Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa: African Green Hydrogen Summit

Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa - Minister Of Energy and Electricity | Republic Of South Africa - Opening Address to the African Green Hydrogen Summit (AGHS)- 12 June 2025 | Cape Town, RSA.

Honourable President,
Minister and Deputy Ministers in attendance, 
The AU Infrastructure and Energy Commissioner
Delegates, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Your Excellency, Mr President, it is an honour to welcome you to the African Green Hydrogen Summit. We gather at a time when our continent is called upon to define not only how we respond to the global energy transition, but how we lead it, and how it is positioned to lead Africa’s inclusive growth, industrialisation and development narrative, towards AU Agenda 2063.

The energy complex has become a consequential feature of global geopolitical orientation, a tool for economic diplomacy and a weapon of trade discrimination and preferential treatment. The evolving energy complex offers unparalleled opportunities for the continent and her people. The fact that the continent is home to mineral resources that will undergird the transition including unmatched renewable energy assets places the continent front-centre of a reimagined energy future. The continent should enter the energy discourse better aligned, coordinated, ambitious, informed by sovereign and continental developmental motives whilst embracing the principles of multilateral, equal and differentiated responsibilities.

In this context, green hydrogen must be understood not merely as a clean fuel, but as a strategic enabler of Africa’s structural transformation. It holds the potential to reposition the continent within global value chains, not as an exporter of raw materials but as a competitive industrial actor. Harnessed strategically, it can anchor new industrial ecosystems, from green steel and fertilisers to sustainable mobility and synthetic fuels. These are not abstract possibilities, they are within reach, provided we design policy frameworks that localise value, deepen intra-African trade, and direct investment flows towards infrastructure, skills, and technology transfer that serve the interests of the continent.

More fundamentally, green hydrogen offers an opportunity to reverse the logic of dependency that has historically defined Africa’s insertion into the global economy. Instead of reinforcing extractive patterns, Africa can lead with an agenda of beneficiation, regional integration, and sovereign industrial development.

This will require that we reject siloed national approaches in favour of coordinated regional frameworks, leveraging platforms like the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA), and most crucially, Agenda 2063. These frameworks offer the institutional scaffolding for a common energy market and harmonised regulatory regimes that can attract patient, long-term capital.

We must also be unapologetic in demanding a fair place at the green negotiating table. Africa’s role in the global energy transition cannot be one of accommodation. It must be one of agency. Our narrative must be led by African voices, grounded in African realities, and committed to African futures. As the world seeks new energy alliances and supply chains, Africa must shape its energy destiny through solidarity, strategy, and statecraft, turning the promise of green hydrogen into a pillar of continental prosperity.

The African Green Hydrogen Summit 2025 is therefore a strategic opportunity, because the choices we make about green hydrogen today will shape how we industrialise tomorrow. They will determine whether Africa becomes a late adopter of clean technologies, or an architect of the new energy economy.

For South Africa, this is equally not a conceptual debate; it is a foundational pillar of our long-term planning trajectory. The Medium-Term Development Plan (MTDP) of the seventh administration outlines three national priorities: inclusive growth and job creation, reducing poverty and the high cost of living, and building a capable and developmental state. Green hydrogen speaks to all three. It has the potential to drive new industrial value chains, power low-carbon infrastructure, and unlock skills and employment in both traditional and emerging sectors.

The Department of Electricity and Energy’s strategic priority’s identifies green hydrogen as one of the frontier sectors through which we can reposition our country, not only as a consumer of energy, but as a producer, exporter, and technology innovator. It is woven into our strategic priorities: advancing energy security, accelerating infrastructure investment, enabling a just energy transition, reshaping the energy demographics to propel women and young people into the epicentre of growth and development, and leverages the energy eco-system to drive industrial growth and localisation.

Today, we also launch two critical instalments in the over approach to harnessing the renewable sector to drive green hydrogen production.

South African Renewable Energy Masterplan 

Shortly after the President’s keynote address this morning, we will formally launch the South African Renewable Energy Masterplan (SAREM), a Cabinet-approved, sector-wide industrial strategy that anchors our energy transition in local manufacturing, value addition, and job creation. SAREM is not just a roadmap for expanding renewable energy generation; it is a blueprint for how to industrialise through energy. Developed through a rigorous social compacting process between government, industry, labour, and civil society, it sets clear targets for localisation, supplier development, skills transfer, and green economy investment attraction.

