Developing countries' energy needs and priorities under a sustainable development perspective: The specific case of Africa and green hydrogen

Africa is the continent most affected by energy poverty, with more than 40 % of its population lacking access to electricity. This is in spite of an extremely high potential for renewable energy generation and an increasing number of fossil fuel developments on the continent. Through its development cooperation programmes, the EU has committed significant funds to reduce energy poverty in its partner countries in Africa. These programmes aim to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 7, which commits the international community to ensure universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy by 2030. This report takes stock of these efforts by investigating the major challenges to universal access to energy in Africa and the efficacy of the EU programmes trying to overcome them. It also examines how these efforts may interact with the external aspects of the EU’s Green Hydrogen strategy, which foresees significant imports of green hydrogen from African partners by 2030. The report analyses the strategy from the perspective of the Policy Coherence for Development.