Energy Sovereignty in the Context of the Global Energy Transition: What Africa Should Know

Unofficial AI-generated summary based on the public title and abstract. Not an official translation.

🔬研究者:Provides a comprehensive framework analyzing energy sovereignty in Africa's transition, useful for comparative energy policy studies.

🏢実務担当者:Companies investing in African energy should consider the sovereignty and local ownership aspects highlighted to align with host country priorities.

🏛政策担当者:African regulators and international donors can use the findings to design coherent policies that balance energy access, industrialization, and climate goals.

Abstract Africa's pursuit of energy sovereignty is central to its development agenda and engagement with the global energy transition. Energy sovereignty defined as the capacity of nations to control, govern, and derive value from their energy resources and systems ensures that the transition supports economic transformation while meeting climate objectives. The global energy transition is the shift from fossil fuel–based energy systems toward renewable and low-carbon alternatives such as solar, wind, hydrogen, and bioenergy, driven by climate imperatives, technological innovation, and regulatory frameworks presents both opportunities and challenges for emerging economies. Despite abundant resources, nearly 600 million people, about 43% of the continent's population, remain without electricity. Addressing this deficit requires expanding electricity generation from roughly 980 TWh today to about 1,400 TWh by 2030, alongside a shift in the energy mix in which renewables are projected to grow from 27% to 43%. Crucially, this transition must be pursued on African terms, reflecting priorities of availability, accessibility, affordability, and domestic ownership. This analysis draws on regional energy data, investment flows, and policy instruments to evaluate Africa's energy sovereignty in the context of the global transition. It examines electricity generation targets, renewable energy projections, gas utilization strategies, and policy frameworks such as Ghana's National Electric Mobility Policy. The study also considers institutional reforms, financing mechanisms, and regional integration under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to promote technology transfer, power pooling, and industrial collaboration. Findings reveal that Africa attracts less than 2% of global clean energy investment, reflecting persistent constraints in finance, technology access, and governance. These risks lock the continent into a position as a supplier of raw energy resources and an importer of finished clean technologies, undermining long-term sovereignty. Natural gas reserves—estimated at 600 trillion cubic feet—remain strategically important as both a transition fuel and a foundation for industrialization. Expanding gas-to-power projects in Nigeria, Mozambique, Ghana, and Egypt, while recovering the roughly 350 billion cubic feet of gas flared annually, can strengthen energy access, support industrial growth, and reduce emissions. Africa's substantial renewable endowment, including the Sahel's solar irradiance, North Africa's wind regimes, East Africa's 15 GW geothermal potential, and emerging hydrogen initiatives in Namibia, Morocco, and South Africa, provides diversification opportunities. Transport electrification, CCUS, and methane abatement further broaden transition pathways. However, policy coherence and institutional reform are critical, as many African National Oil Companies remain heavily concentrated on hydrocarbons and allocate minimal capital to clean energy. This paper emphasizes that Africa's energy sovereignty hinges on translating policy ambition into implementation. Coordinated investment, supportive regulation, and African-led decision-making across renewables, gas, electric mobility, CCUS, and methane management can enable the continent to assert strategic control over its energy future. By reframing Africa not as a passive participant but as an active architect of a climate-aligned and development-focused energy transition—pursued explicitly on African terms—the continent can ensure inclusivity, resilience, and long-term prosperity.

• openalex https://doi.org/10.2118/233479-msfirst seen 2026-07-04 04:39:55