President von der Leyen co-hosts the final pledging event of the ‘Scaling up Renewables in Africa’ campaign and participates in G20 summit in Johannesburg

On 21 November, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the President of the Republic of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, will host the final pledging event of the 'Scaling up Renewables in Africa' campaign. The event will happen in the margins of the G20 Summit in Johannesburg.

The one-year campaign was launched at the last G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro with the objective to drive new commitments from governments, financial institutions, the private sector and philanthropists to accelerate Africa's clean energy transition. The aim is to expand access to electricity for African people - currently, 600 million people still lack access to electricity - and to accelerate Africa's economic growth, through decarbonized industrialization.

The campaign has been organised in collaboration with international advocacy organization Global Citizen, the technical support of the International Energy Agency and in coordination with the World Bank.

The European Union is already supporting Africa's clean energy transition, through Global Gateway. Since the start of the campaign, Team Europe has announced several pledges - projects of electrification, modernising power grids, and expanding access to renewable energy for the whole African continent and for specific countries. These investments will provide a key contribution to the overall objective of tripling global renewable energy capacity by the end of this decade and to accelerate the transition from fossil fuels to more sustainable energy. Key announcements have taken place in September 2025 in the margins of the United Nations General Assembly and in October 2025 during the Global Gateway Forum in Brussels.

During the pledging summit, which will be broadcast live on EBS, President von der Leyen and other leaders, as well as private sector representatives will announce new pledges for scaling up renewables in Africa, as well as unveiling the total amount of funds mobilised during the campaign.

A day before the event, President von der Leyen will take part in the EU-South Africa Leaders' meeting together with President Costa and President Ramaphosa. On 22 November the G20 Summit starts, the first on African soil, and first since the African Union joined as a permanent member. It will be followed by the EU-African Union Summit in Luanda on 24-25 November.