The Masterplan aims to leverage South Africa’s growing renewable energy demand, including for green hydrogen, to stimulate upstream and downstream industrial development across solar PV, wind, battery storage, electrolysers, and fuel cell technologies. This includes building domestic capability in component manufacturing, assembly, and engineering services. For countries across Africa seeking to move beyond commodity exports and towards diversified green industrial economies, SAREM offers a replicable model of how to link energy transition with industrial policy, social inclusion, and long-term competitiveness. It is a vision of a just transition, not only for workers and communities, but for the continent’s industrial future.

The Africa Green Hydrogen Report

Secondly, we are also launching the most comprehensive report to date on Africa’s green hydrogen potential, a landmark publication that brings together the full breadth of our continent’s technical readiness. Conceptualised in 2023, this report was designed to illuminate the depth and richness of research that already exists on green hydrogen across Africa, and to give a second life to the foundational studies that have often gone underutilised.

Produced with the support of GIZ and authored by a consortium of leading technical experts, it synthesises more than 35 studies from South Africa alone, spanning detailed assessments on port readiness, cost competitiveness, domestic and export demand modelling, renewable energy and transmission capacity, critical minerals linkages, certification frameworks, job creation potential, and socio-economic impacts. This is not just a theoretical compilation; it is a technical blueprint for scaled project execution. Its message is unequivocal: Africa is not short of knowledge. Africa is ready to move from pilot to pipeline, from strategy to scale.

But let us be clear. The window for Africa to shape the rules of this emerging market is narrowing. Other regions are moving fast, with public subsidies, regulatory incentives, and long-term offtake strategies. If we delay, we risk importing technologies, importing skills, and once again exporting unprocessed potential. So, the real work of this summit is to forge clarity, on the scale of our ambition, the credibility of our plans, and the coordination of our actions. Let us begin that work today, with urgency, with unity, and with a shared conviction that Africa’s future is not on the periphery of the global green economy, but firmly at its centre.

Around the world, countries are rethinking how they produce, move, and use energy. At the heart of this rethink is green hydrogen, a clean fuel made by splitting water using electricity from renewable sources like solar and wind. Unlike conventional hydrogen, which is still mostly made from coal or gas, green hydrogen emits no carbon in the process.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that the world used about 95 million tonnes of hydrogen in 2022. But almost all of it was produced with fossil fuels. That needs to change, quickly. To stay on track for net zero emissions by 2050, the IEA projects that global demand for low-emission hydrogen must rise to over 130 million tonnes by 2030. Green hydrogen will need to carry the bulk of that load.

Africa’s Green Hydrogen Opportunity

Africa is not starting from scratch. What we possess, sun, wind, land, ports, and ambition, makes the continent one of the most compelling and competitive green hydrogen production zones in the world. The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) estimates that sub-Saharan Africa alone has more than 10 terawatts (TW) of solar potential, much of it untapped. Coupled with coastal access and improving infrastructure, this positions Africa as a low-cost producer and exporter of green hydrogen and its derivatives.

A joint study by the World Bank and International Energy Agency (2022) estimates that Africa could supply 5–10% of global hydrogen demand by 2050, with production costs potentially 30–60% lower than in Europe or East Asia, owing to superior renewable capacity factors, especially in Namibia, Mauritania, South Africa, Egypt, and Morocco.

These projections are supported by growing momentum. The African Green Hydrogen Alliance (AGHA), launched in 2022 and supported by the Green Hydrogen Organisation and Climate Compatible Growth Programme, brings together leading African countries, including South Africa, Kenya, Egypt, Namibia, and Mauritania, to foster policy coordination, mobilise investment, and drive project development. According to AGHA’s 2023 investment pipeline, over US$80 billion in early-stage projects have been announced across the continent.

Africa’s choice is whether to be a passive site of resource extraction or a proactive architect of the green energy economy. With the right policy frameworks, investment enablers, and regional coordination, green hydrogen can and must be the backbone of a new African industrial era.

South Africa’s Hydrogen Vision and Trajectory

South Africa’s approach to green hydrogen is not aspirational, it is deliberate, structured, and already underway. As a country, we have made a clear choice: to develop hydrogen not just as a climate response, but as a catalyst for re-industrialisation, economic transformation, regional competitiveness, and energy sovereignty.

