4th Meeting of The High Level Group of Personalities on EU-Africa Relations
Forging an Africa-Europe Climate Alliance: Green Transition, Sustainable Energy and Agriculture
Introduction
The EU-Africa High-Level Group is a group working to identify the priorities and next steps that both continents must take to enhance the strategic approach needed in core policy areas. This year, the High-Level Group will be focusing on Accelerating Africa’s Green Transformation, with special attention being paid to sustainable agriculture and energy.
SDG7 Youth Constituency, in partnership with Nadia Gullestrup Christensen, Danish UN youth delegate for climate and environment, has been asked to nominate one African young person to attend the 4th meeting of the group on July 1. The nominee, Chibunna Ogbonna from Nigeria, took part in the meeting. Chibunna, Nadia and SDG7 YC jointly provided written inputs that will feed into the report for the EU-Africa Summit in October.
Recommendations
Selecting participants for future events and projects
In terms of selecting participants for future events and projects, we believe that the young people chosen to be involved in different processes need to be representative and also accountable to other young people. Furthermore, the selection of the young people should be democratic and peer-led, so that young people themselves select who they want to represent them. As SDG7 YC, we were glad to facilitate the selection process for the meeting on July 1 and as part of the UN MGCY, the official youth engagement platform at the UN, we would be happy to use our previous experience in this space to support these processes in the future.
As a start we would recommend Friends of Europe and other organizations to consider establishing the following initiatives:
Youth Day on the margins of the EU-Africa Summit in October
Following the example of ECOSOC Youth Forum or the EU Youth Energy Day, it is crucial to have dedicated spaces for youth to exchange their experiences, propose ideas for new projects and submit policy recommendations, in order to encourage development of innovative solutions. Building on the experience of UN MGCY and SDG7 YC specifically, we would be happy to support you in planning this event. Moreover, it would be important to involve other relevant youth-led and youth-serving organisations from the EU and Africa engaged in this as well
Youth delegates at Summit
Some countries already have their UN youth delegate which could participate in the event. For other countries, the youth delegates should be elected democratically and by other young people. A further improvement would be to have two young people in every delegation where they are elected for 2 years, but where they overlap each other so that every year, there would be an experienced youth delegate and a new youth delegate from every delegation. The advantage of this model is avoiding losing experience and contacts as well as maintain institutional memory
Funding
To ensure that it is not only young people with a privileged background who have the opportunity to be involved, funding is essential. When the young representatives are expected to travel somewhere a minimum of funding is that the travel cost is covered. Furthermore, it would also be optimal that youth would get food and hostel/hotel covered as traveling related to their work as a youth delegate.
To ensure democratic processes it is also important that delegations and youth organizations have sufficient time to prepare for the event and elect youth representatives. Therefore we would encourage organizers of conferences to include youth involvement early on in the process. We would be happy to schedule a call with you in the upcoming days or weeks to further discuss our proposals.
Notes from the meeting
The event was kicked off with greetings from welcoming guests and high level personalities to the discussion.
The EU in March issued a renewed strategy for Africa. The Cotonou Trade Agreement has been delayed. Also, EU-AU relationship is very important but there is a mismatch.
AU is more or less an executive club of African Leaders without effective delegation to Authority.
Shaking hands does not lead to execution. The EU should widen relationships to include countries, youth, civil societies.
EU planned strategy should place Youth as Number one as 60% of Africa’s population is youth.
The EU should really be genuine in relations with Africa.
In Africa, leaders still displayed cynicism to Xenophobia issues and this is our responsibility as African leaders to deal with and push forward progress and welcome development.
The COVID-19 put us into the right perspective. We must work together across both continents to drive growth especially. There should be no disparity between growth and climate friendly actions.
Across the world, Post COVID, economies will see an increase in Recessions and Unemployment and Governments have a once in a generation opportunity to recover better with sustainable energy.
In Africa, over 573 Million people have no access to electricity and over 900 Million people have no access to clean cooking. Deep inequality in Energy access highlighted by COVID-19.
Diversity & Young people are key in driving the needed change.
Governments and businesses must forge partnerships towards sustainable energy access.
EU-AFRICA Climate Alliance is key to driving job creation, sustainable development.
SE4ALL recently released the ‘Recovering Better with Sustainable Energy’ report. As we recover better, we need to be aware of energy investments in Agriculture and Health.
Prioritise Women in Energy access.
Agree to look at recovering better strategies, High Level Dialogue on Energy in September and also the COP 26.
