Germany: Hydrogen Partnership with Africa Begins

Federal Research Minister Anja Karliczek and her Nigerian counterpart and chairman of the Ministerial Council of the Competence Center for Climate Change and Adapted Land Use “WASCAL”, Yahouza Sadissou, agreed today in Berlin on a package of measures to expand the strategic partnership with West Africa.

Federal Minister of Research Anja Karliczek explains: “Africa is a continent of opportunities. Green hydrogen as the oil of tomorrow is one of the greatest opportunities. I am therefore very pleased that we have laid the foundation stone for a hydrogen partnership today. It holds great opportunities for everyone involved: for West Africa, for Europe, and for Germany as a country of innovation. The start has been made: We have launched a potential atlas on green hydrogen in West Africa. Teams of experts have started their work in the 15 ECOWAS countries. We want to publish the potential atlas by the end of the year.

Cooperation with Africa on the mega-issue of green hydrogen will make Germany a focus of the EU Council Presidency. We also contribute to the success of the European Green Deal.

Africa is particularly important to my ministry. That is why I presented our new Africa strategy a year and a half ago. The guiding principle is ‘create perspectives!’ and puts innovation, qualification of people and application proximity at the center of our cooperation.

In the WASCAL network, we can look back on longstanding and trusting cooperation with the West African countries. We want to intensify this in the mutual interest. This includes our successful graduate school program, which has so far produced around 350 graduates in disciplines such as food security and water management. In addition, with the new building of the WASCAL competence center in Burkina Faso we will build a powerful research infrastructure for climate and environmental data. “

Research Minister Sadissou said: “WASCAL and the BMBF have been working together successfully for almost ten years and have already enabled 200 young scientists to qualify in ten interrelated topics on climate change, to support hydrometeorological observation stations and to provide tailored models and information for politics and local adaptation strategies to work.”

Background

In the international lighthouse project WASCAL (West African Science Service Center on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use), the BMBF has been creating with the member countries Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Cape Verde, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, since 2010 Senegal and Togo joint scientific cooperation structures in the region. The aim is to improve the knowledge base on the topic of “sustainable land management under the influence of land use and climate change”, in order to strengthen the economic and social situation and the resilience of West Africa. The BMBF has assured the continuation of the graduate school program and the commitment to hydrogen as an energy source of the future.