Africa’s push toward a just energy transition risks reproducing old patterns of inequality under a new green lab.
    Legal experts and policy analysts warned that weak accountability frameworks, investor-centric treaties, and donor-driven energy compacts are shaping outcomes more than African citizens themselves.
    
At an ongoing high-level policy session on regional energy governance taking place in Gaborone, Botswana, participants argued that the transition to clean energy is being treated primarily as a financing and technology challenge, while the deeper issue of accountability remains unresolved.
   They cautioned that governments, investors, development finance institutions and multinational corporations continue to make sweeping commitments on energy access and decarbonisation without clear mechanisms to determine who is accountable, to whom, and with what consequences when targets are missed.
    A major concern raised at the policy dialogue was the structure of international investment law, particularly investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanisms embedded in more than 2,500 bilateral investment treaties.
   
Spending on ‘Promises Made, Promises Kept? The Case for Rigorous Just Transition Accountability in Regional Energy Initiatives,’ Director, Africa Coalition for Sustainable Energy Access and the Just Transition Platform, Eugene Nforngwa, said the system has created a one-sided enforcement regime that strongly protects investors while offering limited or no remedy to affected communities.
   He noted that fossil fuel companies have secured tens of billions of dollars in arbitration awards globally, while governments face mounting legal exposure for policies aimed at phasing out carbon-intensive infrastructure.
   Among the cases he cited was the disputes brought against governments in Europe and North America over coal phase-out policies and energy subsidy reforms.

In his presentation, ‘Closing the Loopholes: Instrumentalising Accountability in the Just Energy Transition’, Principal, Lex Navitas and the Just Transition Platform, Dr Tedd Moya, warned that the legal frameworks are now being extended into renewable energy and emerging sectors such as green hydrogen, critical minerals and carbon markets—raising fears that the transition itself is being locked into an extractive legal model.
    The discussion also focused on new energy projects being developed across Africa, particularly large-scale green hydrogen schemes and renewable energy export corridors.
    Experts warned that many of these projects are structured primarily for export to industrialised markets, particularly in Europe, rather than domestic electrification.

According to presentations made at the meeting, nearly two-thirds of proposed large-scale renewable energy capacity on the continent is being aligned with green hydrogen production, much of it destined for external markets.
    Concerns were raised that existing legal frameworks do not require meaningful community consent, domestic energy access guarantees, or binding benefit-sharing arrangements before land and water resources are allocated to such projects.
    The participants were convinced that projects can comply fully with international standards while leaving surrounding communities without electricity.
    
They also addressed major regional initiatives including Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETPs), Power Africa, Mission 300 and the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP).
   While these programmes have mobilised tens of billions of dollars in commitments and aim to expand electricity access to hundreds of millions of people, speakers said accountability mechanisms remain weak and largely oriented toward donor reporting rather than citizen oversight.
    Power Africa was criticised for limited transparency and evaluation challenges, with questions raised over whether reported gains in electricity access accurately reflect meaningful supply.
    
Mission 300, which seeks to connect 300 million Africans to electricity by 2030, came under scrutiny for its governance model, which relies on country-level “energy compacts” and monitoring units embedded within executive offices.
   They warned that while the initiative is framed as country-led, key benchmarks and monitoring systems are designed by external institutions including multilateral development banks and philanthropic actors, raising questions about democratic oversight and legislative involvement.
    Participants cautioned that many of the new energy compacts are negotiated and implemented within executive branches of government, without adequate parliamentary scrutiny or public participation.
   
They submitted that this could create a system where governments commit to far-reaching reforms in energy pricing, utility restructuring and private sector participation without domestic legal ratification.
    On his part, National Coordinator, Nigeria Labour Congress Programme on Climate Change, Green Jkbs and Just Transition, Echezona Asuzu, also raised concerns about transparency in how participating countries are selected and how reform priorities are set.
    A recurring theme was the risk that Africa could become a major exporter of green energy for industrialised economies while still struggling with widespread domestic energy poverty.
   
Participants pointed to plans for large-scale hydrogen production corridors linking Africa to Europe, describing such projects as reinforcing historical patterns of resource extraction.
    They warned that while European strategies rely on imported renewable hydrogen to meet decarbonisation targets, African countries risk locking land, water and infrastructure into export-oriented systems that do not prioritise local needs.
    To address emerging challenges, experts called for a fundamental overhaul of the legal and regulatory architecture governing energy transitions.
    
Proposals put forward included renegotiation or termination of existing investment treaties, introduction of climate and public interest carve-outs, and stronger domestic laws mandating community consent, local benefit-sharing and domestic energy access thresholds.
    They also urged the adoption of binding due diligence laws for multinational energy investors and stronger use of regional courts and human rights mechanisms to enforce accountability.
   
Participants argued that African governments should explore counterclaims in investor arbitration cases, holding fossil fuel companies liable for climate-related damage as a way of rebalancing existing legal asymmetries.
    The participants warned that without urgent reforms, the continent risks embedding a new form of inequality within the architecture of the clean energy economy.