Green hydrogen projects globally are increasingly constrained not by ambition but by bankability, with early-stage development costs often preventing projects from reaching financial close. The African Development Bank is attempting to address that gap through a new continent-wide program designed to unlock project pipelines before large-scale capital is committed.
South Africa’s hydrogen ambitions continue to be constrained less by capital than by capability, with skills shortages emerging as a critical bottleneck in project execution and scale-up. A new training initiative led by Chemical Industries Education and Training Authority and Sasol signals a shift toward addressing that structural gap, albeit at an early stage.
Tensions around the Strait of Hormuz continue to expose a structural weakness in global logistics: a freight system still overwhelmingly dependent on diesel.
Namibia is positioning its green hydrogen strategy alongside China’s 15th Five-Year Plan for 2026 to 2030, signaling a shift from project-level cooperation toward broader industrial alignment.
The Dutch prosecution of Fleurette Properties has highlighted the limits of Western enforcement in addressing large-scale corruption in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Morocco is emerging as a continental leader in green hydrogen, leveraging its abundant solar and wind resources to position itself as a strategic supplier to Europe.
Kenya is positioning itself as a key player in global carbon markets with the launch of its national carbon registry, a platform designed to improve transparency, prevent double counting, and verify emissions reductions at a time when scrutiny of climate offsets is intensifying worldwide.
Europe’s hydrogen import strategy is increasingly colliding with a practical constraint in partner countries: grid capacity. That tension is visible in the European Commission’s decision to back two renewable energy projects in Egypt worth roughly €124.3 million, splitting funding between export oriented hydrogen derivatives and domestic grid reinforcement.
Kenya’s plan to develop a mega scale green hydrogen facility is less a symbolic climate gesture than an attempt to leverage structural advantages in geothermal, wind, and solar generation to enter an increasingly competitive global hydrogen market.
