Building green energy partnership, deepening pragmatic China-Africa energy cooperation

The Third China-Africa Energy Cooperation Project Promotion Conference was held in Yueyang, Hunan on November 4, 2026. The conference was co-hosted by the National Energy Administration, the People's Government of Hunan Province, and the African Union Commission, themed "Forging a China-Africa Green Energy Partnership." This is the first time the promotion mechanism has moved beyond Beijing to a local venue, aiming to implement the outcomes of the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and to deepen pragmatic China-Africa energy cooperation.

Liu Deshun, chief engineer of the National Energy Administration; Liu Yang, vice governor of the People's Government of Hunan Province; and, Alhaji Sarjoh Bah, representative of the African Union to China, delivered speeches respectively. Nardos Bekele-Thomas, chief executive officer of the African Union Development Agency; diplomats from African countries including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho, Zambia, Libya, and Sudan; as well as representatives from Chinese and foreign energy enterprises and financial institutions attended the opening ceremony.

The conference released a number of landmark outcomes, including the "Yueyang Initiative for China-Africa Green Energy Cooperation" and the "China-Africa Renewable Energy Cooperation Report 2026," and signed the "Memorandum of Understanding on Deepening China-Africa Energy Cooperation" and the "Investment, Development, and Cooperation Agreement on China-Africa Energy Cooperation Demonstration Project in Hunan Province." The signing of these two agreements marks a solid step forward in China-Africa energy cooperation from macro-level initiatives to local practices and concrete project implementation.

Three parallel thematic seminars were simultaneously held during the confernce. Chinese and foreign guests engaged in in-depth dialogue on topics such as strategic alignment, legal safeguards, cross-border power grid interconnection, diversified financing, mutual recognition of technical standards, capacity building, and achieving inclusive energy access, reaching policy consensus and exploring collaboration pathways.

This article is from Hunan Provincial Government. www.enghunan.gov.cn.

Translator: Yu Jiangjiang 

Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn