Powering production: A developmental energy transition for Africa

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Key information

Date
Time
9:00 am to 5:00 pm
Venue
SOAS Senate House
Room
SALT Room
Event type
Conference & Event highlights

About this event

The Centre for Sustainable Structural Transformation presents its first bi-annual conference.

Energy transition is foundational to sustainable structural transformation in Africa and beyond. The first bi-annual conference will address the issue of energy transition from developmental and ‘productionist’ perspectives, that is, focusing on how to pivot the energy transition to drive sustainable industrialisation and broader structural transformation. 

Invited speakers will be focusing on the diverse experiences across African countries and contrast them with relevant comparators across the global south.

Event structure

The conference is structured around three main themes and related panels: 

  1. Renewable technologies and new energy systems, 
  2. Green hydrogen and industrialisation opportunities, 
  3. New developments at the interface of energy and industrial policy.

The conference will be enriched by a roundtable discussion focusing on how to make just energy transition developmental in Africa.

This is an in-person event. If you can only attend the event on-line please register your interest by writing an email to csst@soas.ac.uk and you will receive a Microsoft Team link to attend the event.

Image by Jason Richard via Unsplash.

Programme

TimeEvent
9 – 9.15

Welcome and opening remarks

 

  • Ha-Joon Chang (CSST SOAS)

 

9.15 – 10 

Keynote

 

  • Richard Kozul-Wright (Former Director of the UNCTAD Globalisation and Development Strategies Division) – Powering ahead or falling behind: divergent paths to a greener future

 

10 – 11.15

Renewable technologies and new energy systems: investments, technology diffusions and gaps

 

Chair: Simon Roberts (CSST SOAS and CCRED University of Johannesburg)

 

  • Abraham Lartey (CSST SOAS) – Power structures across Africa: path dependence, investment gaps and technology diffusion
  • Saliem Fakir (The African Climate Foundation) – Looking at the Green Transition in South Africa and Industrial Development
  • Kathryn Hochstetler (LSE) – Bringing the State back in to Renewable Technologies and New Energy Systems 

 

11.15 – 11.30

Break

 

11.30am – 1.00pm

Building of a Green Competitive Advantage: Green Hydrogen and new industrialisation pathways

 

Chair: Antonio Andreoni (CSST SOAS)

 

  • Simon Roberts (CSST SOAS and CCRED University of Johannesburg) – The imperative for an ‘entrepreneurial-regulatory state’ to build green industrialisation pathways with green hydrogen
  • Tilman Altenburg (IDOS and SOAS CSST) – A typology of green hydrogen industrial development pathways, with country cases
  • Rainer Quitzow (Research Institute for Sustainability, Helmholtz Centre Potsdam) – Green Fertilizers in Africa: At the Nexus of Agriculture, Industrial Development, Energy and Climate 
  • Keun Lee (Seoul National University) – Latecomer Leapfrogging for Greening of Capitalism and Energy Systems

1.00 – 2.15

 

Lunch
2.15 – 3.30

Roundtable discussion on just transition

 

Chair: Ha-Joon Chang (CSST SOAS)

 

  • Arunabha Ghosh (CEEW) – online
  • Pamela Mondliwa (Industrial Development Corporation, IDC South Africa)- online
  • Piergiuseppe Fortunato (UN Trade, UNCTAD) – online
  • Smeeta Fokeer (United National Industrial Development, UNIDO)- online

 

3.15 – 3.30

Coffee break

 

3.30 – 4.45

New developments at the interface of energy and industrial policy

 

Chair: Ha-Joon Chang (CSST SOAS)

 

  • Arkebe Oqubay (SOAS) – Greening African Economic Development and Energy Transition: A productive transformation perspective
  • Fuad Hasanov (International Monetary Fund, IMF) – Riding the Energy Transition: Cleantech and Industrial Policy 
  • Emilia Onyema (SOAS) – Rethinking Stabilisation clauses in energy contracts to support renewable energy projects and protect the policy space for states 
  • Antonio Andreoni (CSST SOAS) – How to unlock developmental energy transition pathways in Africa: the role of industrial policy 

 

 

4.45 – 5.00

Closing remarks and next steps

 

  • Antonio Andreoni (CSST SOAS)

 

 

About the Centre

The SOAS Centre for Sustainable Structural Transformation (CSST) reimagines and promotes structural transformation in an age of ecological and social crises through industrial policy that is long-term-oriented and frame-shifting. 

By acting as an action-oriented hub for research, learning and policy for the Global South, especially Africa, CSST conducts path-breaking research on structural transformation, industrial dynamics, and economic diversification strategies and on how to make them environmentally and socially sustainable. Going beyond research silos, CSST advances an integrated framework focusing on four inter-linked research and industrial policy areas: energy transition, critical minerals, restructuring of supply chains, and construction of new infrastructure. 

CSST conducts research in these areas through deep dives into countries and sectors, with a view to unlocking sector-specific binding constrains and promoting linkages across sectors. CSST’s research will be rooted in the understanding of national and international political economy, trends in industrial and technological changes, and the constant changes in business models. 

Centre for Sustainable Structural Transformation

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