Building Africa’s Renewable Energy Future: Recommendations for a Just Transition

The document analyzes energy transition policies in 34 African countries, categorizing them as direct, integrative, or enabling. It identifies a trend toward market-oriented regimes using auction instruments and de-risking tools, while highlighting that only a few countries—including South Africa, Rwanda, Kenya, Mauritius, Ethiopia, and Egypt—effectively integrate energy justice (distributive, recognitional, and procedural) into their frameworks. The authors warn against over-reliance on market forces and recommend that AU-EU cooperation prioritize energy justice criteria, capacity building, and regional partnerships to ensure a just transition.

• African energy policies are categorized into three types: 'direct policies' (concrete changes like subsidies), 'integrative policies' (integrating renewables via grid infrastructure or feed-in tariffs), and 'enabling policies' (transformative changes like green industrial policies and education).
• There is a strategic shift toward market-oriented transition regimes that utilize auction instruments, feed-in tariffs, and de-risking tools to attract private sector investment and reduce the dominance of state-owned utilities.
• A small group of countries—Egypt, Ethiopia, Mauritius, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, and Uganda—have developed comprehensive policy frameworks that address both distributive and recognitional energy justice through a mix of direct, integrative, and enabling policies.
• While distributive and recognitional justice are addressed in some frameworks, there is almost no evidence of policies that actively promote 'procedural justice' (participation and democratization), with South Africa being a notable exception due to its public consultation processes.
• Over-reliance on market forces in countries like Algeria and Morocco risks undermining the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for universal energy access, as these policies often fail to address justice-related issues.
• Certain countries are hindered in their green transition by strong path dependencies, such as Nigeria and Angola, or by policies focused on only a single issue, such as Botswana and Togo.

APA

MÜLLER, F., CLAAR, S., NEUMANN, M., & ELSNER, C. (2020). Building Africa’s Renewable Energy Future: Recommendations for a Just Transition. South African Institute of International Affairs. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Policy-Briefing-212-muller-et-al.pdf

Chicago

MÜLLER, FRANZISKA, SIMONE CLAAR, MANUEL NEUMANN, and CARSTEN ELSNER. Building Africa’s Renewable Energy Future: Recommendations for a Just Transition. South African Institute of International Affairs, 2020. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Policy-Briefing-212-muller-et-al.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=MÜLLER |first1=FRANZISKA |last2=CLAAR |first2=SIMONE |last3=NEUMANN |first3=MANUEL |last4=ELSNER |first4=CARSTEN |title=Building Africa’s Renewable Energy Future: Recommendations for a Just Transition |publisher=South African Institute of International Affairs |date=September 2020 |url=https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Policy-Briefing-212-muller-et-al.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{mller2020building, author = {MÜLLER, FRANZISKA and CLAAR, SIMONE and NEUMANN, MANUEL and ELSNER, CARSTEN}, title = {{Building Africa’s Renewable Energy Future: Recommendations for a Just Transition}}, institution = {South African Institute of International Affairs}, year = {2020}, month = sep, url = {https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Policy-Briefing-212-muller-et-al.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }