To realize Africa’s vast potential, we must ensure there is adequate investment and infrastructure development to support renewable energy. In the coming years, this means urgently overcoming the structural barriers across three priorities: infrastructure, policy, and institutional capabilities.

China’s generous investments in African renewables reflect several motivations. Despite challenges, China’s renewable energy investments represent a vital lifeline for African countries seeking to grow their economies sustainably and leapfrog fossil fuel-dependent development.

With or without the encouragement of government policy, families and businesses are choosing off-grid solar in the face of an unreliable grid. According to the World Bank, the number of so-called minigrids, meaning solar systems that support a cluster of homes or businesses, has grown from 500 in Africa in 2000 to 3,000 today.

The Africa Climate Summit began in Nairobi was the first event of its kind, hosted to convene political leaders, academic experts and decision-makers in the private sector for talks on climate action. Here, we round up all the key outcomes from the Summit.

The world’s poorest countries, mostly in Africa, are effectively priced out of the action by a global lending system that considers them too risky for investment. Only 2 percent of global investment in renewable energy has been in Africa, where nearly a billion people have little or no access to electricity.

Many African countries are favourably positioned to take advantage of solar energy, but relatively few have made much of an impact in this sector. With the clean energy transition underway, Africa is looking to rapidly expand its use of solar energy and other renewables.