UN official: China injects impetus into Africa's green energy transition through EVs

Cooperation with China is injecting much-needed impetus into Africa's quest for green energy transition, mainly through the promotion of electric vehicles (EVs) on the continent, a senior United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) official has said.

Robert Tama Lisinge, acting director of the technology, innovation, connectivity and infrastructure division at UNECA, highlighted the importance of China-Africa collaboration in promoting electric mobility in Africa.

Noting that the African continent is on the move towards a greener future with the EV revolution at the heart of this transformation, Lisinge said the UNECA is leading the charge, in which the partnership with China is proving to be a crucial driver of Africa's green energy transition ambition.

"We want to see more Africans driving EVs on the streets of the continent. Not just driving EVs, we want to see electric vehicles being manufactured on our continent in the spirit of transition to clean energy, industrialization and value addition," he said.

Lisinge noted that Africa's transportation sector, which is heavily reliant on fossil fuels and a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, requires strong collaborative efforts to embrace the transition to green energy as a global imperative.

"We know that the transport sector in Africa and, indeed, the rest of the world, is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions," he said. "That is why we do believe that fighting greenhouse gas emission and protecting our climate have to also focus on the transport sector, and we are supporting energy transition in this sector through the use of EVs."

Recognizing the hurdles Africa faces in the adoption of EVs, Lisinge said that the UNECA is working in collaboration with China and other partners to address the persistent challenges hindering the evolution of the EV sector in Africa.

"China is a major leading producer of electric vehicles, and China is also very advanced in developing energy storage facilities. China is already exporting a lot of electric vehicles not only to Africa but also to the rest of the world," he said.

"Africa is very rich in raw materials that are required to produce batteries for electric vehicles. At the UNECA, we are working on the value-chain of battery production, not just exporting the raw materials, but producing the batteries in Africa," he added.

The UNECA expert further underscored the significance of already existing China-Africa partnerships in energy transition.

"In energy transition, there is a huge collaboration between China and Africa. China is already a leader in many ways in energy transition because China is manufacturing a lot of the components for solar energy and solar panels and in manufacturing components of wind turbines. China is also a leading country in (technologies) that are used to produce hydrogen from water, using green electricity. A lot of these solar projects that you see in Africa are using solar panels from China," he said.

Lisinge also stressed the huge potential of the China-Africa partnership towards the localization of technologies in manufacturing green energy solutions in Africa, to effectively harness Africa's abundant green energy resources.

"It has a lot to do with the transfer of technology because Africa has abundant renewable energy resources and we have the minerals that are critical for green energy transition," he said.

Lisinge called for further augmenting the China-Africa partnership in the development of energy and other infrastructures, as well as in capacity building and technology transfer, with particular emphasis given to the growth of the green energy sector in Africa.

"China is already investing more than anyone else in infrastructure development in Africa, including energy. We recognize the important role that China is playing in Africa's infrastructure development, and we would want to see more of that happening in Africa," said Lisinge.