We are also positioning ourselves in the value chain, not just at the resource end. The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC) is working closely with industry to localise key components of the hydrogen economy, including electrolyser manufacturing and fuel cell assembly. Our platinum reserves, nearly 75% of the world’s known supply, make us uniquely competitive in this space, particularly in PEM (Proton Exchange Membrane) fuel cell technology.

On Tuesday, we witnessed the launch of the Isondo Precious Metals Membrane Electrode Assembly (MEA) facility, a first-of-its-kind for Africa. Isondo beneficiates Platinum Group Metals into components, underpinning the Green Hydrogen Industry. Isondo’s catalyst and MEA products will play a direct role in decarbonising transport and industry in SA and globally. Isondo is creating over 300 new skilled jobs and stimulating an alternative source of demand for Platinum Group Metals. The next step for Isondo is to validate its products with international electrolyser and fuel cell manufacturers. We hope that partnerships initiated here will accelerate their path to certification and scale.

We also visited Sasol’s green hydrogen production facility for domestic mobility applications in Sasolburg. As we mark the 75th anniversary of this facility,  a cornerstone of South African industrial development, we also witnessed the beginning of its green transformation. The Green Hydrogen Minimum Viable Plant (MVP) at Sasolburg is the first commercial-scale green hydrogen production facility on the African continent, delivering on a commitment made during Sasol’s 2021 Capital Markets Day.

This proof-of-concept was enabled by retrofitting existing chlor-alkali electrolysers, with critical funding support from the Industrial Development Corporation. A new hydrogen compressor was procured to meet international quality standards, contributing to higher-than-expected capital expenditure. While the current production costs at this scale remain above prevailing market thresholds, this facility represents a vital first step in de-risking green hydrogen production. It demonstrates that South Africa’s competitive edge lies in leveraging its world-class renewable endowment to reduce input costs and enable scalable, hydrogen derivatives.

Investment, Trade, and Infrastructure Readiness

Turning South Africa’s hydrogen vision into a functioning market economy requires more than project pipelines, it demands readiness across financial systems, trade architecture, infrastructure, and regulatory institutions. Investors are not only seeking compelling project narratives; they are looking for coherent frameworks that reduce uncertainty and enable large-scale capital deployment.

The global race to scale green hydrogen is accelerating. According to the Hydrogen Council and McKinsey (2024), over 1,000 hydrogen projects have been announced globally, representing US$570 billion in planned investments, of which roughly one-third is targeted for final investment decisions by 2030. Countries that succeed in attracting a meaningful share of this capital are those that present clear regulatory pathways, cost-competitive logistics, and dependable offtake arrangements.

South Africa is taking active steps to position itself within this competitive environment. One of the most significant efforts lies in mobilising blended finance. The hydrogen sector, particularly at early stages, is capital intensive and commercially untested at scale. The Department of Electricity and Energy, working with National Treasury, the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), and the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), is advancing instruments to de-risk early projects through concessional capital, credit enhancements instruments, and project preparation facilities.

Beyond exports, infrastructure readiness is a critical determinant of investor confidence. South Africa’s ports, transmission networks, and industrial zones must be prepared to support hydrogen hubs at scale. Key export terminals, such as Saldanha Bay, Ngqura (Coega), and Boegoebaai, can accommodate hydrogen and ammonia storage, bunkering, and shipping facilities. On the energy side, transmission constraints remain a known bottleneck. The Department is leading pioneering work to launch the first phase of the Independent Transmission Projects (ITP), which alongside Eskom's grid access reforms and Transmission expansion of strategic corridors are being aligned with prospective hydrogen zones to ensure spatial coherence between energy supply and industrial demand.

Enabling Frameworks and Policy Coordination

Mr President, one of the immediate imperatives is to create a fit-for-purpose regulatory framework. Green hydrogen cuts across several traditionally siloed domains, energy, water, environment, transport, trade, and industrial development. This means the enabling environment must be deliberately cross-sectoral and outcome-oriented. The Department of Electricity and Energy is currently engaging with the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA), the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC), and the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) to harmonise licensing, environmental permitting, and industrial incentives.

Importantly, South Africa must also invest in the “invisible infrastructure,” of robust standards and certification systems. Green hydrogen’s value in international markets will depend on its ability to prove carbon intensity, water usage, and sustainability criteria. South Africa, through the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) and SANEDI, is actively engaging with global platforms such as the EU CertifHy scheme and ISO TC 197, to ensure interoperability and recognition. But domestic frameworks must also enable local offtake, especially in transport and industry, through guarantees of origin that can unlock demand-side incentives and fleet conversions.

