Where is the global energy transition heading? 2025 sees the Paris Agreement entering its 10th year. Once again under President Donald Trump, the US has withdrawn from the Paris Agreement, which has been signed by 195 countries. This means that the country that is second only to China in CO2 emissions and has the world’s most powerful economy is no longer a party to the ambitious fight against climate change. Climate action was on the sidelines of the campaigns in the run-up to Germany’s elections, but the future direction of travel is now being decided. It remains to be seen how ambitious the future government will be when it comes to addressing what has recently been perceived as a shortfall in climate action. Admittedly, Germany has increased the share of renewables in its electricity mix from about 40 to 59 per cent since 2019 (source: Umweltbundesamt,UBA). Worldwide too, considerably more green electricity is being generated from solar power, wind and other renewable sources. However, on the other side of the balance sheet, energy demand continues to rise steadily. So is the global energy transition simply an attempt to hold back the waves?
Enough power for the global energy transition?
The decisive energy question is whether enough countries will join forces to drive forward the energy transition or whether its opponents will form a coalition and measures to halt climate change will meet with increasing resistance. It is not only the European Union (EU) that must take action but also countries and regions that to date have not been at the forefront in embracing renewable energy. Countries such as India, Brazil and Indonesia, that are seeing energy demand rise and that have close energy partnerships with Germany, occupy key positions. India in particular has the resources needed to establish sustainable structures. Now occupying third place worldwide in terms of CO2 emissions, India has initiated significant climate projects in recent years – some of them with German involvement.
The countries of the Global South in general play a central role in the worldwide energy transition – both in terms of producing green energy and also because of the fact that their energy demand will continue to grow in the future. An example here is Sub-Saharan Africa: the region holds vast potential for solar energy and green hydrogen but, at the same time, 600 million people still have no access to electricity.
Where is the electricity of the future going to come from? From coal-fired or nuclear power plants? From renewable energy sources? Current development cooperation projects indicate how international collaboration between businesses and countries can establish climate-friendly solutions and help to avoid CO2 emissions on a huge scale.
Projects that can inspire others:
How can people in Africa gain reliable access to electricity? Munich-based company VIDA has developed software that analyses demand and potential, thus substantially supporting the development of green energy infrastructure. VIDA uses satellite images, big data and artificial intelligence (AI) to identify, for example, the areas where the number of people living without access to electricity is particularly high or the areas that are particularly conducive to setting up electricity grids. This creates a solid basis for investment decisions. VIDA also trains local institutions and supports the establishment of energy systems in over 40 African countries at present. Some 5,000 households in Nigeria, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have already gained access to green electricity as a result – a prospect for sustainable development that is supported by DEG Impulse and will be continued in the existing develoPPP cooperation arrangement with the company. Established in 2018, VIDA has now grown into a company with 50 employees in Europe and Africa – in part thanks to projects of this kind. In 2024, it won the German Energy Agency’s (DENA) SET Award.
Electronic cooling systems cost a lot of money and are responsible for almost 20 per cent of electricity consumption and 10 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Back in 2009, Steven Chu – recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics and US energy secretary at the time – put forward the idea of painting buildings white as a way of cooling them sustainably. Cool White is a project running in South Africa and Tanzania that turned this idea into a reality. It has been implemented by the Federation of German Wholesale, Foreign Trade and Services (BGA), the Agency for Business and Economic Development (AWE), and the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (Germany’s national metrology institute). Volunteers joined a team of professional painters and decorators to paint schools and commercial buildings. Temperature measurements produced a striking result: a difference in temperature of up to 10 degrees Celsius was sustained for several months. The reason for this is what is known as passive radiative cooling, which means that heat is reflected away with the result that the building heats up noticeably less.
The roads of Lviv in Western Ukraine – already in a poor condition – have suffered further damage during the war. IBS GmbH, a company based in the Swabia region of Germany, working in conjunction with partners, has taken on the job of repairing 7,000 square metres of road in an environmentally sound way. It is using NovoCrete®, a mineral cement additive that supports both durable and high load-bearing capacity road surfaces. In addition to that, sustainable rehabilitation with NovoCrete® saves between 60 and 70 per cent of the emissions associated with conventional materials. IBS GmbH has already rehabilitated almost 15 million square metres of road surface in some 1,500 projects around the world. It received the German Innovation Award in recognition of this in 2023. In each project the company offers training for local staff, providing a transfer of valuable knowledge to road construction authorities, construction companies and research facilities. The project in Ukraine is supported by the develoPPP programme of the BMZ and implemented in cooperation with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.
