Eugene Nforngwa: “The call for recognizing energy access as a climate goal is a logical step in this new direction”

According to Director, Programs and Research, ACSEA African countries are now repositioning themselves as enablers of the transition, with their vast amounts of renewable energy, critical mineral and carbon sequestration potentials.

Adrienne Engono

30/09/2025

Environnement

You are the SIX30 campaign manager. Can you remind us what this initiative is all about?

The Six30 Campaign is a civil-society-led drive to address the acute energy poverty facing millions in sub-Saharan Africa. It calls on decision-makers in and outside the continent to commit and deliver no less than 6.30 billion USD to provide electricity to the 630 million people without electricity in sub-Saharan Africa. Led by the African Coalition for Sustainable Energy and Access, the Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance and their networks of more than 1000 organizations, the Campaign was launched in 2024 in Adiss Ababa Ethiopia by Dr Joyce Banda, the former president of Malawi. Six30 is symbolic in that it reflects the scale of energy poverty problem and our demand to solve it.

You were in the spotlight during the second African Climate Summit, which just held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where you called on negotiators and the continent's leaders for a global agreement on clean energy. Why did you make such a statement?

Energy has been addressed in global and regional policy processes such as the UN Climate Change conferences and the African Climate Summit as a question of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This is a debate direction that fails to reflect the reality and urgent needs of Africa – which produces very low emissions, is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and acutely energy poor. As a result, we started reframing the energy transition in African as one that primarily reduces climate change vulnerabilities and builds resilience. The call for recognizing energy access as a climate goal is a logical step in this new direction. Besides being an important development issues, energy poverty is a climate challenge in that it intensifies climate vulnerabilities and weakens adaptive capacities. But without a clear goal to reduce energy poverty or an energy access goal in the climate governance frameworks, it will be hard to mobilize and direct the scale of resources needed to address the problem.

This is not the first time such initiatives have been spearheaded by both PACJA and ACSEA. Can you tell us about the results already achieved and, particularly, what impact your call has had?

As advocacy organizations, our primary missions are to influence policy and practices. This often

involves challenging dominant approaches that do not serve African interests and creating new narratives. We have succeeded on this front. For example, the idea of energy access as a climate change adaptation approach has become popular among decision-makers, practitioners and advocates alike. Thanks to our advocacy, the World Bank, the African Development Bank and several other partners launched Mission 300 in 2024. The initiative aims to provide electricity to 300 million people in Africa, which is very much in line with the goal of the Six30 Campaign. During the just ended Africa Climate Summit, heads of states committed to making energy access a climate action priority for the continent. We have also managed to keep climate adaptation and adaptation finance at the top of the global climate governance agenda, which was once dominated by mitigation. Results may not be occurring at the speed and scale that we desire, but we are comforted that minds are changing and policies are shifting in the right directions.

Given these results, is it necessary to continue your action?

Absolutely. Change happens slowly but it eventually does. So, we see no reason to give up now. Instead, the push back we face in some areas strengthens rather than weakens our resolve.

Eugene Nforngwa

Do you think, like other observers, that it's because Africa is evolving in disparately that it has difficulty to convince?

The energy transition is essential for an effective fight against global warming, as some recognize. But is Africa obliged to reach out to Westerners countries to achieve this, given the continent's potential? If yes, why?

The energy transition is global – but different parts of the world would have to transition at different scales and speeds. Given the volume of emissions that industrialized countries have produced and continue to do so, and the wealth they have amassed in the process, they have both the responsibility and capability to cut emissions deeply. But also, they have the duty under the rules of the UNFCCC to provide financial, technological and technical resources to developing and low emission countries to play their part in the global shift. It is in this respect that African and other developing countries demand climate finance from rich countries for their share of climate action. What we have seen are attempts to circumvent this arrangement, through, among others, the rise of language that frames African states’ demands for justice as perpetual dependence on charity, a decent into victimhood and evading of responsibility to protect their populations. That said, African countries are now repositioning themselves as enablers of the transition, with their vast amounts of renewable energy, critical mineral and carbon sequestration potentials. This means Africa can play a different role in the global transition, using its critical resources (without which the transition will be difficult) as leverage to redefine the priorities and rules on global cooperation and climate finance. The challenge at this point is the absence of bold leadership and a common front to do this.

As a young person, you are, along with women from the African population who are suffering the

negative impacts of global warming. If people feel that your mobilization efforts don't match your dynamism, they feel that you can do more. What can you reply?

Advocacy is a long game. Except in rare cases, results appear over time and may not be visible initially. The

context of climate advocacy is also fraught with challenges. In the first instance, climate denialist rhetoric and climate misinformation is on the rise, making the case for climate action harder. Secondly, the civic space is shrinking in many regions, including Western democratic societies. As a result, many voices are being silenced. This situation can cause young advocate to feel discouraged, or push observers to chastise the efforts of activists. But the evidence is also piling and the hope that good sense will eventually prevail must be a reason to keep going. In a recent commentary, I argued that denying climate change will not stop floods from sweeping out communities or cyclones from tearing through villages. The climate crisis is undeniable.