Global Voices posted on 7 September 2025 a commentary titled "How Is Africa Benefiting from China's Global Renewable Push?" by Jean Sovon and Vivian Wu.
China positions itself as a champion for renewable energy in Africa while financing large projects that exploit coal and oil. The authors ask how African countries can reconcile a partnership aimed at implementing the principles of environmental justice.
The Wilson Center's Africa Up Close blog posted on 22 November 2024 a commentary titled "Lights On or Off? Chinese Solar and Wind Companies in Sub-Saharan Africa" by Xiaokang Xue, Brown University.
China;s experience and overcapacity in wind and solar energy should make it a good fit for investing in projects in Africa. But market hurdles, financing gaps, and shifting investment models create a more complicated picture. China's new "small yet beautiful" investment model may result in innovative financing methods.
The South African Institute of International Affairs published in October 2024 a paper titled "Win-Win Green Partnership: China Is Capable, Is Africa Ready?" by Xiang Chen, Alex Benkenstein, and Steven Gruzd.
While China is positioned as a capable green partner, the success of the partnership depends on Africa's capacity to coordinate, finance, and integrate its priorities into the green development agenda. The authors express concern over Africa's ability to respond.
South Africa's Standard Bank published on 20 August 2024 a report titled "China's Renewable Energy Interest in Africa" by Jeremy Stevens and Simon Fremantle.
The report argues that renewable energy could become a more important component in China-Africa relations if it takes into account the development priorities of African countries.
The Global Development Policy Center at Boston University published in November 2023 a policy brief titled "Green Horizons? China's Global Energy Finance in 2022" by Cecilia Springer, Ishana Ratan, Yudong Nathan Liu, and Jia Gu.
From 2000-2022, the China Development Bank and China Export-Import Bank provided 331 loans totaling $225 billion for 65 public borrowers for energy projects around the world. 2022 marked the second year in a row that China's development finance institutions did not issue new loan commitments for the overseas energy sector.
Despite the decline since 2016 in loan commitments and size, the amount of energy finance China provided surpassed the energy sector lending offered to public entities by any other global lender. The largest share of existing loan commitments by China has been to exploration and extraction projects in the energy sector.
Power generation received the second largest amount of lending commitments across energy subsectors. In terms of energy source, fossil fuels received the most support with coal, oil, and gas representing 73 percent of the lending. Oil was the largest energy source by amount of finance, followed by gas and liquefied natural gas.
China's commitments to stepping up support for green and low-carbon energy have yet to emerge in the form of development finance.
Boston University's Global Development Policy Center posted on 17 November 2022 a study titled "Towards a Solutions-Oriented Approach: China, Africa and Energy Transition Narrative Building" by Maureen Heydt.
China's policy bank loans in Africa have generally supported fossil energy, although hydropower makes up a significant portion of China's lending to African energy projects.
The Institute of Development Studies, The African Climate Foundation, and The Open University published in November 2021 a study titled "Scaling China's Green Energy Investment in Sub-Saharan Africa: Challenges and Prospects" by Frangton Chiyemura, Wei Shen, and Yushi Chen.
The report investigates the barriers and potential solutions to scaling China's engagement with Sub-Saharan Africa's non-hydro renewable energy market. The study found that scaling of Chinese wind and solar energy projects in the region is constrained by a number of institutional, material, and discursive factors. Chinese involvement in African countries' renewable energy sector has much to do with concerns about the host country's macroeconomic performance, as well as the political climate, particularly when a sovereign guarantee is absent.
The Green Belt and Road Initiative Center published on 16 June 2021 a report titled "Brief: Coal Phase-out in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI): An Analysis of Chinese-backed Coal Power from 2014-2020" by Christopher Nedopil Wang.
Between 2014 and 2020, China shelved about half of its Chinese-financed coal-fired plants globally. Zimbabwe was a big loser in the effort to reduce coal power. Other African countries with distressed coal investments with Chinese participation were Egypt, Botswana, Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Sudan, and Zambia.
The most recent issue of World Development contains an open access study titled "China's Investments in Renewable Energy in Africa: Creating Co-benefits or Just Cashing In?" by Rasmus Lema, Padmasai Lakshmi Bhamidipati, Cecilia Gregersen, Ulrich Elmer Hansen, and Julian Kirchherr.
The purpose of the study is to determine to what extent economic co-benefits are created when renewable-energy projects are developed by Chinese investors in Africa. The authors identify some newly created jobs, linkages generated with actors in local systems of production and training activities involving local staff, but the extent of these benefits is very limited. Overall, the results suggest that policymakers should be wary of overly optimistic expectations when it comes to assessing the co-benefits of renewable energy projects in the context of scarce pre-existing capabilities.
