Welcome to the United Nations
Department of Infrastructure and Energy at the African Union Commission
The global drive towards net zero necessitates rapid transition to clean energy systems. Without specific efforts to ensure an equitable transition, including the need to manage the use of Africa’s fossil fuel resources as an integral part of the transition, existing injustices in the current energy systems will be exacerbated, resulting in winners and losers. This is particularly so for the informal sector, especially women who form the dominant majority.
With the right policies and support, Africa remains the biggest potential clean energy and green transitions growth pole with critical minerals for the global green and digital transitions. However, Africa is still energy poor.
This side-event will interrogate the issue of just transitions in Africa, its implications and opportunities for driving access, climate action, industrialization, job creation, and social inclusion of the informal sector, one of the largest productive sectors accounting for 80% of urban jobs on the continent.
The event will discuss Africa’s green transition prospects with a focus on green entrepreneurship and job creation and the role of Africa’s oil and gas in a managed transition to understand how to build resilience post-covid and improve inclusive sustainable development towards accelerated achievement of the SDGs and Agenda 2063.
The session will focus on:
- Inclusive and just transitions.
- The role of oil and gas in accelerating Africa’s clean energy transition.
- Gender equality in the informal sector and the gendered dimensions of access to clean energy and green technologies.
- Accelerating the SDGs and Covid-19 recovery through the creation of green jobs.
- Green entrepreneurship
