From Pledges to Practice: FOCAC 2027 and Africa’s Energy and Climate Future

By Mengdi Yue

Established in 2000, the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) has been the primary diplomatic channel through which China and 53 African countries shape cooperation across trade, infrastructure, agriculture, health, culture, energy and climate.

Amid the global energy transition, Africa cannot afford to wait without a strategy of its own. Deepening energy and climate cooperation with China should be a core part of the strategy. Chinese banks and state-owned enterprises were dominant funders in the 2010s, but the lending has fallen sharply since 2020, with net public and publicly guaranteed debt transfers from Chinese creditors to Africa turning negative. Meanwhile, Africa’s transition minerals are increasingly strategic to China’s clean-tech supply chains, and Africa has become a fast-growing market for China’s clean-energy products. The abundance of opportunities, however, hasn’t powered the continent to meet its own energy and climate needs.

With preparations for FOCAC 2027 under way, questions arise as for how this big moment can address Africa’s needs, and how African countries can negotiate stronger outcomes from their engagement with China.

A new policy brief, published by the Boston University Global Development Policy Center, examines how FOCAC’s energy and climate agenda has evolved, what has been promised and delivered and how the changing China-Africa relationship could shape FOCAC 2027.

Since 2018, FOCAC’s energy agenda has broadened considerably, from a sub-category of infrastructure often linked to natural resources to specific fields including renewables, grid modernization, storage and green industrial value chains. The remaining challenge is that delivery is hard to track without a dedicated monitoring system, and pledges are rarely tied to specific projects. Climate cooperation emerged as a distinct FOCAC agenda later than energy, and it remains weighted toward mitigation. So far, the multi-year financing packages have not been energy- or climate-specific.

The analysis highlights four priority areas for FOCAC 2027 that serve both sides, followed by recommendations to African countries and China to implement these priorities.

1. Catalytic finance to turn Africa’s renewable potential into a pipeline of bankable, investment-ready projects;
2. A more central role for decentralized energy such as distributed solar;
3. A step-up in adaptation and resilience support;
4. Using Africa’s strategic assets to negotiate green industrialization.

FOCAC is about South-South cooperation in practice, countries setting their own development priorities and working toward outcomes that benefit both sides. The value of the upcoming FOCAC will depend on the amount and scale of transparent, measurable delivery: bankable projects, affordable electricity, decentralized access, climate-resilient infrastructure and greater local economic value.

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