Belgium (Brussels Morning Newspaper) The European Union and the United States are joining forces to boost green energy in the Sub-Saharan region of Africa in a bid to unlock the continent’s abundant renewable power generation potential.
USAID Administrator Samantha Power and Commissioner for International Partnerships Jutta Urpilainen signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on October 14.
Nearly two out of three people in Sub-Saharan Africa lack access to electricity, a serious limitation to accessing quality health care, education and economic opportunities for up to 600 million people.
The transatlantic partnership looks at developing small-scale and off-grid power generation to increase access to renewable energy at regional and national level. It also foresees development on energy storage and transmission line projects.
USAID’s spokesperson Jessica Jennings said the MoU allows for closer collaboration between Africa and the EU to increase the production, access to, and use of sustainable energy solutions to address a range of issues ongoing in Africa including poverty, climate change and energy insecurity.
“This step advances our shared commitment to fulfill the G7’s Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment agenda and invest in infrastructure,” said Jennings as she manifested appreciation for the Commission’s €725 million pledged for the 2023-2035 period under the Global Fund.
“Under Global Gateway, we are boosting our cooperation with the US administration to build the strategic autonomy of our African partners, including by unlocking more opportunities to ensure affordable, reliable and sustainable energy,” said Urpilainen.
A concrete example of building a sustainable future in Africa is through the strengthening of electricity interconnections to enable the African energy transition, said Johan van den Berg, Head of Secretariat of the Africa-EU Energy Partnership.
Global Gateway
On the occasion of the EU-African Union summit in February 2022, the Commission announced the first package of at least €150 billion for Africa, for the next seven years, under the Global Gateway, the EU’s initiative to beat China’s Belt and Road initiative.
Critics of the EU’s Global Gateway said the initiative will never be able to compete with China, since Beijing has nearly the double of the capital to invest on its Belt and Road initiative, among other factors.
Moreover, the new EU-US venture was described by the Economist as “bullshit ruling in Brussels”, hinting at the possibility of a mere public relations stunt.
Under the Global Gateway, the Africa–EU Green Energy Initiative is set to support Africa’s green transition in the energy sector by supporting the deployment of renewable energy generation, promoting energy efficiency and supporting market integration and sector reforms.
With the new partnership, the EU has pledged to support Africa’s ambition by 2030 to increase the renewable energy generation capacity on the continent by at least 300,000 megawatts.
The program, which today has become an ever-bigger infrastructure program led by the G7, intends to advance the infrastructure in emerging and developing countries while securing access to key critical raw materials, mostly found in Africa and South America.
Critical raw materials are essential to sustain Europe’s economic and environmental ambitions.
To rival China’s Belt and Road initiative, G7 leaders announced in the summer 2022 a €609 billion plan (PG II) to deploy infrastructure in middle and low-income countries, including Angola, Senegal, Egypt and the Horn of Africa.
Africa’s voice
Africa leaders, however, remain wary of Europe’s intentions in the continent, with memories of colonialism still vivid and a considerable degree of mistrust towards their European counterparts.
“When you look at the history between Africa and Europe, that is a natural relationship and a natural alliance — but a relationship that has to be different from the relationship that we had until now,” said Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo in an official speech to French President Emmanuel Macron.
“That relationship has enriched Europe but has not enriched Africa, so we need to change that dynamic,” Akufo-Addo went on.
In an op-ed published ahead of the EU-African summit last February, the Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa Vera Songwe said that “too many summits have happened with too little impact in the last few years.”
W. Gyude Moore, a policy analyst with the Centre for Global Development, a global poverty research institution, concurred Songwe’s comments adding: “There is a long history of unfulfilled promises… when it comes to the EU and Africa”.
