Africa’s carbon emissions are small relative to other regions today but are expected to contribute 18% of total emissions growth by 2050 under business-as-usual scenarios. In light of these projections and the forthcoming Africa COP 27 in 2022, the UN High-Level Champions Team (HLC) is supporting the transition of Africa’s energy sector to renewables as part of its broader mandate to help prevent global temperatures from rising above 1.5 degrees Celsius relative to vs. pre-industrial levels as called for in the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Dalberg recently partnered with the HLC as part of the firm’s climate coalitions pledge to analyze the renewable energy landscape in Africa and identify potential pathways to achieve the goals of both universal access to energy and a future energy mix that would meet the targets specified in the Paris Agreement. The resulting report provides an overview on current sources of energy generation and usage in Africa and then provides recommendation on how to transition to an innovative, diverse, and decentralized clean energy ecosystem. The report also illustrates how choosing a 1.5°C pathway is more cost-effective in the long run given that clean energy technology costs are expected to continue to decline as new innovations continue to transform the global energy economy.

This report is designed to help forward-thinking African governments and industry stakeholders to facilitate and accelerate a transition to clean energy and leapfrog legacy energy systems by providing guidance on how to set policy frameworks and incentives that attract the right players and projects for the deployment of new renewable energy systems in Africa.

Click here to download the summary report or the concise report.