the continent. The announcement was made at the recent Global Citizen Scaling Up Renewables in Africa event, held in South Africa ahead of the G20 Leaders’ Summit.
The “Scaling up Renewables in Africa” campaign, launched in November last year, is co-led by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. It has secured commitments to generate up to 26.8 gigawatts of renewable energy and provide electricity access to 17.5 million households in Africa, currently without a reliable power supply. Though Africa has vast renewable energy potential, the continent still faces significant energy challenges, with around 600 million people lacking access to electricity.
The EU’s investment package includes €7 billion in pledges from President von der Leyen, supported by Member States, the European Investment Bank, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. This funding will support projects such as hydropower plants, mini-grid electricity for rural areas, and solar power plants in countries like Malawi, Benin, and Côte d’Ivoire.
In a statement in November this year, the European Union says it led the pledging effort, with more than €15.1 billion. This includes a pledge of over € 10 billion by President von der Leyen on behalf of Team Europe, as well as significant additional bilateral contributions by European financial institutions, member states, and their development finance institutions, and an estimated amount of private investment mobilized.
President von der Leyen says the world has stepped up for Africa.
“With €15.5 billion, we are turbocharging Africa’s clean-energy transition. Millions more people could gain access to electricity; real, life-changing power for families, for businesses, for entire communities. This investment is a surge of opportunity: thriving markets, new jobs, and reliable, clean energy that meet the needs of partners across the globe. President Ramaphosa and I both look forward to a clean-energy future for the continent. A future led by Africa, with strong support from its friend and partner, Europe,” she explained.
This financing will also support the Nexus Energy-Water (Newza) 2.0 program, which enhances the use of solar panels and digital technologies to upgrade water supply systems in central cities and rural communities along the Lobito Corridor in Zambia. At the same time, the project Energie pour le développement durable de l’Est de la Côte d’Ivoire, which aims to increase the share of renewable energy in Côte d’Ivoire’s energy mix by constructing a photovoltaic solar power plant in Sérébou, will receive investment support. Other projects will be funded in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Burundi, Morocco, Tunisia, and Egypt, among others.
The campaign, organized in collaboration with the international advocacy organization Global Citizen and with the policy support of the International Energy Agency, aimed to drive public and private investment to support the clean energy transition in Africa, expand access to electricity, and promote Africa’s sustainable economic growth and decarbonized industrialization. This represents a step toward accelerating the global transition from fossil fuels to clean, sustainable energy.
The Team Europe package announced by President von der Leyen includes new Global Gateway projects co-financed by Germany, France, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain, as well as by the European Investment Bank (€2.1 billion) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (€740 million). In addition, Italy (€2.4 billion), Germany (over €2 billion), the Netherlands including FMO (€250 million), Portugal (€113 million), Denmark (€81 million), Sweden (€44 million), Austria (€5 million), and Ireland (€5 million) made bilateral contributions worth over €5 billion. Additionally, the EBRD announced a separate bilateral investment of over €600 million.
However, it remains to be seen whether African countries would also channel their own financial resources towards renewable energy to augment the financial package from Europe.
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