JUST TRANSITION
A CLIMATE, ENERGY AND DEVELOPMENT VISION FOR AFRICA
New Report on Africa's future!
A report by the Independent Expert Group on Just Transition and Development
Authors
This report was co-authored by a collective of independent experts, under the leadership of Youba Sokona. It builds on more than a decade of collaboration among some of the members of the Independent Expert Group, including the building of institutions and formulation of major regional and continental level initiatives, such as the Africa Renewable Energy Initiative and the Least Developed Countries Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Initiative for Sustainable Development.* The report also builds on prior work and support through WhatNext? The authors thank Tetteh Hormeku for his work which provided inspiration to Part I especially.
YOUBA SOKONA
Vice-Chair IPCC AR6
Youba Sokona has over 40 years of experience addressing energy, environment and sustainable development in Africa, and has been at the heart of numerous national and continental initiatives. He is currently a Vice-Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change after serving as Co-Chair of IPCC Working Group III and before that Lead Author since 1990. He has an extensive track record of organisational leadership and management, for example as Inaugural Coordinator of the African Climate Policy Centre and as Executive Secretary of the Sahara and the Sahel Observatory. He is affiliated with numerous boards and organisations, including, as Honorary Professor at the University College London, Member of The World Academy of Sciences and the African Academy of Sciences, Science Advisory Committee of the International Institute for Applied System Analysis.
YACOB MULUGETTA
Professor, Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy at the University College of London
Yacob Mulugetta is a Professor of Energy and Development Policy at the University College London. He is a founding member of the African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC) at the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) based in Ethiopia where he worked as Senior Climate and Energy Specialist (2010-2013). He has over 25 years of research, teaching and advisory experience specialising on the links between energy infrastructure provision and human welfare. He served as a Coordinating Lead Author of the Energy Systems chapter of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 5th Assessment Report (Working Group III on Mitigation), lead author in the IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C, and more recently as a Lead Author in the 6th Assessment Report of the IPCC (Chapter on Demand, Services and Social Aspects of Mitigation). Yacob Mulugetta is a Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS).
FADHEL KABOUB
Professor, Denison College; President Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity
Fadhel Kaboub is a Tunisian economist with expertise in designing public policies to enhance monetary and economic sovereignty in the Global South, build resilience, and promote equitable and sustainable prosperity. He has held a number of research affiliations with the Levy Economics Institute (NY), the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University (MA), the Economic Research Forum (Cairo) and the Center for Strategic Studies on the Maghreb (Tunis). He is an Associate Professor of economics at Denison University, the president of the Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity, and recently served as Under-Secretary-General for Financing for Development at the Organisation of Southern Cooperation in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
MERON TEFSAMICHAEL
Senior Research Fellow and Lecturer in Political Economy at the University College London
Meron Tesfamichael Senior Research Fellow and Lecturer in Political Economy at the University College London. Her work focuses on the politics and political economy of climate change governance and energy transitions in Africa. She has led and been involved in a number of flagship projects related to just transition and the politics of low carbon development, and brings her vast field experience and contextual insights into these efforts. Meron holds a PhD in Politics from the New School for Social Research in New York City.
NICLAS HÄLLSTRÖM
Director, WhatNext?; Senior Affiliate Center for Environment and Development Studies, Uppsala University
Niclas Hällström is Director of WhatNext?, a platform to explore new and alternative development ideas and catalyse action for social change. Through this work he convenes scholars, activists and government officials to develop new ideas and set in motion numerous regional and global initiatives across health, disarmament, globalisation, economics, climate justice and development. Over the last 15 year he has worked extensively with African colleagues on promoting renewable energy and transformative solutions to climate change. He served as Associate Director of the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation 1995-2008 and is Senior affiliate and founder of the Centre for Environment and Development Studies at Uppsala University.
MATTHEW STILWELL
Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development
Matthew Stilwell is a public interest lawyer who has counselled governments, international and non-governmental organizations in multilateral negotiations on trade, climate, energy and sustainable development. He has advised African governments in UN climate negotiations, served as legal advisor to African Climate Policy Center, and is employed as Senior Attorney at the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development.
MOHAMED ADOW
Director, Power Shift Africa
Mohamed Adow is the Founder and Director of Power Shift Africa, a Climate Breakthrough Award winner, and an international climate policy expert. Mohamed founded PSA in 2018 to mobilize climate action in Africa and shift climate and energy policies to zero carbon. He hails from a pastoralist community in Northern Kenya at the frontlines of the climate crisis, and is an ardent advocate for the people of developing nations who are disproportionately affected by climate change but play almost no role in causing it. Prior to launching Power Shift Africa, Mohamed led Christian Aid’s global climate policy and advocacy work for over a decade, specializing in developing countries’ issues, and supporting the organization’s climate policy and advocacy work in Africa, Europe, and at the UN climate negotiations.
COLIN BESAANS
Colin Besaans is a South African development economist with expertise in climate policy and energy systems. Colin has spent the last 10 years studying and working at the intersection of alternative development models, climate science, and energy systems. He is the Programme Manager for African Energy Transition at Power Shift Africa, and before this consulted for the Stockholm Environment Institute, the Climate Equity Reference Project, and McKinsey & Company. Colin was a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford where he earned a Master of Science in Environmental Change and Management and a Master of Public Policy. He was also a Mandela Rhodes Scholar at the University of Cape Town where he earned a Bachelor of Commerce in Economics and Law, and an Honours Degree in Economics.
* Youba Sokona, Yacob Mulugetta, Niclas Hällström and Mathew Stilwell played key roles as members of the drafting group that developed and catalysed the Africa Renewable Energy Initiative and the Least Developed Countries Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Initiative for Sustainable Development.
