Historical emitters must back Africa's shift to renewables

Africa’s future is in renewables because clean energy is the only way out of its climate, energy, and development crisis.

The climate emergency we are living in demands that we rethink the relationship between energy and development. Ending fossil fuel production is now more urgent than ever.

As we experience more catastrophic climate impacts, a just transition to renewable energy is crucial. Given its great potential for wind and solar energy, Africa has the opportunity to leapfrog the dirty energy path taken by richer nations, leave all fossil fuels in the ground, and jump to the clean energy of the future.

Africans experience a double curse from the fossil fuel industry. First, our communities on the frontline of extraction suffer social and health impacts, face displacement, and lose lives and livelihoods. Then our people suffer again from the droughts, floods and storms which climate change intensifies.