ETA Colloquium 2026
Transition or Transformation? What Will the New Energy Economy Mean for Africa’s Development? Africa’s energy transition is accelerating. Investment is flowing into renewable energy, electricity infrastructure, critical minerals and new technologies. But changing an energy system and transforming an economy are not necessarily the same thing. The inaugural Energy Transition Africa Colloquium asks a larger question: what will Africa gain from the new energy economy?
About the Colloquium
The inaugural Energy Transition Africa Colloquium 2026 brings together African voices from policy, industry, finance and research to examine whether the continent’s changing energy system can become a platform for wider economic transformation.
Rather than asking only how quickly Africa can mobilise investment, deploy infrastructure or adopt new technologies, the Colloquium turns attention to the development outcomes behind the transition.
Across a series of keynote and featured addresses, conversations and presentations from the 2026 ETA Fellows, the programme will explore questions of African agency, industrial development, finance, institutional capability and the choices that will shape who creates and captures value from the new energy economy.
The conversation will explore
What greater African agency in the global energy economy would require.
How energy investment can build African industry and productive capability, rather than ending with the energy asset itself.
How the terms of transition finance affect who carries risk and who captures value.
How Africa’s energy choices connect to the continent’s wider development ambitions.
What emerging African researchers and practitioners are finding through the work of the 2026 ETA Fellows.
The Colloquium is designed not simply as a conference about energy, but as a conversation about what Africa’s energy transition is ultimately for.
Who should attend?
The Colloquium is relevant to policymakers, energy-sector professionals, development institutions, investors and finance practitioners, researchers, civil society organisations, journalists, students and others working across energy, climate, industry, natural resources and African development.
Participants will hear directly from African leaders and practitioners, engage with the discussion through live Q&A, and encounter new analysis from the inaugural ETA Fellows cohort.
Participation is free, but registration is required.
Speakers & Contributors
