Fuelling a Green Leap
Each spring, China’s largest political gathering, the Two Sessions, brings together the National People’s Congress and the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference to set the nation’s broad policy direction for the year.
A key highlight of this year’s Two Sessions is to adopt the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030). The plan stands out for its strong emphasis on high-quality development and provides a detailed framework to guide China’s economic, social and environmental priorities over the next five years. A key focus of the plan is a green transition across all sectors, essential for China’s modernisation, the creation of a “beautiful China” and the promotion of a shared global future.
The 2026 Two Sessions coincide with the 70th anniversary of China-Africa friendship. To celebrate this milestone, both sides have highlighted a renewed commitment to the goal of building an all-weather China-Africa community with a shared future, even amid unprecedented global challenges, including climate change.
It is an undeniable fact that climate change threatens livelihoods and, in some cases, entire national economies across Africa, the Global South and the wider world. Depending on the region, these risks can include food and water insecurity, disruptions to production and ecological systems and health hazards linked to erratic weather patterns, all of which undoubtedly affect the quality of development.
Amid these uncertainties, Africa looks to China for inspiration, relying on its experience, technical know-how and record of rapid modernisation.
Climate challenges
For Africa, climate change is among the greatest challenges to development. The continent’s limited development acts as a double-edged sword: it not only exposes Africa to severe risks, but also leaves it ill-prepared to address the impacts of climate change.
Although Africa contributes less than 4 percent of global emissions, the African Development Bank estimates that the continent loses 3-5 percent of its annual GDP to climate-related events. This situation is compounded by an annual climate financing gap of $227 million. Together, these factors underscore the need for strong partnerships, innovation and practical financing solutions to ensure climate resilience while driving the continent’s growth.
Energy shortages have historically constrained Africa’s growth, but turning exclusively to conventional energy sources would carry serious environmental consequences.
In this light, China-Africa green cooperation stands out as a model for tackling climate challenges. The partnership is strategically important: Africa and China together account for roughly 36 percent of the global population, while Africa holds around 60 percent of the world’s largely untapped solar resources. China complements this with expertise in clean energy, green innovation and competitive manufacturing. This synergy makes the partnership uniquely capable of driving progress towards a sustainable energy future.
China’s green partnership with Africa is highly practical, going beyond policy statements to deliver tangible impact on the ground. The Noor Ouarzazate Solar Complex in Morocco and the De Aar Wind Farm in South Africa power more than 1 million homes while reducing carbon dioxide emissions. In East Africa, the Karuma Dam, Gibe III Dam and Garissa Solar Plant are achieving similar results.
Greening the continent
Beyond infrastructure projects, significant progress is also evident in capacity building and knowledge and experience exchange aimed at greening the continent. A prime example is the China-Africa Environmental Cooperation Centre (CAECC), established in 2020 under the Great Green Wall initiative. The centre serves not only as a hub for knowledge and experience exchange, but also as a platform for joint research on combating desertification in Africa. In Nigeria’s Kano State, the Great Green Wall has helped strengthen frontline defences, slowed the Sahara’s southward expansion and contributed to carbon sequestration. It has already contributed to the reclamation of tens of millions of hectares of land in a region that once lost more than 30 hectares annually to desertification.
China-Africa green cooperation has grown steadily over time. Even before the United Nations Environment Programme supported the CAECC, the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) framework had already produced the Sharm El-Sheik, Beijing and Addis Ababa action plans, setting the stage for ecological cooperation and sustainable development prior to 2016. Since then, the CAECC has gained greater prominence through successive FOCAC action plans: Johannesburg (2016-2018), Beijing (2019-2021) and Dakar (2022-2024). The eight major initiatives and nine programmes, highlighted at the 2018 FOCAC Beijing Summit and 2021 FOCAC Dakar Ministerial Conference respectively, further reinforced the green transition as a key pillar of the partnership.
China continues to demonstrate its commitment to working with Africa in addressing its development challenges, sharing experiences to accelerate growth through infrastructure development, capacity building, human capital training and support for industrialisation. Its policy towards Africa emphasises both sustainability and the continent’s articulated priorities, including market access and industrialisation. For example, Uganda is developing cooperation arrangements with Chery Automobile, CHTC and Zhongtong in the electric vehicle sector, while Egypt’s Suez Canal Economic Zone, with its five solar production facilities, is emerging as a solar manufacturing hub on the continent.
As China-Africa green cooperation grows in the era of high-quality development, we can expect climate-conscious industrialisation and green manufacturing to grow simultaneously with economic zones and industrial parks. This will most certainly bring more green industries, employment opportunities for the continent’s young workforce and a sustainable foundation for growth and modernisation.
The author is Research Fellow from Development Watch Centre, Uganda
