Sailing in stormy seas: EU – Africa energy relations in a shifting world order

In an increasingly polarized world, African countries are deepening regional integration efforts. From trade (the African Continental Free Trade Agreement), to health security (deepened after the Covid-19 pandemic), from digital innovation (lead by a youth-driven tech boom) to capacity building (a growing number of pan-African Universities) to – finally – regional power interconnections, the Continent is deepening its internal collaboration. 

Increasing coordination is also enhancing Africa’s influence on the global stage.. In his address to the UN General Assembly in September, Kenyan President William Ruto reiterated Africa’s long-standing demand for two permanent and two non-permanent seats on the Security Council, declaring Africa’s exclusion “unacceptable, unfair, and grossly unjust”. 

African countries have become more and more vocal in expressing their frustration toward the West, with the Ukraine-Russia war and the Middle East crisis sharpening the sense of double standards. All this is adding yet another layer of complexity for Europe, which is trying to reassess its relations with Africa, amid longstanding trust issues and Africa’s attempts of building a less asymmetrical partnership. 

African countries are increasingly vocal in expressing their own priorities – including the need to promote a just and equitable energy transition – to shape the global agenda accordingly. To engage with the international community, they have articulated a set of common messages on key issues, attempting to overcome differences between countries and regions in terms of economic size, development needs, and energy mix.

The value added of a strategic cooperation

The Europe–Africa partnership has the potential to leverage respective strengths and shared interests to expand energy access in Africa, in line with African governments’ aspirations for sustainable development and growth. 

Just to give some figures: Africa has some of the greatest energy potential in the world, both from renewable and traditional sources. The continent has the largest solar potential  globally  and is home to 30% of the world’s critical mineral reserves, which are strategic for the energy transition. Yet it is also the continent with the largest number of people without access to energy – 600 million people in sub-Saharan Africa lack access to electricity. The sub-Saharan region is indeed one of the most affected by the impacts of climate change, despite being the least polluting, accounting for 4% of global emissions. 

The transition for Africa is primarily about ensuring access to electricity. This is critical issue, as access to affordable energy is the main driver of economic development and a key enabler for a number of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): if universal energy access in Africa continues to be a challenge, most of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’s targets will remain out of reach. Access to energy for a just transition is a priority of Eni’s distinctive model. In 2024, the company supplied 80% of the natural gas it produced to local African markets, ensuring access to energy and contributing to economic growth.

Europe, on the other hand, is a market in need of energy. Yet, it boasts deep  expertise in the energy sectors, coupled with advanced technology and stable regulatory frameworks, that can lead to the realization of truly mutually beneficial partnerships between Africa and Europe, leveraging their respective strengths and shared interests to improve energy access in Africa, in line with the continent’s aspiration for development.

By joining forces, Africans and Europeans could accelerate the deployment of green technologies to respond to their respective domestic needs, helping also to propel the world’s energy transition and simultaneously filling African countries’ massive energy and climate financing gaps.

On the eve of the G20 Summit in Brazil in November 2024, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa launched the “Scaling up renewables in Africa” campaign, aimed at accelerating access to renewable energy across the continent. One year after its launch, the campaign will culminate next November during the G20 Summit in Johannesburg. The Summit – hosted in South Africa, for the first time on the African continent – the first since the African Union joined the grouping – underscores the continent’s increasingly proactive role in shaping the global agenda, while advancing its own development priorities.

This initiative is just one of several European-led efforts supporting Africa’s energy transition. Back in 2021, as the world was emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic, the European Union adopted the Global Gateway strategy to promote global infrastructure development through an investment of €300 billion over six years, half of which is allocated to Africa. The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 subsequently forced Europe to rethink its energy security strategy, further emphasizing Africa’s strategic importance in diversifying energy supplies as an immediate alternative to Russian gas.

Increasingly strategic in the international context — due to its resources, population, expanding market, strong influence in global settings, pivotal role it can play in the global decarbonization process— the African continent aims to strengthen its integration into global value chains to achieve its growth and socio-economic development ambitions.