International cooperation also plays a role in reinforcing domestic policy systems. South Africa is currently chairing the G20 Energy Transitions Working Group, where hydrogen certification, infrastructure planning, and standards alignment are on the agenda. These platforms offer an opportunity to shape global norms while ensuring that South Africa’s frameworks remain investor-aligned and strategically positioned.

Human Capital, Skills, and the Just Transition

Green hydrogen sits at the nexus of energy, manufacturing, transport, and logistics, and its value chain includes everything from renewable generation and electrolyser fabrication to storage, pipelines, and export logistics.

According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), green hydrogen could support over 2 million jobs globally by 2050. In SA, estimates from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Trade and Industrial Policy Strategies (TIPS) suggest that the hydrogen economy could generate between 20,000 to 30,000 direct and indirect jobs by 2040, depending on the scale and localisation of project rollout.

Further, the green hydrogen sector has the potential to be a platform for industrial transformation, particularly in reviving advanced manufacturing and leveraging SA’s global leadership in platinum group metals (PGMs). Local beneficiation, through fuel cell and electrolyser assembly, could build new industrial clusters, particularly in areas such as the Vaal Triangle, Gqeberha, and the Northern Cape. The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC), through its Masterplan process and SEZ programme, is working to embed these opportunities within targeted industrial strategies.

While government has not yet formally enabled demand, we are actively exploring the appropriate policy and regulatory mechanisms to support and scale such early market-making actions. Domestic offtake, particularly in transport and logistics,  holds the potential to send important market signals, lower project risk, and catalyse investment in downstream infrastructure.

Equity must also be spatial. Many hydrogen projects are concentrated in regions historically excluded from industrial development. The Northern Cape, which houses some of the largest renewable resources on the continent, presents an opportunity to create regional development zones that integrate skills development, SMME participation, and infrastructure investment in a coherent manner. This is being done in alignment with the District Development Model and with local economic development mandates.

Gender inclusion and youth employment are further priority areas. The Department is engaging with institutions such as the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) and sectoral education and training authorities (SETAs) to ensure hydrogen initiatives are not only accessible but actively empowering. Programmes such as internship pipelines, bursaries in electrochemical engineering, and SMME incubators must be supported in regions near catalytic projects.

Strategic Imperatives for African Cooperation and Global Partnerships

The African Union’s Agenda 2063 calls for a continent that is integrated, prosperous, and driven by its own citizens. Green hydrogen provides a rare opportunity to operationalise that vision by aligning climate goals with economic diversification. Recognising this, the Africa Green Hydrogen Alliance (AGHA), which we have the privilege of leading, comprising SA, Egypt, Kenya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Namibia, is already shaping joint policy positions, certification pathways, and project pipelines. Through this platform, SA is working to ensure the development of shared infrastructure, common regulatory frameworks, and regional industrial value chains that reduce duplication and build scale.

Crucially, infrastructure investment must be regional by design. Green hydrogen corridors require integrated planning across borders, whether it is electricity transmission through the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP), port development along the Atlantic and Indian Ocean coasts, or rail and pipeline infrastructure to connect inland production zones to coastal export terminals. South Africa is championing this effort through its engagements with SADC, the AU Commission on Infrastructure and Energy, and the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA). These initiatives align directly with our own Departmental priorities and the Medium-Term Development Plan’s call to leverage energy infrastructure for inclusive growth and regional integration.

At its core, green hydrogen is not just a technology, it is a diplomacy tool, a regional development catalyst, and a gateway to a more diversified and decarbonised African economy. South Africa’s approach recognises that national success depends on regional coherence and global credibility. This summit, and the partnerships it inspires, must be seen as part of a longer arc, one that repositions Africa not as a climate victim, but as a solutions provider in the global energy transition.

Let this Summit mark a turning point, from ambition to alignment, from planning to implementation. Africa has the resources, the partnerships, and the resolve to lead in the emerging green hydrogen economy.

What remains is to move with urgency, agency and coherence. Let us ensure that the decisions we take here today resonate far beyond this room, across borders, sectors, and generations. In doing so, we affirm that Africa is not a follower in the global energy transition, but a force shaping its future. Indeed, in the words of Kwame Nkrumah, “We face neither East nor West; we face forward.”

I thank you.