The African Climate Foundation (ACF) and the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance at the University of Cape Town, have established the Green Industrial Development Expert Panel (GIDEP).

The GIDEP will convene leading strategic African thinkers on greening industrialisation and will also draw more broadly on experts on greening industrialisation in the global South.

The GIDEP will support the formulation of African-led policy positions to ensure the continent’s interests are effectively represented in key international fora and negotiation processes, such as the Africa-hosted Group of 20 (G20) and COP30 which is to be held in Brazil.

Furthermore, the GIDEP experts will provide strategic thinking to support African countries’ ambitions in advancing climate-compatible industrialisation and developing implementable green industrialisation plans at the national and regional levels.

With a clear focus on green industrialisation on the continent, it is critical that policies and plans are locally owned and driven. As an African initiative, the GIDEP aims to work towards realising this objective.

ACF executive director Saliem Fakir explains that, at this critical juncture, “the GIDEP offers a unique opportunity for African nations to lead in shaping the future of sustainable industrialisation”.

“It is essential that we centre our approach on social, environmental and economic justice to unlock the full potential of Africa’s green industrialisation, ensuring equitable development and addressing profound inequalities faced by many communities across the continent.”

To this end, the GIDEP aims to develop a network of green industrialisation experts, to support the capacity of senior African officials to craft effective green industrialisation strategies and policies, as well as providing much-needed technical support to African countries in developing and implementing their green industrialisation plans.

The researcher’s network will help to address key knowledge gaps and incorporate lessons from the experiences of other developing countries.

Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance director Professor Faizel Ismail, states that the GIDEP “is a natural extension of expertise the Nelson Mandela School has been developing on building green value chains, including adding value to critical green minerals and scaling the capacity of African development banks to finance green structural transformation”.

Ismail notes that the GIDEP will build on the support that the school has provided to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Industrial Development Advisory Council.

He further states that there is no more urgent issue for African countries than addressing the negative impacts of climate change, through mitigation, adaptation and resilience, while simultaneously driving a process of climate resilient developmental regionalism with sustainable industrialisation at its core.

Nelson Mandela School chief research officer of climate and economic development Dr Nimrod Zalk, who is also responsible for the operationalisation of the GIDEP, emphasises the importance of drawing on expertise rooted in the experience of African countries.

“As eminent Ethiopian policy maker and scholar Arkebe Oqubay emphasises, neither a fossil fuel-based nor a ‘grow now, clean up later’ industrialisation path is optimal for African countries,” he says.

In conclusion, Zalk says African countries need to seize the opportunities and engage with the complexities of a green industrialisation path now or “run the risk of becoming stuck in dead-end industries”.

More information on the GIDEP will become available in the coming month.