RENdez-vous Africa: Green Hydrogen in Africa: Fuelling export markets or local economic development?

Wednesday 13 April 2022   
Time: 14:00 – 15:30 Central Africa Time (14:00 – 15:30 CET Paris) 

During this RENdez-vous Africa we had a rich and highly interactive discussion on green hydrogen in Africa.  

Green hydrogen’s advocates tout the potential for Africa to become a clean energy producer and exporter. But not everyone is convinced by this promising narrative citing that the discussion seldom goes beyond the techno-economic issues and that crucial, social issues are being ignored.  

Expanding the discussion and creating a new narrative for green hydrogen in Africa is needed. What steps can be taken to increase Africa’s leadership and ownership in the green hydrogen debate? How can we make sure that all voices are part of the discussion? How to balance wider geopolitics around green hydrogen with larger socio-economic needs?

Watch the video below and read the newsletters: Africa Roundup #2 and Africa Roundup #3. 

Panellists

Competing priorities—economic recovery, stabilising health crisis—exacerbated by COVID-19 are reducing the space for a public discourse for the uptake of renewables and the broader energy transition.

This clearly threatens the momentum renewables have generated over the last decade, and even risks reversing some of the hard-fought gains. The weak links in the sector, i.e. scattered voices, disconnected priorities, limited scale and resources need to be strengthened, particularly in critical hot-spots and in vulnerable countries. We need to work together more strategically, to bring renewables to the centre of attention and planning to drive economic growth, social equity, and innovation.

Doing this requires integrating renewables across all sectors and creating societal support. It is also about building and bringing the community together more strategically, to increase its collective influence in the global energy debate, linking global and local voices.

Making renewable energy mainstream also requires forging bridges outside of the renewable energy bubble well beyond the “usual suspects”. We need to identify, build on and collaborate with players to collectively widen and amplify the renewable energy voice. This means broadening the renewable energy community regionally and into new sectors. It also involves bringing the right information to this community so it can be more effective, strategic and influential.

The strategies and narratives to make renewable energy mainstream differ regionally. We need to understand the underlying drivers and drags to renewables uptake in each region and develop strategies to address or enhance them. In Africa, strategies to move to renewable energy need to be situated in the context of green recovery, energy growth and sustainable development. This is critical to create societal support for renewables, support economic development and innovation and develop a renewable narrative beyond the climate topic.

REN21 hosts these events to inspire and to offer opportunities to learn and share across sectors. While each event is unique, one thing remains consistent: at every RENdez-vous there is time to meet and network with people from the greater renewables community, inclusive of many different sectors. Learn more and join the next event…