The Africa-EU Green Energy Initiative

The Africa-EU Green Energy Initiative (AEGEI) is Europe’s contribution to Africa’s transformative effort to reshape the energy landscape of the continent. This initiative aims to enhance electricity production from renewable sources and broaden access to energy across Africa, while promoting energy efficiency and supporting regulatory reforms to create a favourable environment for private investment. 

On 20 March 2024, at the Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue (BETD), the Africa-EU Energy Partnership (AEEP) and the Africa-Europe Foundation (AEF) co-organised an Africa-Europe high-level policymaker meeting to foster bicontinental partnership under the theme: “Fostering Africa-Europe energy cooperation: Implementing commitments and realising Africa’s energy transformation”. 

The 37^th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU) convened on 17 and 18 February 2024 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, adopting the Africa Single Energy Market with one of its components, the Continental Power System Masterplan (CMP), as an AU Agenda 2063 Flagship Project.

On 2 December 2023, at the 28th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28) in Dubai, UAE, the Executive Vice President of the European Commission Maroš Šefčovič announced a pledge of more than €20 billion for the Africa-EU Green Energy Initiative (AEGEI). Vice President Šefčovič made the pledge on behalf of Team Europe, the European counterpart of the broader Africa-EU Partnership.  

The EU-Africa flagship projects for 2023, part of the Global Gateway Flagship Projects, were unveiled by the European Union on 1 March 2023. They will focus on concrete infrastructure investments in Africa in the digitalisation, climate and energy, transport, health, education, and research sectors. 

African countries must create the regulatory and policy frameworks necessary for investments to flow towards SDG7. These were the main messages on the 8th of November, when the European Commission’s (EC) Directorate-General for International Partnerships (DG INTPA) and the Africa-Europe Foundation (AEF) hosted the event ‘Rolling-out the AEGEI: accelerating its implementation’ at the COP27’s EU Pavilion.  

Supporting energy access in Africa is a shared priority for Africa and Europe. Access to energy underpins the development of key social infrastructures and services, such as healthcare and education. Additionally, advancing energy access on a large scale can boost the economic development and the industrialisation of Africa.