Too often, discussions of the “green transition” focus myopically on dirtier fossil energy we must leave behind, as opposed to the opportunities ready to be seized. The result is that, for many young Africans, the global conversation around the new green economy sounds ominous. Just as Africa’s economies begin to really transform, and tens of millions of Africans prosper from the fruits of accelerating industrialisation and technological modernisation, we are cautioned that our economic aspirations are unfulfillable, or must necessarily come at the expense of our planet.
My generation of Africans are not prepared to defer our aspirations for economic security and development any longer. Scolding rhetoric and apocalyptic warnings which seem to present “de-growth” or a slowing of modernisation as our moral obligation will only entrench our attachment to hydrocarbons.
No, let’s appeal to the ambitions and ingenuity of young Africans, instead of our fears. Let’s make the positive case for renewable energies and the green transition: far from an ideology suppressing Africa’s growth, these emerging technologies are the only way to guarantee this continent’s continued development and deliver the economic opportunities my peers quite rightly demand.
For more than a decade now, luminaries have advanced a moral and ecological case for the energy transition. But too few have made the employment case for this most exciting of sectors –renewable energy. The good news is that the employment case for renewable energy is compelling and, until now, largely untold.
Renewables form part of a set of technologies and industrial innovations which are revolutionary and will, alongside AI and robotics, come to define this century. Renewable power generation is a rapidly expanding and evolving space in which Africans have a real opportunity to lead the world. But this leadership is not abstract – it translates into concrete benefits, in the form of millions of high-quality jobs conferring dignity, autonomy, and as renewables mature, global authority, agency and economic power.
And climate isn’t the only reason to embrace this new energy frontier. Africa’s population is growing at a dramatic rate. Just as a limited stock of hydrocarbons dwindles, the continent will have to create jobs to provide for 42% population growth before this decade’s end.
However much traditional hydrocarbon industries have supported communities historically, we have a duty to recognise that this economic model is unsustainable, and may be in its final decades. How, then, can educated Africans gain white-collar, skilled employment, which contributes to the continent’s economic development? A report by the specialist development agency FSD Africa and recruiters Shortlist – drawing on research by Boston Consulting Group – offers a conservative, near-term forecast of the new direct job creation potential of 12 “green” sub-sectors by 2030.
The landmark research predicts the creation of up to 3.3 million new direct green jobs across the continent by 2030, with the majority in the renewable energy sector, particularly solar. Focusing on five focus countries (the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa) which together account for more than a fifth of new jobs, and in key sectors such as renewable energy, e-mobility, agriculture, construction and manufacturing, the report is most striking in the kind and quality of jobs its analysis predicts.
60% of employment created by the green economy over the coming six years will be skilled or white collar in nature, this research suggests. Breaking that headline percentage down, 10% of this new employment is via “advanced jobs” (highly skilled, requiring university degrees to fulfil), whilst a further 30% are projected to be “specialized” (requiring certification or vocational training) and 20% will be administrative in emphasis.
The traditionally prestigious, well-paying roles in hydrocarbon extraction which have underpinned much of the growth of Africa’s middle-class will not last forever; and Africa has not seen any of the significant dividends and prosperity seen in other regions. This we knew. But the really important news is that renewables and e-mobility can, for the countries which develop these high-growth sectors, underwrite a wider economic transformation.
The benefits of developing these sectors and the associated jobs they support are exponential: even where employment growth is unskilled, the stability and formalising effect of these industries will expand governments’ tax bases and accelerate the growth of domestic financial markets. Put simply, without a formal salary, access to credit remains nigh-on impossible.
However, for me and my peers, the possibility of green job creation in Africa is more personal than structural. An increasingly educated, ambitious, and restless generation are graduating our schools and universities in ever greater numbers, and we will not be convinced to forfeit prestigious and well-paid careers on the altar of what can sometimes seem like Western preoccupations. But create green jobs, in exciting new sectors, which promise opportunities for global leadership, and Africa’s young people will not fail to grasp the opportunities.
