This year’s Africa Energy Forum presents a unique opportunity for African collaboration

In the rural village of Gwanda, Zimbabwe, a mother walks several kilometres each day to find firewood so she can cook for her children. She’s never had access to reliable electricity, and her story is not unique. Across Africa, 600 million people still live without energy access – a fact that affects every aspect of their lives. The former United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, summarised Africa’s biggest challenge when he said: “Energy is the golden thread that connects economic growth, increased social equity, and an environment that allows the world to thrive”. Without electricity, communities cannot run clinics, power schools, or create jobs – all of which are fundamental to dignity and development.

That is why I am looking forward to attending the Africa Energy Forum in Cape Town next week, a milestone as it marks the first time in the event’s 27-year history that it is hosted in South Africa. This year’s theme, “Africa United”, could not be more fitting. As the global investment meeting for Africa’s power, energy, infrastructure and industrial sectors, it is attended by stakeholders who hold the key to accelerating energy access - African presidents, ministers, policymakers, continental executives, the World Bank, African Development Bank and DFIs.

But the most important attendees may be those not making the headlines – the civil servants, young entrepreneurs, and African investors who are shaping local energy futures. There will be exciting new funding announced, deals signed, reports released, and decisions made that will impact the generations to come and hopefully agreements reached that will accelerate the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 7 (affordable and clean energy).

With South Africa chairing the G20 this year, the continent must use the momentum of the AEF and the G20 Summit to amplify a cohesive African voice in global energy governance. As geopolitical instability rises, with trade wars and fractured alliances, it’s more urgent than ever to ask: can Africa present a united energy agenda? And can it do so on its own terms? 

To seize this opportunity, Africa must first agree on a set of shared energy priorities. These must include scaling up renewable resources like solar, wind and hydro – where the continent has a competitive advantage – while also affirming the sovereign right to include coal, gas and nuclear in the energy mix where needed. This is not a contradiction, but a necessity. Industrialised countries built their economies using all available energy sources. Africa must be afforded the same space to grow.

Some of the critical arguments at this year’s event will be around balancing the need for energy access and economic development with plotting a sustainable energy future that includes an abundance of Africa’s renewable energy resources. Favourable terms for the financing of African energy projects will also be another important topic of debate.

Although there are hundreds of initiatives to ensure the achievement of universal energy access on the continent, more than half the continent still lacks access to modern energy, which is why African energy stakeholders believe that in the midst of the drive for reducing carbon emissions, Africa should have a sovereign right to include coal, gas and nuclear as part of its energy mix in line with how developed nations built their economies.

What will the US role be in Africa’s energy future?

The first Power Africa Summit was launched by former US President, Barack Obama in June 2013 as a private sector-led initiative with the ambitious goal of doubling electricity access on the continent. Through USAID, 12 U.S. government agencies implemented Power Africa activities by providing financing and technical assistance to support the power sector in 40 African countries.

Though different US administrations advised countries on electricity access for years, Power Africa’s approach was different in that it took a demand-driven, transactional approach by reviewing actual transactions between private-sector players like investors, entrepreneurs, and manufacturers — and with governments and then identified obstacles that were preventing transactions from moving forward. A large reason for the success of Power Africa in the past was the power of diplomacy to level the playing field for U.S. investments in the energy sector.

US President Trump and his administration announced that Power Africa would be dismantled, after more than a decade of successful work on the continent. With almost all of Power Africa's programmes listed for termination, the diminishing role of the US in Africa’s energy sector opens
opportunities for new alliances and greater intra-African collaboration.

Speaking at the Powering Africa Summit in Washington D.C in March this year, newly appointed US Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright said the new U.S. administration would partner with African governments and businesses, allowing them to drive their own energy agenda to increase economic growth and prosperity, but the US’s role has already been downscaled.

Unlike the EU governments that are continuing to support the drive for a reduction in carbon emissions to tackle climate change, President Trump is known as being a climate sceptic.

His Energy Secretary said in March, “The only goal of energy is to expand human opportunity. Make us live longer. Healthier. More opportunities for us and our kids. Increase food security. Increase heating security. It’s foundational”.

Wright said to participants at the March Powering Africa conference in DC that the U.S. will not put limits on the type of energy projects it will finance, noting that “there’s no technology I don’t like”. Instead, he said, the US government would prioritise mutually beneficial relationships between government and business that foster entrepreneurship and a growing middle class.

This worldview on energy reflects the views of also China and Russia, two of the world’s biggest Carbon emitters and industrialised nations.

It will be interesting to see which nation’s views – and which voices – are most elevated and supported at this year’s AEF.

Energy financing must be favourable

The challenge for Africa is it needs to industrialise and electrify its economies, but at the same time it needs the finances to do so in a sustainable way. Africa has also been most severely affected by climate change and so its infrastructure development needs to be climate resilient. Most African nations don’t need an energy transition but energy accessibility.

Many African countries are grappling with rising inflation which has also impacted the amount of developmental finance available to African nations. But America may want to maintain its presence and footprint in Africa’s energy sector, especially as China seeks to play a leading role in the continent’s infrastructure development.

In spite of the challenging global environment, Africa needs its member states and voices to unite with a collective vision to fund Africa’s energy revolution with international financing mechanisms that are just. After all, Africa is responsible for less than three percent of the world’s carbon emissions and home to massive, unlocked energy potential, while also being home to 1.2 billion youth aged between 15 to 24 years that account for 16 percent of the global population (according to the UN).

So the question before us is not just about megawatts and gigawatts. It’s about vision. Will African countries unite to shape their own energy destiny? Will we be content with fragmented policies and donor-driven priorities, or will we craft a bold, sovereign agenda that lifts the continent on its own terms?

Cape Town is where the conversation begins. The world will be watching – but it’s Africa’s voice that must rise the loudest.