Content provided by
Last updated:
16/02 - 12:10
The power sector accounts for up to 41 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions today, with Africa contributing about 2-3%. In parallel, there are still over 580 million people on the continent who do not have access to reliable energy and the demand for electricity is expected to continue to grow as populations increase, industrialization ambitions grow and urbanization continues to fuel the need for more power.
To address sustainability concerns, the world is transitioning towards a lower carbon energy mix at a pace unseen before. This is reflected in the total global value of energy transition investment – including spend on new renewable energy capacity, electric vehicles and associated charging infrastructure, energy storage technologies, and more – reaching over US$500 billion (https://bit.ly/3be1TUv) for the first time in 2020. This was an increase of 9 percent over the previous year, despite the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, while renewables are growing rapidly, increases are not occurring fast enough, and they are still projected to provide less than half of global electricity supply by 2040.