As the climate crisis intensifies, transitioning to sustainable energy has emerged as a pivotal focus of global efforts. Outdated and fragile energy systems impede countries and regions from increasing energy access and affordability, improving air pollution and living standards, and driving industrialization and modernization.
Since the international Paris Agreement on climate change was signed in 2015, global renewable energy investments have nearly tripled. However, these investments are predominantly concentrated in developed countries, leaving developing countries with a need of approximately $1.7 trillion annually in renewable energy investments. In 2022, foreign direct investment to developing countries only covered 32% of this need.
At the heart of the global climate agenda is Africa, a continent of immense potential with abundant renewable energy resources, a growing youth population and vast natural capital. However, it is also one of the most vulnerable regions to the negative impacts of climate change. Sub-Saharan Africa is home to nearly 80% of the world’s population without access to electricity, yet in 2022, the continent received only 1% of global renewable energy. Addressing Africa’s energy challenges and accelerating its transition to a low-carbon, climate-resilient economy are crucial for global climate action.
As Africa’s key trading and investment partners, China and the European Union can play an important role in supporting the continent’s energy transition. Since the early 21st century, both China and the EU have built upon their existing ties with Africa to establish and strengthen new forms of cooperation with energy as a critical area of focus.
Charting Future Collaborative Pathways
China and Africa have engaged in extensive cooperation across trade, infrastructure, transportation and energy, contributing to sustainable development and local capacity building efforts. For the past 15 years, China has already been Africa’s largest trading partner and remains the largest developing country investor in the region. At the 2024 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), both sides elevated and strengthened their partnership. Under collaborative frameworks like FOCAC, the China-Africa Union Energy Partnership and the South-South Cooperation on Climate Change, numerous projects have incorporated renewable energy objectives. The ongoing Africa Solar Belt program, for example, underscores this commitment, with China pledging at least 100 million yuan (about $14 million) in public funds from 2024 to 2027 to power 50,000 households in Africa with off-grid solar systems.
The EU, through the Africa-EU Partnership and agreements with the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), is working to shift from a traditional “donor-recipient” relationship with Africa toward a more equal partnership. In its latest Africa strategy and external energy policy, the EU prioritizes green transition and energy access as core objectives. Under its Global Gateway Initiative, the EU launched the Africa-EU Green Energy Initiative (AEGEI), aiming for at least 50 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity in Africa by 2030 as part of a 150 billion euro (about $170 million) investment plan, helping address energy access challenges for at least 100 million people. Additionally, many European countries have established bilateral partnerships with countries in Africa.
These commitments reflect a growing recognition of Africa’s crucial role in the global energy transition. However, meeting this moment requires confronting the scale and complexity of Africa’s own energy realities.
As Africa’s population grows and industrialization accelerates, electricity demand is projected to increase tenfold between 2015 and 2065. This surge presents profound challenges for the continent’s energy transition, including persistent energy access disparities, limited economic viability of power development, inadequate power grid infrastructure and substantial investment shortfalls.
China, a global leader in renewable energy supply chains, brings extensive experience in project development, technology innovation and strong financial resources. Europe, on the other hand, excels in renewable energy finance and sustainable development standards and benefits from geographic proximity to Africa. Africa, beyond being a large and fast-growing market, offers unmatched opportunities for market expansion, abundant renewable energy resources essential for the global energy transition, a dynamic and youthful workforce, and the potential for green industrialization and innovation.
Together, China, Europe and Africa can forge a powerful trilateral cooperation in renewable energy that can unlock synergies, drive inclusive and sustainable development, and contribute meaningfully to global climate goals while advancing Africa’s own energy realities.
Unlocking Impact through Technical Cooperation and Scalable Pilots
To move from ambition to impact, deepening technical cooperation and co-developing pilot projects that are scalable, replicable and locally grounded can serve as proof points for what trilateral cooperation can achieve.
Here are four project areas where this trilateral cooperation can make a difference in Africa’s energy transition:
1) Leveraging micro-grid and off-grid renewable energy technologies to address electricity access
For Africa, the majority of its population without electricity access lives in vast and sparsely populated rural areas, where traditional large power grids are usually impractical. Microgrid and off-grid renewable energy technologies, designed to adapt to local conditions and resources, are cost-effective and easy to maintain, making them well-suited to address Africa’s electricity supply challenges. European and Chinese technologies, resources and know-how can play a vital role in addressing electricity access for the hard-to-reach populations.
