Looking ahead to COP27 and beyond

COP27 in Egypt in November will rightly put a sharp focus on climate change and the energy transition in developing countries and emerging economies in Africa and elsewhere. It is a global scandal that, according to the WHO, 2.4 billion or one in three humans, remain without access to clean cooking. And in sub-Saharan Africa, about 1 in 2 humans or 600 million of 1.2 billion, do not have access to electricity. The implications for people’s health – often for women and girls cooking on open fires, on the climate and on desertification, are unacceptable and enormous.

It is great to see a growing number of development efforts focused on everything from direct electrification to clean cooking stoves and the use of off grid renewable energy. And it is largely a distraction to discuss how long developing countries can and should be using fossil fuels during a transition phase.

More important for many developing countries and emerging economies’ ability to lift citizens out of energy poverty is their ability to make the most of the opportunities large-scale renewable energy and the green hydrogen revolution brings. Mauritania looks set to host several large renewable energy and green hydrogen projects, amounting to tens of billions of dollars in investments. Same for Namibia, for Egypt itself and many other developing countries and emerging economies. Many hundreds of billions of dollars will be required in Africa alone. And this is not just to fund the roll out of solar panels across the desert and to have wind turbines producing energy for export to other parts of the world. No, the industrial landscape is about to be redrawn. In the future we will be producing steel where we have plenty of renewable energy and hydrogen, we will refuel ships where we have plenty of renewable energy and green ammonia (converted from green hydrogen) and we will make fertilisers where we have renewable energy and green ammonia.

The climate is not waiting and the industry is not waiting. It is now up to development banks and other enablers to make sure that the large scale renewable energy and green hydrogen economy takes off responsibly in Africa and other developing countries and emerging economies.

At COP27 and beyond, where financing the energy transition will figure prominently, we must be practical. We must support hosting governments, including through regional efforts like the Africa Green Hydrogen Alliance and get ready to provide funding and risk mitigation instruments on a scale we have not seen before.