Introduction

Africa’s clean energy revolution makes compelling headlines. Solar panels glint on rooftops, mini-grids illuminate rural communities, and countries like Namibia1 are betting big on green hydrogen. Electric vehicles are now a feature in the urban iconography of cities, from Accra to Cairo. These images fuel hope for not only climate resilience but also justice for communities that bear the brunt of climate change and energy poverty.

Yet, beneath this hopeful narrative lies a paradox: despite abundant sunshine, wind, and global investment, African cities remain entrenched in carbon-intensive systems. By 2060, over 65 percent of Africa’s population will live in urban areas, which includes several megacities among the world’s largest. This demographic surge, currently estimated at 44 percent of the region’s population,2 will not only expand energy demand but also amplify risks of poor energy systems, worsening air pollution, and health crises.

Africa’s emissions remain modest globally, with a 3.6 percent share of global emissions from combustible fuels in 2023, according to the latest estimates from World Energy Outlook.3 Yet, emissions have doubled in the past two decades, with urbanization often cited as a key driver. Sprawling cities complicate decarbonization, and research suggests that urban sprawl can reduce mitigation potential by up to 95 percent.4 Why, then, are African cities not embracing renewables at scale? A comprehensive response should not be limited to the productive capacities shaping the region’s energy mix. It must also explore material textures and affective experiences of energy consumption across urban spaces.

Energy Choices in Urban Ghana

Between 2023 and 2024, I led a collaborative study5 with researchers from the University of Ghana, University of Edinburgh, and Leiden University, supported by field assistants in Ghana. We examined energy choices among urban consumers in Accra and Sekondi-Takoradi, focusing on why carbon-based energy and transport remain dominant despite rising costs and environmental concerns.

Two explanations of how urban consumption patterns remain stuck with carbon-intensive sources stood out:

  • Risk Aversion – Many view solar and wind energy as uncertain investments and advocate for government leadership through subsidies and pilot programs.
  • Structural Legacies – The deeper, often understated, reason evokes the ghost of structural adjustment reforms.

The Ghost of the Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs)

In the 1980s and 1990s, Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs), driven by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, pushed privatization, economic and fiscal deregulation, and austerity across African countries. State-led energy provision was dismantled. Public utilities were commercialized. Cost-recovery became gospel. Energy access shifted from a public right to a private commodity. Prepaid meters and tariff hikes entrenched individualized consumption.

Ghana became a poster child of these market-based economic reforms. The country deregulated oil prices, introduced cost-recovery principles, encouraged independent power producers, and raised user fees. In 2023 alone, Ghana increased electricity tariffs by nearly 50 percent across two quarters6 – 18.36 percent in the second quarter after a 30 percent hike in the first. These increases occurred amid soaring inflation, mounting debt, and a depreciating currency, which pushed the country to the brink of default. Residential electricity prices now hover around $0.133 per kWh7 slightly above the continental average.

Today, these market logics persist, shaping urban energy decisions, with affordability often trumping sustainability. In this atomized consumer space, the collective benefits of clean energy appear elusive.

Energy Choices Are Emotional

This history matters because energy choices are not just technical; they are emotional. Solar power evokes abundance and modernity, yet optimism is tempered by mistrust. Foreign firms dominate supply chains, and high upfront costs exclude the poor. In Kenya, solar home systems promise progress but remain inaccessible for many. In Nigeria, although noisy generators are powered by fossil fuels, they still symbolize autonomy and reliability.

These affective domains of energy consumption influence whether clean energy feels inclusive or extractive, and whether societies can escape the legacies of fossil capitalism.

Carbon Lock-In and Urban Infrastructure

Africa’s infrastructure reinforces its dependence on fossil fuels. Colonial-era planning and informal sprawl have produced cities addicted to carbon-heavy systems. While there has been modest growth in electricity generation capacity, driven by investments in renewable energy, access remains highly uneven. Africa accounts for approximately 85 percent of the global population without access to electricity.8 Consequently, carbon-heavy energy sources have become convenient alternatives to the unreliable supply from national grids. In Accra, diesel generators hum in homes, factories, and offices. Lagos and Johannesburg’s sprawling transport networks make decarbonization daunting. Dar es Salaam’s rapid growth without integrated planning deepens reliance on carbon-intensive mobility. Even when solar panels appear on rooftops, they rarely displace entrenched fossil systems – they layer on top of them.

Toward a Just Energy Transition

A just energy transition in Africa requires more than planning, technology, and Western-backed finance. It demands a reckoning with history and a reimagining of governance. Three priorities stand out:

  • Revisit Structural Legacies: Rethink tariffs, restore public investment, and reframe energy as a public good rather than a private commodity.
  • Engage Social and Emotional Dimensions: Promote participatory projects, community ownership, and transparent financing to counter perceptions of extractive clean energy.
  • Foster Regional Collaboration: Share best practices to address common governance and infrastructural challenges. Africa’s energy future will be shaped as much by cooperation as by competition.

Financing solar panels without dismantling structural barriers, such as deeply entrenched regulatory lapses and weak grid infrastructures, is insufficient. Unless African governments take bold steps to close the gaps left by carbon-intensive economies, ensure inclusive governance, and global partners rethink extractive financing models, clean energy will remain a privilege, not a right. Confronting the legacies of structural adjustment is not simply a historical reckoning. It is a prerequisite for building an equitable and sustainable energy future in Africa and beyond.

Endnotes

  1. Namibia wants to build the first hydrogen economy, MIT Technology Review, https://www.technologyreview.com/

  2. World Bank, “Urban population (% of total population) – Sub-Saharan Africa,” World Bank Data, https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.URB.TOTL.IN.ZS?locations=ZG

  3. International Energy Agency (IEA), “How much CO2 do countries in Africa emit?” IEA, https://www.iea.org/regions/africa/emissions#how-much-co2-do-countries-in-africa-emit

  4. Julian D. Allwood et al., “Title of Article,” Journal of Industrial Ecology 25, no. X (Year): page numbers, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jiec.13562 
    (Note: Replace “Title of Article,” volume, issue, year, and pages with the actual details from the article.)

  5. “First LLEAP seed grant for project on clean energy futures in Ghana’s cities,” African Studies Centre Leiden, https://www.ascleiden.nl/news/first-lleap-seed-grant-project-clean-energy-futures-ghanas-cities

  6. “Ghana raises electricity tariffs by more than 18%,” Reuters, https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/ghana-raises-electricity-tariffs-by-more-than-18-2025-xx-xx/

  7. Climatescope 2025 | Ghana, https://www.climatescope.org/country/ghana/

  8. World Bank, Tracking SDG 7 – The Energy Progress Report 2025, https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/energy/publication/tracking-sdg-7-the-energy-progress-report-2025.