Achieving ‘net zero’ carbon emissions is essential for climate progress. But most global projections of how to get there actually leave over 1 billion people behind. As countries announce new net zero plans at the upcoming COP27, we need African countries and analysts to play a much bigger role in deciding the pathway forward.

We released a new report, “Who Decides Africa’s Net Zero Pathways? Five ways to fix how we model African energy transitions and why it matters for climate and development,” by a working group of African modelers and energy experts, explaining why better modeling of African energy systems is crucial to achieving a prosperous and equitable clean energy transition, and providing 5 key recommendations to support this.

Our Coffee Break Briefing features report co-author and Hub Fellow Mike Dioha, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Carnegie Institution for Science, who discusses with Katie and Rose how the current models get it wrong, how to improve them, and why addressing this issue has enormous consequences for Africa’s energy future. Watch below, read the report here, and find the rest of our Coffee Break Briefings here: