China-Africa energy cooperation conference held in Hunan's Yueyang

Alhaji Sarjoh Bah, the African Union's permanent representative to China, said Africa has abundant solar, wind, and hydropower resources, and that putting them to work for development starts with implementing the continent's own plans. He added that the African Union is ready to work closely with China to deliver concrete and sustainable results.

Nardos Bekele-Thomas, CEO of the African Union Development Agency-New Partnership for Africa's Development, highlighted the scale of Africa's energy needs. She cited the Energy Progress Report 2026 by the International Energy Agency and other organizations, which found that over 560 million people in sub-Saharan Africa lacked access to electricity in 2024, and 970 million lacked access to clean cooking.

She called for working with China to match power generation and transmission planning to the needs of industrial parks, mineral and agricultural processing, digital infrastructure, and logistics.

"China's experience demonstrates that sustained investment in infrastructure, technology, and production capacity can yield remarkable results," she said.