2) Integrating renewable energy with other sectors to boost benefits
In Sub-Saharan Africa, there is a huge market for the application of distributed renewable energy in agricultural, mining, industrial and commercial sectors. Integrating renewable energy in these sectors, a concept known as Productive Use of Renewable Energy (PURE), can significantly boost the demand for renewable energy. To unlock this potential, China, the EU and Africa have the opportunity to collaborate in developing small and smart business models that prioritize cost-effectiveness and long-term sustainability. Coupled with innovative financing solutions, this approach can help lower electricity costs, promote local industrialization and create jobs — delivering economic, environmental and social benefits in an integrated way.
3) Renewable energy production to create new economic opportunities
Africa’s abundant renewable resources and land offer distinct advantages in harnessing renewable energy, presenting new opportunities for Africa to boost its growth through low energy prices and even by assessing opportunities of its proximity to Europe, a key green hydrogen demand center. Through a trilateral collaboration, Europe can leverage on its market demands to facilitate an African export-oriented industry, for example in green energy, which would then boost the trade balances between these regions. Equally, China can leverage on its manufacturing and technological capacities to enable and facilitate this trilateral collaboration.
4) Upgrading and expanding power grids to enhance energy security
The planning, investment and construction of cross-border power grids are critical for Africa to achieve energy security. The African Union (AU) launched the Africa Single Electricity Market (AfSEM) to integrate Africa’s five regional power pools into a unified electricity market. This initiative, supported by the African Continental Power Systems Masterplan, aims to boost energy security, optimize resource utilization, reduce energy costs and improve electricity access for all 55 AU member states, serving over 1.3 billion people.
The flagship AU Agenda 2063 initiative also provides a strategic solution for balancing electricity supply and demand. By improving cross-border power transmission and storage, electricity surplus and shortage across countries and regions can be balanced more effectively. However, this field requires overcoming high technical barriers and substantial funding needs, necessitating international support. The complexity and capital intensity of regional grid infrastructure present a clear opportunity for trilateral cooperation.
China, EU and African institutions can pool their complementary strengths — China’s experience in large-scale infrastructure development, the EU’s expertise in regulatory harmonization and smart grid technologies, and Africa’s political momentum and regional frameworks — to co-develop grid expansion projects.
Additionally, emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence also have the potential to greatly increase the efficiency of large, interconnected power grids. Joint investment, technical assistance and capacity building can help overcome the technical and financial barriers, while accelerating the realization of AfSEM’s goals.
Financial Support and International Exchange Are Indispensable
Turning these collaborative visions into tangible outcomes hinges on two critical enablers:
1) Mobilizing private capital to bridge funding gaps is crucial for cooperation among China, Europe and Africa
Exploring the financial mechanisms that would enable deeper uptake of renewable energy and the associated de-risking mechanisms or tools that would be required is vital. Policy-based financial institutions or public funds can mitigate financing and investment risks in renewable energy projects by offering strategic products like guarantees and insurance, thereby attracting more private capital. Moreover, promoting coordination of cross-border and regional investment criteria among financial institutions will help streamline renewable energy financing channels, facilitating efficient capital and project matching. Under a trilateral cooperation, Europe’s deep financial markets can offer the necessary seed capital and de-risking instruments while China provides supply chain finance that would enable it to leverage its manufacturing prowess. In parallel, Africa could focus on deepening its local capital markets potentially by integrating its capital markets and by bolstering the available home-grown financial capital to the renewable energy sector.
2) Strengthening the alignment of global initiatives
Efforts can focus on enhancing benchmarking, mutual recognition and standardization in areas such as green supply chain management, product carbon footprint certification, and ESG management throughout the clean technology supply chain, including the mining and processing of upstream minerals. Establishing joint standards can reduce friction and barriers in trade and investment cooperation among China, Europe and Africa, supporting Africa’s balanced approach to energy transition and sustainable development.
As is the case with bilateral collaborations, a successful trilateral collaboration between China, Europe and Africa would need to provide mutual benefits for all players particularly as the shifting global winds of country-first engagements loom.
WRI Europe’s Stientje van Veldhoven and Angela Bekkers contributed to this article.
