United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has declared that Africa holds all the elements needed to become a renewable energy superpower. Speaking at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Yokohama, Japan, he called for urgent investment in green energy, stressing that Africa’s solar, wind, and critical mineral resources could lower energy costs, diversify supply chains, and accelerate global decarbonisation.
Guterres warned that mounting debt challenges risk undermining Africa’s development, urging greater concessional finance and stronger support from multilateral development banks. He noted that renewable energy expansion would not only benefit the continent but also strengthen global markets, saying, “Debt must not drown development.”