Practical Action Recommendations:
Policy & Regulations should be adopted as they already exist.
Cost reflective tariffs are key for level playing field
Investment in Data
Investment in People
Energy access is best done by Renewables.
Africa’s population will double by 2050 which means double demands for Jobs, double mouths to feed and double energy demands.
For the EU, this presents a large market opportunity in Africa in the next 30 years as evidenced by three (3) mega trends; 1) Climate Change 2) COVID-19 3) The Youth Bulge.
The youth will determine either progress or regress in Africa and therefore must be prioritised.
African Union should utilize all energy resources, drive sustainable agriculture via smart agribusinesses.
Practical recommendations:
Investments will not come when regulations are not transparent.
Create knowledge platform for school of regulators
Can this group help to empower top 10 countries in Africa like Ghana, Rwanda and Ivory Coast who have achieved 85%, 40% and 45% respectively of energy access to achieve universal energy access so that they can be used as an example to other countries in Africa to show what it is possible.
Are there possibilities for Joint Ventures between Governments and Businesses and Europeans to go into real business deals?
We need to scale pilots not create more pilot projects.
We also need both on-grid and off-grid plans
Whatever transitions AU and EU talk about must include ‘Gas’
Gas is needed to power cleaner cooking and industries in Africa to save our forest reserves.
Energy efficiency will curb losses as Africa will have 45% higher energy intensity by 2050
Local manufacturing of energy technologies should be encouraged in Africa as 60% of cobalt and Manganese are found in Africa.
EU-AU partnership has to be a win-win.
EU trajectory by 2050 is carbon neutrality evidenced by the EU Green Deal. What will be the equivalent African Union trajectory target for the Green Transition? The answers will then pull convergence and help create actionable targets for EU-AFRICA collaborations.
Europe and Africa are the most linked in terms of destiny. We are interdependent in terms of sustainable development.
We have to work together, sadly many Europeans have a misguided perception of building fences to solve problems.
Answers to climate transition should reflect economic gains because we are in the middle of an Industrial revolution
We need to invest in the new economy instead of recovering by investing in the obsolete economy
In Madrid (COP 25), it was easier for Asia and the Soviet Union to have Africa on their side because of the disappointment of African leaders in Europe.
The EU needs to have Africa on their side. However, for this to happen, the EU has to understand the needs of Africa and help craft adaptation and mitigation strategies for Africa to tackle flooding, desertification, loss of biodiversity, locust invasions and loss of wildlife.
We need to be clear as how to help Africa leapfrog to energy access and sustainable agriculture
EU Hydrogen strategy will be beneficial for Africa.
The basic point here is that we should understand how vital the relationship between EU and Africa is for both continents
How can we have Education for Young Africans just like how it is in Europe?
It should be about ‘Strategy with Africa’ and not ‘Strategy on Africa’
Practical Action Recommendations:
We need to work with Nations and African governments towards a future without coal
First of all, bring energy access everywhere in Africa using renewables
Investment in physical infrastructures like Railroads-a huge opportunity
We need to bring much more science to Agriculture in Europe and Africa.
Bring more broadband to rural communities in Europe and Africa.
Some members were hopeful about Africa’s energy future before COVID-19.
The impact of COVID-19 is more serious in Africa than other parts of the world and has not been well recognized at global scale.
Three emerging challenges 1) Access to Electricity is very poor 2) Essential power plants, mini-grids investment are declining and weakening 3) Economies in Africa closely linked to Oil and Gas are experiencing the major challenges.
Fatih Birol still feels optimistic about Africa’s energy future
Governments in Africa for over two decades since (Fatih Birol) worked there have never taken key priority on Energy Access in budgets.
Solar Energy affordability is a huge potential in Africa.
40% of global solar irradiation comes to Africa but only 1% is harnessed
The EU Green Deal is an inspiration for many countries towards the green transition
Africa accounts for less than 2% of carbon emissions.
Africa’s priority for development should focus firstly on Energy Access- Renewables and Gas; secondly, Africa’s economy and thirdly, Climate change.
EU assistance on Africa’s energy access in the short term should focus on Solar energy which has huge economic gains (Lots of money to make) and for the Long term focus on Hydrogen.
For Africa, access to energy is crucial. COVID exposed the vulnerability especially in rural areas.
1 in 4 health centres have no electricity.
