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How to weather the current everything crisis

With conviction. Ignore the White House noise. Watch Africa’s green hydrogen sector invest in fundamentals instead

March 06, 2025

Welcome to Green Rising – It’s not just Trump. And it’s not just Africa. The green transition seems in retreat everywhere to some.

• German elections show how far the green wave has receded in Europe, says the Guardian

• BP is to ditch renewables goals and return focus to fossil fuels, according to Reuters

• Greenpeace risks bankruptcy at a US trial over the Dakota Access Pipeline, reports the BBC 

Lovers of semantics speak of “de-decarbonisation” as corporates ditch past pledges.

Our colleagues at the Net-Zero newsletter apocalyptically list, “Trade wars, tepid oil prices, lacklustre renewables earnings, LNG-fueled geopolitics, Wall Street’s anti-ESG backlash”.

Here is why we should double down rather than fold: The ebb and flow of money may be ebbing at the moment – but the fundamentals have not changed. 

​​Every corner of the continent is now experiencing the effects of rising temperatures: More hurricanes, floods, wildfires and droughts. That’s not going to change. Washington can put its head in the sand. For a while. But that doesn’t alter reality in Africa. 

Where will we be in a decade? More deaths from the effects of rising temperatures? If you think so, will there be a large political constituency pushing for a transition to a more sustainable way of life? We think so. The past logic hasn’t changed. It wasn’t a fad. Every-nation-for-itself will turn out to be a flawed strategy. Again. 

The next steps are easy. They are what they were last year. Humans will want to invest in their children’s future. The Soviets loved their children enough to end the Cold War. And enough Americans love theirs to buy (back) into a less fossil-fuelled world. 

Will US foreign aid for Africa’s poor come back? Maybe not. That was altruism. But investing in the health of the planet, in Congolese carbon sinks, that’s self-interest.

Few sectors show African conviction around the green economy like hydrogen. 

It takes decades to repay the billions in investment needed to create a green hydrogen plant. Only investors and governments with a degree of certainty around the future get involved. And they do get involved. 

We have counted the green hydrogen projects on the continent. Since 2021, at least 58 projects have been announced. The first plants are expected to be operational the year after next. 

+ The total investment volume exceeds $220 billion. 

Green hydrogen, simply put, is the process of using renewable energy to run an electrolyser separating water into oxygen and hydrogen. In turn, the hydrogen is used to store energy, power industrial processes and make fertiliser. 

The sector has settled into a defined state after a period of frenetic growth. About half a dozen African countries now have clear goals and worked out geographic distinctions.

Nigeria became the latest African nation to bet on green hydrogen this February. 

APPL, a privately owned Nigerian clean energy company, signed an $8.23 billion deal with China’s LONGi Green Energy (see above). 

They’ll build a green hydrogen facility in Akwa Ibom state to produce 1.2 million tonnes of green methanol annually, along with by-products like medical-grade oxygen.

Read more: For a longer article on Africa’s green hydrogen sector by our team of industry specialists please click here. 

Call it conviction based on scientific evidence as well as financial incentives (remember Wangari Maathai, above, who campaigned tirelessly for the environment a generation ago?).

Or call it resilience, tenacity, perseverance, steadfastness, determination, fortitude, courage, grit  —  It is no coincidence there are many words for a quality needed in a crisis. 

Every startup winner knows there are crises. And the only way to get past them is conviction. Let the man in the White House say his piece. He can’t alter scientific reality. 

African solutions may need to be leaner in the next few years. But the ebb will end and the flow will return.

Out of self-interest.

Number of the week 

… yield improvements can be achieved via agro-ecological farming, which integrates biodiversity, soil management and organic inputs like organic fertiliser and bio-pesticides. The approach reduces dependence on costly synthetic fertilisers. Investing in these practices restores soil fertility and builds resilience against climate change.

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Network corner

👉 Nigeria-based Greenplinth Africa partners with Canadian data firm CarbonAi on a clean cookstove programme

EVENTS UPDATE | Thursday 06 March

📆 South Africa hosts Devac Infrastructure Summit (May 14)

📆 Kenya to host CGIAR Science Week (April 7)

📆 Mining in Motion held in Ghana (June 2)

ALSO PLEASE SEE OUR JOB BOARD BELOW

What we’re reading

  • Green wings: South African startup FlyH2 Aerospace will launch its zero-emissions Dragonfly V drone this year. Currently battery-powered but designed for hydrogen fuel cells, the prototype has completed three test flights focused on dynamics, power use and stability. The modular fiberglass drone features easily replaceable components, locally manufactured airframes, and imported avionics. The aircraft can take off on a 90-meter runway. Production models offer 16-hour endurance for applications including wildlife monitoring, anti-poaching, infrastructure inspection, and emergency deliveries across Africa's vast spaces. (Engineering News)

  • Ocean treasures: Scientists are expanding seagrass mapping across the western Indian Ocean, covering 2 million square kilometres along 9,500 km of coastline from Kenya to Madagascar. The “Large-scale Seagrass Mapping and Management Initiative” (LaSMMI) follows a 2019 Seychelles discovery that 90% of the nation's blue carbon is stored in seagrass meadows. Despite contributing to a fifth of the world's top fisheries and providing shoreline protection, seagrasses remain overlooked in conservation, with less than 20% globally mapped. Scientists estimate Earth lost a third of its seagrass in the past century. (Mongabay)

  • Salty solution: Bio-saline agriculture is emerging as a vital farming method for Africa's 80 million hectares of salt-affected lands. Abdelaziz Hirich from the University Mohammed VI Polytechnic in Morocco leads research introducing salt-tolerant crops like quinoa, blue panicum, and salicornia. Rather than fighting salinity, this approach adapts to it, though challenges persist as salt-tolerant seed varieties remain limited in commercial markets. (Morocco World News)

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