Africa can seize green industry opportunities if policies are clear

Africa can benefit massively from seizing opportunities presented by the global green revolution, including by leapfrogging existing technologies, but this will not happen spontaneously and will require green industrial policy to facilitate developments, German Development Institute sustainable economic and social development head of department Dr Tilman Altenburg said this week. The complexities of the current global clean energy revolution – compared with earlier industrial revolutions that centred on a technology or a related set of technologies – make the planning and sequencing of changing industries and economies to use renewable energy difficult, as the clean energy revolution is expected to impact on a significant range of industries, as well as on mobility, social and economic activities, he stated.