The company SUNfarming has found a way of using solar energy to bring all-round benefits. The company, which specialises in agrivoltaics (agri-PV), has built a 16,000-square-metre solar farm producing green electricity in Osmaniye, a region of Turkey close to the Syrian border. At the same time, the company provided training in solar technology and farming for local people and Syrian refugees. Now, they grow vegetables and keep hens between the solar modules, which helps to feed the population. This innovative concept, which was funded by DEG / DEG Impulse under develoPPP, created jobs and a pool of well trained staff. The project in Turkey was followed by other joint develoPPP projects in South-Africa. In Germany, SUNfarming supplies industrial companies as well as agricultural businesses and also takes charge of project development and monitoring. The medium-sized company, based in Erkner in the German state of Brandenburg, has received several awards for its commitment in this field.
Mitigating climate change versus economic growth
Surveys by renowned institutes indicate that ambitious climate action would also be worthwhile in economic terms. Environmental disasters – as direct consequences of climate change – cost many times more than climate action. Re-insurer Swiss Re puts the cost of precautionary measures needed to reach the 2050 net-zero targets at around USD 270 trillion in the energy, transport, buildings and industry sectors. This sum equates to three times global gross domestic product (GDP), which is a measure of the monetary value of all the goods and services produced in a given year.
For comparison, researchers at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) have calculated the possible economic losses caused by climate change. Their findings indicate that future climate disasters could cause global losses of USD 38 trillion per year – even if the Earth’s temperature did not increase by more than two degrees Celsius. This is many times higher than the cost calculated for necessary climate action and almost 8 times Germany’s GDP.
About the Global Energy Transition Forum
The Global Energy Transition Forum was initiated by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2025. This forum provides a space for international partners to join forces to achieve global climate targets and support countries with their energy transition. The main goals that will guide the action of the forum are to maintain the momentum on the world's energy agreement, implement concrete projects and unlock more investment. The main focus will be on Africa, where many regions have an inadequate electricity supply.
Workable compromises are needed
Of course, lowering CO2 emissions while at the same time advancing economic growth remains a major challenge. Firmly establishing the energy transition in society calls for good communication about policy. Joined-up thinking that no longer puts the economy and climate change in separate boxes is the right way forward – as is the attempt to find compromises and develop supranational solutions. We all have a stake in the climate; it is a common good and the climate crisis can only be solved if we address it together.
About a month ago, the European Commission adopted the Climate Industrial Deal (CID). Its aim is to remove the bureaucratic obstacles industry faces so as to safeguard competitiveness while at the same time making industry more climate-friendly and lowering electricity costs. The European Commission is planning to invest EUR 100 billion to achieve this. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen launched the Global Energy Transition Forum following the EU’s adoption of an investment package for the energy transition in Africa. BMZ will take the opportunity to launch joint targeted measures with the private sector and governments of the Global South at the upcoming Hamburg Sustainability Conference. The Intersolar Summit Africa, held in Nairobi in March, demonstrated how renewable energy can have a significant impact regionally and contribute to mitigating climate change, especially within coupled economic systems.
Opportunities in Africa
The energy transition does not just present challenges; it also offers opportunities for businesses wanting to invest in renewable energy. In 2024, the world spent almost USD 2.1 trillion on the energy transition – in the energy, transport, industry, electricity grids and buildings sectors. That equates to half of Germany’s annual GDP. Of that total, USD 0.7 trillion went on renewable energy. That is an upward trend: 10 years earlier – in 2014 – only USD 0.3 trillion was spent on the energy transition as a whole (source:BloombergNEF, 1/2025).
The Global South in particular holds great potential for renewable energy. However, at the moment in Africa only two per cent of global investment in clean energy goes to African countries, although 60 per cent of global solar resources are found on the African continent. In addition, countries such as Namibia and Algeria also have the best conditions for producing green hydrogen. The green energy of the future could be harvested in Africa and also used in Germany with the aim of becoming climate neutral. That would also bring business opportunities for German companies, as illustrated by the example of Enertrag SE in Namibia.
Investment in renewable energy in developing countries and emerging economies pays off threefold. The climate that matters to all of us suffers less, and future-proof jobs are created in those countries along with a sustainable boost to value added for the German economy.
About Intersolar
Intersolar Europe is the world’s leading trade shows for the solar industry. Launched over 30 years ago, it links up the key stakeholders: manufacturers, suppliers, dealers, installation engineers, service providers, project developers, planners and start-ups. This year, Intersolar was held for the first time in Africa. Experts in the field, businesses, investors, government representatives and technology suppliers from Germany and Africa convened in Nairobi, Kenya, on 12 and 13 March 2025 for a two-day summit. AWE gave African and German businesses information about cooperation and funding opportunities at the booth it shared with GIZ Kenya. It moderated the conference session on photovoltaic applications – a particularly relevant topic for the partner countries and one which brought German and local companies into contact with each other.
Intersolar is part of the trade show platform The smarter E Europe. It complements trade show formats in Brazil, Mexico, India, the United Arab Emirates and the US, adding a conference format to a trade show at what are known as summits. This facilitates market exploration.
The Cool White project: combating climate impacts with a coat of paint
5 Min
Cool White shows how companies can cool easily, efficiently and cost-effectively with white paint and do something about global warming at the same time.
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