The European Union and African Union have reaffirmed their climate commitments. Global Insight reports on how the two blocs are delivering change.

Hot on the heels of COP30 in Brazil, the African Union (AU) and the European Union (EU) placed climate at the heart of a joint statement following their seventh triennial summit in November. It is significant that, while the United States is making dramatic and controversial moves away from climate action, such major players are uniting to reaffirm their commitments.

Included in the statement are pledges on green trade, clean energy access, sustainable transport and resilient food systems, among other things. Biodiversity and the ‘blue economy’ – the sustainable use of ocean resources for economic gain – are also discussed.

The summit saw the two organisations finalise a partnership on minerals and metals, and the signing of a first-of-its-kind Clean Trade and Investment Partnership between the EU and South Africa.

‘We commit to continue our strategic cooperation in the energy sector through the Africa-EU Green Energy Initiative providing at least 100 million people in Africa with access to clean electricity by 2030,’ says the statement, committing to working towards a just and sustainable clean energy transition and developing Africa’s renewable potential.

This 25-year-old partnership is not a talking shop – it’s delivering real, tangible change to Africa. An example is the Scaling Up Renewables in Africa initiative, announced ahead of the G20 summit in 2024 to help deliver on a COP28 pledge to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030. The initiative was intended to run for a year and build on the EU–Africa Global Gateway Investment Package, itself worth €150bn.

Partnered with non-governmental organisation Global Citizen, the year-long initiative ended up raising €15.5bn to support renewable energy in Africa. It secured commitments to build enough capacity across the continent to reach 17.5 million households that currently lack reliable electricity access.

Globally, climate finance continues to be a thorny issue for climate negotiations, despite agreement at the 2024 Baku COP talks on a new collective quantified goal to provide $300bn annually by 2035 for all developing countries. The EU’s efforts, however, go some way towards helping to address the issue.

‘Last year, the investment in clean energy was globally €2tn, but only two per cent of this investment went to Africa – the continent with 60 per cent of the world's best solar potential,’ said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, speaking at the G20 summit in November, which followed the EU–Africa talks. ‘This cannot be. We must change this imbalance.’

Clean potential

It’s no secret that Africa has huge potential in terms of renewable energy. In 2022, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said that the continent is home to 60 per cent of the world’s best solar resources, but only one per cent of solar installations. The IEA forecasts that by the end of the 2020s, solar will be the cheapest source of electricity across all of Africa.

In its Sustainable Africa Scenario, the agency projects that renewables – including solar, wind, hydro and geothermal – could account for 80 per cent of all new capacity by 2030. A further boost could come from China if it redirects planned investments in coal-fired plants in the region – part of its Belt and Road initiative – to renewables instead.

Beyond raising the cash, the EU has already begun some projects to build up Africa’s renewable energy capacity, making good on its promise. Earlier in 2025, von der Leyen announced two projects under the Scaling Up programme.

The first is an interconnector, linking Zambia and Tanzania. This five-year, €268m project will connect southern and eastern Africa’s power pools, bolstering security of supply for millions of people.

The second is the continent’s inaugural green hydrogen project – a zero-emissions iron production facility based in Namibia. The project will begin with the installation of 20 megawatts of solar power to fuel the plant. This will increase to 18 megawatts of wind as well as 140 megawatts of solar in the following scaled-up production phase. In total, the HyIron Oshivela plant is expected to produce one million tonnes of clean iron a year, avoiding 1.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.

These initiatives were followed in September with the announcement of a €545m investment package, which included €359.4m for a high-voltage transmission line in Cote d’Ivoire, €59.1m for a rural electrification push in Cameroon and €45.5m to increase access to renewable energy in Somalia, among other projects.

‘The choices Africa makes today are shaping the future of the entire world,’ says von der Leyen. ‘A clean energy transition on the continent will create jobs, stability, growth and the delivery of our global climate goals. The European Union, with the Global Gateway investment plan, is fully committed to supporting Africa on its clean energy path.’

All of this gets to the heart of the issues that plague the UN climate talks: financial support for developing countries and implementation of actions. It shows a willingness to act, to make impactful investments and to build others up.

By way of comparison, South Africa’s Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) was announced with much fanfare at the 2021 climate talks in Glasgow but has made slower progress. Four years on, pledges to this initiative – which involves several Western jurisdictions – have come to around $12.8bn, according to the latest quarterly update on the JETP’s progress. However, the total investment plan stands at $84.75bn.

Of the JETP’s pledged funds, concessional loans account for the bulk of the cash, while around six per cent is provided in grants to support capacity building and community development, particularly in coal-affected communities.

Nevertheless, the initiative has made progress: of the 220 projects under the JETP as of 30 June 2025, 69 have been completed, while 111 are at the implementation phase. Unsurprisingly, electricity-related projects lead the group, with efforts also underway on green hydrogen, skills and energy efficiency.

Beyond energy

Beyond the clean energy aspects, the EU–Africa summit highlighted trade measures. In this respect, Europe’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) entered into full force in January. The CBAM is the EU’s ‘tool to put a fair price on carbon emitted during the production of carbon-intensive goods that are entering the EU, and to encourage cleaner industrial production in non-EU countries’. It taxes imports based on the carbon emitted during their production.

While not providing exemptions from the CBAM, the EU has agreed to work with the AU to address challenges facing exporters from the continent, including the sustainable management of natural resources. It has also promised ‘open, transparent, and inclusive channels of dialogue’ on trade-related climate measures such as CBAM and the now-delayed EU Deforestation Regulation.

The two partners committed to ‘promote and support innovative and climate-resilient initiatives across all transport modes’ with sustainable aviation fuel a particular area of focus. They also reaffirmed their commitment to developing a circular economy, fighting illegal wildlife trafficking and supporting the new Global Biodiversity Framework.

Crucially, the two also made clear their commitment to multilateral fora, with the UN at the core. Regarding the climate crisis, this means honouring the Paris Agreement and working to keep a 1.5°C cap on warming within reach, as well as collaborating on carbon pricing, enhancing adaptation efforts and mobilising climate finance.

‘Ten years after the Paris Agreement, we recognise that it has helped shift the global economy toward a clean and resilient transition,’ says the joint EU–AU statement. ‘However, global climate action remains too slow, and ambition must rise to meet the challenge and avert an existential threat.’

Katie Kouchakji is a freelance journalist and can be contacted at katie@kkecomms.com

Header image: www.stock.adobe.com/Mdv Edwards