Eni’s distinctive and transitional approach 

Within this framework, Eni has built on its long-standing and deeply rooted presence on the continent — having operated in Africa since 1954, the company now works in thirteen countries, where it has promoted a collaborative and win-win approach — playing a key role in supporting Africa’s efforts to address the energy crisis. This distinctive approach has enabled Eni to swiftly identify new supply opportunities to ensure a secure and stable supply of natural gas to Italy and Europe — one of the fossil fuels with the lowest carbon footprint and a bridge energy source in the path toward decarbonization.

In a context where energy security has become more and more urgent, in April 2022, Eni expanded gas supplies from Algeria via the TransMed pipeline, contributing to increasing and diversifying gas export flows to Europe and Italy thanks to a long-established partnership with North Africa.

To ensure constant and reliable energy supplies for Italy and Europe, Eni has expanded the global portfolio of natural gas projects, including through the launch of the first LNG production in the Republic of Congo in 2022, tapping into the country’s abundant gas resources, to supply the local electricity market and allowing Congo to become a leading LNG exporter. in Africa, with Europe as the main destination.

Eni’s initiatives in Africa are not limited to traditional business activities but include renewable energy plants and infrastructure for the production, transport, and conversion of natural gas into electricity. Eni’s cooperation with Africa now goes beyond the energy sector, with a particular focus on agriculture and other activities linked to sustainability and energy transition projects.

As part of its commitment to decarbonization, Eni has begun integrating African countries into the biofuel value chain — including Kenya, Mozambique, Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, and Rwanda, among others.

Eni is also committed to promote local development through a series of  projects – in 2024, 38.8% of our local development investments were allocated to the African continent – with a particular focus on the sustainable and inclusive growth of the agricultural sector. The company is also distributing high-efficiency cookstoves through its Clean Cooking Programme (in Mozambique, the Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Rwanda, and Angola, among others), with a commitment of providing improved cookstoves to 20 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2030 (with 1.5 million reached by 2024). Clean cooking is a cornerstone of our pledge to enhance living standards in sub-Saharan Africa. For this reason, we have signed the “Clean Cooking Declaration: Making 2024 the Key Year for Clean Cooking”, an initiative led by the International Energy Agency (IEA), which aims to speed up the global adoption of advanced cooking solutions. This is a vital step in guaranteeing access to affordable, dependable, sustainable and modern energy for everyone.

Moreover, Eni is investing in educational programs focused on the energy sector and professional training in Egypt, Mozambique, and Côte d’Ivoire and in new energy research centres, such as the Centre d’Excellence d’Oyo for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency in the Republic of Congo and the Solar Lab research laboratory in Algeria for the study and testing of photovoltaic technologies.

Building on more than seventy years of presence on the continent, Eni strongly believes that achieving a just energy transition in Africa, capable of spurring local development, requires a pragmatic approach and recognizes the value of a dialogue that brings together African experts, international financial institutions, and private companies.

Mutual understanding and open-minded dialogue are essential conditions for achieving ambitious goals together. 

To support the production and exchange of knowledge for a just transition in Africa, in November 2023 Eni and Luiss Guido Carli University launched in Rome the International Network on African Energy Transition (INAET). The platform brings together institutions, universities, think tanks, and scholars from Africa and Europe to elevate African priorities and promote innovative solutions for the continent’s transition. Following the success of the first event, a second INAET Conference was held Kenya, on April 8–9, 2025. The event marked a significant strengthening of the initiative, thanks also to the involvement of the International Finance Corporation (IFC, the commercial arm of the World Bank) and the sponsorships of Bayer, WTS Energy, and Alpha Group Logistic.

The high-level debate featured contributions from representatives from the African Union, the governments of Kenya, Tanzania, and Sierra Leone, as well as United Nations agencies, international financial institutions and African companies.

INAET represents an important step in building a bridge that closes the gap between Africa and Europe, fostering greater mutual understanding, a platform to raise awareness on the need for shared knowledge and of the importance of fully grasping each other’s perspectives.