Harnessing Africa's renewable potential with an integrated framework for energy justice and climate resilience

Africa’s renewable energy transition presents both a vital opportunity and a complex challenge shaped by deep-rooted structural barriers and global power asymmetries. While the continent is endowed with significant renewable resources including solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, and bioenergy, these potentials are constrained by entrenched fossil fuel dependencies, chronic fiscal limitations, infrastructural deficits, and neocolonial patterns of resource extraction. This study offers a critically reflective assessment of Africa’s energy landscape, moving beyond techno-optimistic narratives that emphasize smart grids and carbon markets without addressing underlying political and socio-economic realities. It foregrounds the imperative of distributive justice, labour market transitions, and equitable participation in energy governance. A phased and integrative roadmap is proposed that prioritizes local agency, structural reform, and the democratization of energy systems. By critically engaging with the intersection of climate imperatives, development needs, and global geopolitical pressures, the study advocates for a just and context-specific transition that avoids reproducing extractive paradigms under a green veneer and instead enables inclusive, sustainable transformation.