Africa Green Hydrogen Alliance launched

The Africa Green Hydrogen Alliance has officially been launched. Six African countries; Kenya, South Africa, Namibia, Egypt, Morocco and Mauritania formed the alliance with the aim to make their continent a front runner in the race to develop green hydrogen.

The Alliance also aims to accelerate the transition from reliance on fossil fuels and shift to new energy technologies that open up access to clean, affordable energy supplies to all. The countries intend to foster collaboration on creating a sustainable enabling environment to supercharge green hydrogen development. This includes the development of public and regulatory policy, capacity building, financing and certification needed to mobilise green hydrogen production for domestic use and export.

The six founding countries intend to make the Alliance a platform for collaborating on work streams, exploring synergies between green hydrogen projects, sharing lessons learned, and research and development, as well as collaborating with the private sector, development finance institutions and civil society.

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Zero-emission

For example, South Africa’s goal to deploy 10 gigawatts of electrolysis capacity in the Northern Cape and around 500 kilotons of hydrogen per year by 2030 is forecast to create 20,000 jobs per year and 30,000 by 2040. Namibia’s planned $9.4 billion green hydrogen project is expected to create 15,000 jobs during construction and 3,000 permanent positions – 90% to be filled by Namibians. Projects are also planned in Egypt, Mauritania and Morocco.

The countries formally launched the Africa Green Hydrogen Alliance at the first-ever Green Hydrogen Global Assembly in Barcelona, with support from the UN Climate Change High-Level Champions, the Green Hydrogen Organisation, the African Development Bank and the UN Economic Commission for Africa.

“With its huge renewable energy resource wealth and land space, Africa has a chance to become a front runner in this burgeoning green hydrogen industry, creating zero-emission jobs, domestic energy supplies and export revenues fit for a decarbonised future. But to get there, we need radical collaboration across the governments, the private sector and civil society – as the Africa Green Hydrogen Alliance will foster,” said UN Climate Change High-Level Champion Nigel Topping said.