Impact Summary: Achieving a global energy transition requires better data, analysis, and research from all regions, including Africa. While international funders are increasing support to model Africa’s energy transitions, much of that funding goes toward stand-alone analyses written by international consultants. The Energy for Growth Hub spurred researchers, policymakers, and forward-thinking funders to design and build a new approach.

The result: The African Climate Foundation announced the launch of the African Energy Futures Initiative at COP29 in November 2024, which will provide funding and other resources to African scholars and institutions for African-led energy transition research, modeling, and analysis. The new initiative, run independently by the African Climate Foundation, has seed funding from The Rockefeller Foundation and the ability to attract and manage funding from more donors. The first round of competitive multi-year grants for energy research hubs begins in 2025.

The Context 

The global energy transition isn’t just swapping out fossil fuels for renewables — it’s about ending energy poverty and building a future where everyone has abundant, clean energy they need to thrive. Africa’s energy transitions will determine the incomes, security, health, and well-being of more than 1 billion people on the continent — and have far-reaching effects on the climate and global economy. International funders are supporting the detailed analytics and modeling behind these transitions. But too often, funding goes to specific one-off plans by international consultants, rather than longer-term support to local institutions.

As a result, far too many African energy transition plans lack substantive homegrown input, thus undermining their relevance and effectiveness at the worst possible moment:

• The continent will account for a quarter of the world’s population by 2050;
• Africa needs vastly more energy for economic development and climate resilience; and
• Clean energy technologies are taking off in African markets on trajectories very different from those in the US or Europe.

African energy transition plans can’t be based solely on what works elsewhere — and they can’t be static, one-off documents.

The African Energy Futures Initiative takes a new approach: building homegrown energy analysis and research ecosystems

The initiative will channel resources directly to independent, interdisciplinary hubs of African-led energy analysis. It aims to ensure African policymakers have access to trusted pools of credible experts to provide insights grounded in local context. Ultimately, local expertise is the only way to ensure that the global energy transition tackles issues like poverty (not just emissions), and mitigates inequities (rather than entrenching them).

Why It Matters

All countries must be part of negotiations over the global energy transition. Yet countries don’t need one-off planning documents — they need a dynamic ecosystem of energy experts and institutions who can respond to political moments and problem-solve as conditions change.

How We Helped Build the African Energy Futures Initiative 

This challenge was in the Hub’s sweet spot: harnessing a coalition to close the gap between research and effective policy.

Here’s what happened:

1. We brought analysts together to assess the gap. First, we assembled a majority-African expert working group — with skills in energy systems modeling, development economics, and climate science — to figure out how African countries could be more influential in shaping the global pathway to net zero emissions. The group quickly zeroed in on one major challenge: the lack of support for African institutions and analysts. The group proposed five broad strategies to make energy transition modeling more accurate and inclusive.
2. We gathered input and ideas from more than 100 academics, policy experts, government officials, and philanthropists. We solicited feedback from a wide range of leaders through interviews, roundtable discussions, and a side event at the 2023 Africa Climate Summit. Based on these conversations, we identified key constraints and proposed channeling more funding directly to African researchers and the local institutions that house them. We made the case for:
   • Flexible funding and self-defined research agendas to create more space for researchers to experiment, explore, and design solutions (African energy researchers have been pushing for this for decades).
   • Interdisciplinary research to break down constraining silos.
   • Training to nurture a growing roster of energy experts.
   • Robust strategies to influence policy, because plans that sit on a shelf aren’t worth writing.
   • Multi-year funding to enable institutions to hire, retain, and grow.
3. We rallied a coalition to design the institutional structure to fundraise and make grants directly to research hubs. With crucial early-stage support from The Rockefeller Foundation and Schmidt Sciences, we brought together 20 experts from universities, think tanks, governments, and philanthropy to design a new funding model. The group landed on an African-led organization to fundraise and then channel resources directly to local research hubs, enabling them to expand their work, conduct new analyses, recruit staff and students, and strengthen their policy engagement. The African Climate Foundation volunteered to host.
4. The African Energy Futures Initiative was born in November 2024, with initial funding from The Rockefeller Foundation and a goal of supporting 20 hubs across Africa by 2035.

Key Players

• African Climate Foundation
• Bezos Earth Fund
• Clean Air Task Force
• Climateworks Foundation
• EED Advisory
• Energy Commission of Ghana
• Growald Climate Fund
• Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations
• Jawaharlal Nehru University
• Kenya Power
• The Rockefeller Foundation
• Rocky Mountain Institute
• Schmidt Sciences
• Sustainable Energy Africa
• Sustainable Energy for All
• University College London
• University of Cape Town
• World Resources Institute Africa

And from the Energy for Growth Hub:

• Rose Mutiso, Research Director
• Grace Tamble, Policy Associate
• Katie Auth, Policy Director

What Enabled Success 

The Energy for Growth Hub helped spur and shape this new initiative — but we didn’t do it alone. Our real value was brokering the diverse coalition that ultimately made it happen. Other keys to success:

• Self-aware funders working creatively on big-picture solutions. Historically, leading philanthropic and development funders have been part of the problem — channeling resources for African energy planning to external groups and consultants. But many of them are hungry to work differently. Several leading foundations shared their frustrations, but didn’t see an obvious alternative.
• Practitioners open to creating public goods. Our coalition included many entities with incentives to defend their own models and they could have viewed this initiative as a threat. But they arrived with open minds and believed in building a dynamic research ecosystem.
• A neutral third-party convener. We knew from the beginning that we didn’t want the Energy for Growth Hub to run a new initiative. (That would have run counter to the whole goal of the effort!). Because we weren’t fundraising for ourselves or angling for any specific future role or our own institution, we could facilitate open and trusting collaboration with both researchers and funders.

What’s Next? 

The African Climate Foundation will launch the first round of competitive bids in 2025. We look forward to supporting their work in an advisory capacity, expanding the network of partners, and amplifying the work of the brilliant African energy analysts who helped shape this initiative.

Learn more about shaping energy transitions.