Powering Africa's Climate Transition: SEFA and CCG Join Forces

The African Development Bank's Ten-Year Strategy identifies climate change as one of Africa's major challenges, noting that it jeopardises economies and increases fragility. As impacts intensify, every African country and economic sector will face growing adjustment costs. The continent is exceptionally vulnerable—climate scientists project that sub-Saharan Africa is warming 1.5 times faster than the global average. By undermining adaptive capacity, climate change contributes to increased fragility, with adaptation alone projected to cost African countries at least $50 billion annually by 2050.

The African Development Bank's Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA) is a multi-donor special fund providing technical assistance, project preparation support, and concessional investments to unlock private sector investments in grid-connected renewable energy, off-grid energy access, and energy efficiency across Africa. To strengthen its impact, SEFA has begun collaborating with the Climate Compatible Growth Research Programme (CCG) in its second phase, running from 2025 to 2030.

CCG was launched in 2020 to accelerate improved infrastructure rollout, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and increase inclusive economic growth in low- and middle-income countries. Supported by the UK Government's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, CCG accelerates the release of domestic and international finance for inclusive, low-carbon infrastructure. Its co-created methods have a proven track record in Africa, with fruitful  over the past five years.

CCG is committed to moving beyond traditional research and technical assistance to build enduring, self-reliant national systems that align economic development with climate action. It works through a partnership delivery model, forging networks of special interest groups at the national level and collaborating closely with international organisations.

The SEFA-CCG collaboration will draw on CCG's philosophy of close engagement with governments, local universities, and international organisations to co-create practical solutions, empowering countries to develop their own climate transitions and build analytical capacity.

SEFA will deploy several CCG tools and resources to provide technical assistance and project preparation support. In particular, CCG has created a comprehensive framework called "Data-to-Deal" to assist countries in financing their climate transition. This seven-step framework links the entire process from data collection and system modelling to national financing strategies and finalising investment deals for clean energy and transport infrastructure. The approach has already supported several Latin American countries in mobilising over $11 billion from international finance institutions in just two years.

SEFA will also leverage CCG's capacity-buildingl) services. The Open Learn Collection free, self-paced online courses accessible from anywhere, covering topics such as demand forecasting, geospatial planning for universal energy access, and project financial modelling. All models are open source, available without expensive licensing fees.

The Energy Modelling Platform expands this foundation with annual three-week in-person training events. Bootcamp arrangements provide coaching support to ensure local experts gain confidence in applying modelling tools independently, while the Flatpack initiative assists local academics with ready-made course materials, enabling institutions to quickly launch energy modelling courses.

To address data challenges, CCG has created Starter Data Kits—comprehensive resources assembling the best available public domain data on energy and transport sectors for each Sub-Saharan African country, prepared for immediate use in modelling.

Together, SEFA and CCG look forward to delivering technical assistance that will lead to more sustainable and self-reliant national systems.