External publications

Green transitions in Africa–Europe relations: what role for the European Green Deal?

Hackenesch, Christine / Maximilian Högl / Gabriela Iacobuta / Hanne Knaepen / John Asafu-Adjaye
External Publications (2021)

Brussels: European Think Tanks Group (April 2021)

Volltext/Full text

Key messages

• Green transitions have the potential to support Africa–Europe cooperation by combining

the climate agenda with an innovative socio-economic project for jobs creation and

sustainable growth. Green transitions can be a fruitful area for cooperation because

common interests and interdependencies between both continents are high.

• Green transitions are key topics in the African Union (AU) and the European Union

(EU). Both are committed to implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable

Development and the Paris Climate Agreement within which green transitions are key

elements. The EU has initiated the European Green Deal with an ambitious agenda to

transform Europe into a carbon-neutral continent by 2050. On both continents, green

transitions play a prominent role in debates about socio-economic COVID-19 recovery

programmes.

• Notwithstanding these communalities, the EU and the AU approach green transitions

from very different angles. Whereas the EU has a major historic responsibility and

continues to have very high per capita emissions, African countries have contributed

little to climate change but will be severely affected by its consequences. The AU’s

Agenda 2063 gives strong priority to poverty reduction and climate adaptation, whereas

the social dimension of the European Green Deal is limited. Acknowledging these

differences will need to be the starting point for identifying priorities for AU–EU

cooperation on developing green transitions.

• In order to make cooperation on the Green Deal and green transitions fruitful for AU–EU

relations, the EU institutions and member states will need to understand African

countries’ strategic objectives and interests. They will need to learn from past

experiences and reflect an eye-level partnership in their communications on, and

approaches to, cooperation in order to gain the trust of, and jointly identify common

interests with, African partners. The AU and member states, in turn, will need to invest

more in defining their strategic objectives, in promoting socially inclusive green

transitions across the continent, and in cooperating with the EU on green transitions.

• Neither Europe nor Africa has a blueprint for what carbon-neutral societies and

economies will look like. Cooperation on green transitions therefore provides

opportunities for joint learning and joint knowledge production by European and African

actors and for some of the underlying structural asymmetries to be addressed.

• This paper explores six particularly relevant fields of action for AU–EU cooperation on

green transitions and the Green Deal – energy transitions, the circular economy, trade,

climate change adaptation in the agricultural sector, climate diplomacy and financial

instruments. For each of these fields of action, reform initiatives on both continents are

discussed and specific recommendations developed.