Green hydrogen at the Africa Climate Summit
Green hydrogen at the Africa Climate Summit
World leaders are meeting in Nairobi on 4-6 September 2023 for the inaugural Africa Climate Summit to agree on a new vision for climate-positive growth. Green hydrogen is central to this vision as it can help provide clean energy access to Africa and decarbonise key parts of the global economic system like heavy industry, shipping and aviation. With the right investment and enabling environment in place, producing green hydrogen in Africa can drive development and help the whole world avert climate crisis.
GH2 board member Frannie Leautier who is CEO of SouthBridge Investments together with COP27 UN Climate Change High-Level Champion Mahmoud Mohieldin published a joint opinion piece in African Business ahead of the Nairobi summit where they argue that green hydrogen is vital to Africa’s future based on green growth, but this will only be realised if the right level of financing and financial policies are adopted. The two experts call on public and private finance institutions to invest $6bn each year between now and 2030 into renewable energy and green hydrogen projects – and to announce firm financing decisions by COP28 in Dubai in November.
Many of these issues will be discussed and key agreements are set to be made at several events during the summit (keep an eye out on this page for green hydrogen related events). The Africa Green Hydrogen Alliance (AGHA) which brings together governments with high green hydrogen potential (Egypt, Kenya, Mauritania, Morocco, Namibia, and South Africa) will play a prominent role during the summit and the alliance will welcome new members Angola and Ethiopia next week.
Together with AGHA and key partners we are holding the Africa Green Hydrogen Forum during the summit on 5th September. The forum will be a deep dive with policy updates from host governments including Kenya, Mauritania and South Africa, project updates from developers such as CWP Energy, Fortescue and HDF Energy and public and private financial institutions like Allianz Global Investors, the World Bank and British International Investment.