Africa’s economies are being used as guinea pigs in energy experiments.

This is the warning from South Africa’s Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe.

He was speaking at Africa Energy Week, which is underway in Cape Town.

The minister reminded delegates that advanced economies want to impose solutions on African countries for energy even though the continent contributes less than 5% of global emissions despite having a population of over a billion.

This week’s energy focus comes ahead of the COP27 meeting in Egypt in November.

Here, South Africa is expected to present the plan for $8.5 billion in concessional loans and grants pledged at COP26 to help the country decarbonise its economy.

Minister Mantashe says that South Africa entered into the agreement on the understanding that a significant part of it would be grants, but it turned out that most of the finance are made up of loans.