34% of health centres do not have clean electricity
We need to invest in Renewables more
COVID 19 shows two things in Africa: 1) Oil and Gas supply chains were disrupted 2) Natural gas cannot be ignored.
Practically speaking, it is not possible to ignore Oil and Gas.
Exporting raw Oil and Gas and importing finished products is not acceptable Post COVID 19.
We need to drive local production of gas and not export to Europe and import back again.
Women owned enterprises should be supported for large energy projects not to categorize women as beneficiaries and employees.
Financing should be made available for Women to build these large energy projects.
We need to push the green transition Post COVID 19 through microeconomic policies, planning and financing. We need to be very specific on targets for the October summit to define how we would take action.
For Food and Nutrition security, climate change and sustainable energy, let us see what we already have with the existing partnerships between Africa and Europe.
Well equipped and skilled people will drive the needed change so we have to prioritize education especially digital institutions such as ‘Africa Connect’
Let us tackle brain drain and talk about Brain circulation between the EU and Africa.
Over 200 Innovation hubs in Africa need to be equipped and linked to learn from each other.
Practical recommendation:
Why not run an EU-Africa Climate Alliance Hackathon to pull ideas from our talents in both continents?
Let us present very practical recommendations for the October Summit in these two areas- Sustainable energy and Sustainable Agriculture.
Looking from a food systems lens,
Let’s discuss carbon pricing as an entry point for investment discussions.
There is a large potential for value added exportation
How can we bring about the transformation through food?
Identify targets and introduce cheaper finance for SMEs, the cost of capital is very expensive.
Extend the digital architecture across Africa and give access to information.
We need to bring practical educational investments in rural areas.
Cost of accessing investments for large agriculture investments is still very expensive and financiers should consider.
COVID-19 has reduced fiscal space across many Governments in Africa.Trade can be a powerful entry point and we can establish specific guidelines, connect around principals and break structural entry barriers in both markets.
How can we bring people together to create a convergence to drive concrete change?
Bring businesses from both sides together
We need to have Europe-Africa Task forces for transport, energy, agriculture to come together to deliver practical results.
Investment funds and pension funds are reserved looking for green investments that will bring return on investments.
Africa is an emerging market with large potential. How can we help African markets to structure their markets and build capacity to attract these huge investments funds?
How can we work with key financial institutions to steer the ship for attracting investments between Africa and Europe?
How can Governments provide risk capital, patient capital for Africa Investments in the Green Transition?
It is more of perceived risk than real risk for example, Solar investments.
ODA matches investment funds to the potential areas for investment.
The world has changed from the impact of COVID-19 and the EU Green Deal. Creation of jobs, Food systems security, trade and the EU-Africa Climate Alliance are key actions to prioritize.
Dignity and respect in working together, Racial equality, and Gender equality should be prioritized by Africa and Europe.
Participation and Decision making should be prioritized for women and women in Leadership.
The transformation of Africa will depend upon the leadership of women.
Regional and Rural economy is driven by youth and women.
Investments in Joint Ventures (JVs) should go to rural areas
Botswana recognizes the potential of solar energy and due to her location in the desert area, coal is still being used though planning is underway to transition to solar energy gradually.
Full support for women and women led initiatives and projects.
Focus on youth involvement.
To elaborate on Youth involvement, we do not only want to strike and advocate. We want to help in providing solutions and push for higher ambitions and achievements for climate and sustainable development.
Young Researchers, new engineers and young policy makers are needed for the green transition and will need support.
Practical Recommendations:
Expecting youth delegations at the October summit especially from the global south.
Bring young people from both continents together at the October Summit- ‘Youth Day’ as part of the side events in the summit.
Boost of Innovation in Africa due to COVID-19. Lots of African countries had to innovate to respond to COVID by making 3D printed Ventilators and pharmaceuticals.
Social innovation is needed in Africa (working peer-to-peer)
Bring to the table Credit Rating Agencies to stop downgrading African growing economies as this stops Venture capitalists from investing.
We need something concrete that incarnates partnerships between Africa and Europe.
One immediate challenge that we need to address is that during the pandemic, many countries are in an acute liquidity crisis. In Q1, Nigeria spent 99% of revenues in repaying debts. If we don’t push aggressively for more Debt Relief and Allocation of Special Drawing Rights ( at the G20 Finance Ministers Meeting this month) we will see a major backtracking of progress which will make it harder to take forward this agenda in the future. Europe and Africa can play an important role in making that case.
Closing remarks:
We need to prioritize youth, women and civil society.