On 13-14 April 2023, over two hundred representatives from African governments, renewable energy and green hydrogen project developers, development finance institutions (DFIs), bilateral partners, and civil society convened in Nouakchott, Mauritania for the Africa Green Hydrogen Finance Accelerator Forum. The forum focused on solutions to finance large-scale renewable energy and green hydrogen projects in developing countries and emerging economies.

During the forum, a new report Getting the right blend: Innovative development finance for the large-scale renewable and green hydrogen economy6 was published. The Report draws on the experiences of a wide group of DFIs, export credit agencies, developers and institutional investors. It looks in detail at what ‘financial close’ for a large-scale renewable energy and green hydrogen project could look like and the most effective financial instruments that should be scaled up.

The Conference was capped with the Nouakchott message which set out seven recommendations calling on DFIs and their shareholders to support “a just green hydrogen economy in developing and emerging countries before it is too late.” The recommendations included:

• Importing countries to scale up efforts to create an inclusive market for green hydrogen.
• Massively scaled up blended financing and support for projects along the value chain
• Establishment of an African renewable energy and green hydrogen economy financing vehicle.
• Scaled up volume of tailored guarantee instruments.
• Partnerships with all stakeholders, including civil society.
• Increased co-financing for large-scale projects.