COP30 Africa Clean Energy: Will the Continent Ditch Fossil Fuels or Double Down?

By: Abudu Olalekan

COP30 Africa clean energy debate heats up as nations demand flexibility on fossil fuels amid broken climate finance promises. Is this pragmatism or a dangerous trap?

The air in Belém is thick, humid, and angry. You can almost touch the tension. African delegates walk the corridors with tight jaws. They’re tired of being lectured. Tired of being promised hundreds of billions and receiving crumbs. Tired of watching the same countries that got filthy rich burning coal and oil now preach the gospel of “phase-out” while still quietly cashing cheques from their own fossil giants.

So yeah. Some African governments are pushing back. Hard. They want “flexibility.” They want to keep gas, oil, even coal on the table a little longer. And the room explodes.

Because the North hears “flexibility” and screams “betrayal of the 1.5°C goal.”
Africa hears “flexibility” and thinks: survival.

Let’s not pretend this is complicated. It’s actually pretty simple.

The rich world owes Africa at least $1.3 trillion in climate finance by 2030. They promised $100 billion a year starting in 2020. We’re in 2025. They still haven’t hit the target once. Not even close. Last figure was $79 billion if you squint and count loans as gifts. Loans, by the way, that come with interest and strings. Cute.

So when wealthy nations stand up and demand Africa leapfrogs straight to renewables with no safety net, many African leaders hear: “Stay poor. Stay in the dark. But please keep the lithium and cobalt coming for our Teslas.”

That’s the raw truth nobody wants to say out loud.

Over 600 million Africans still have no electricity. Hospitals running on generators. Kids studying by kerosene lamp. Factories that can’t run full shifts because the grid collapses. You think those people care about 2050 net-zero when they can’t charge a phone in 2025?

And yet, the same voices shouting “no new fossil fuels” are weirdly quiet when Europe scrambles for LNG after cutting Russia off. Funny how “transition fuel” sounds evil when it’s in Mozambique but totally reasonable when it’s landing in Germany.

Terry Githinji from Oil Change International didn’t hold back. He basically said what everyone’s thinking:

“It’s mad that just when the world finally admits the fossil era is dying, some of us are begging for extra time to dig more graves. Over 70% of the new oil and gas planned in Africa will be stranded before 2050. We’re about to borrow billions to build stuff that will be worthless. And who pays when it all collapses? Us. Again.

A just transition isn’t a slower suicide. It’s energy that actually reaches people. Solar mini-grids in villages that have never seen light after sunset. Wind farms that create real jobs, not just security contracts for foreign mercenaries. That’s the future we deserve. But it costs money. Money the North owes us. Not loans. Grants. Reparations. Call it what it is.”

Omar Elmawi, the man who coordinates half the climate justice movements you’ve never heard of, went straight for the jugular:

“This whole idea that Africa ‘needs’ gas is propaganda cooked up by a handful of petrostates and their friends in expensive suits. Tell that to the people of Niger Delta breathing oil fumes. Tell that to the fishermen in Cabo Delgado who lost everything to Total’s war zone. Fossil fuels didn’t develop Africa. They robbed us blind and left cancer clusters as souvenirs.

We have more than enough sun, wind, geothermal, hydro to power this continent ten times over. What we don’t have is grant-based finance that doesn’t come with IMF handcuffs. Give us the money you owe. Then watch what we do.”

Karabo Mokgonyana from Power Shift Africa was even blunter:

“Gas is not a bridge fuel. It’s a burning platform. It’s grabbing farmland in Mozambique so some European utility can call itself ‘net zero’ while our people starve. It’s pipelines guarded by soldiers shooting villagers in Uganda. It’s kids with respiratory diseases in South Africa’s coal towns.

How much more proof do we need that fossil fuels hate Black and brown bodies?”

Look. Nobody sensible is saying Africa should become Saudi Arabia 2.0. The maths is brutal. Most new African oil and gas projects don’t even make sense at $40/barrel. They’re financial time bombs gift-wrapped as “development.”

But until the finance flows – real money, not smoke and mirrors – the pressure to sign bad deals will stay insane.

So here’s the real question at COP30:

Will the rich world finally pay what they owe and let Africa build the renewable powerhouse it could be?

Or will they keep starving the continent of capital, then clutch pearls when some governments reach for the only dirty cheque on the table?

Because if the second one happens, don’t blame Africa.

Blame the mirror.