The Portuguese Energy Agency (ADENE) considers that Africa has a high potential to supply energy to the European market, as an alternative to Russian energy. In the short term Africa may supply gas to Europe according to the president of ADENE, Nelson Lage, who was speaking in Brussels, Belgium.

It is hoped that there will be a "better definited positioning" on which African countries could take on this supplier role, Lage said.

"Here we will have to really find out what position the Ministers (of the countries present in the occasion) will take in this meeting and then understand where the potential in terms of alternative gas supply may come from," added the president of ADENE.

According to the official, it is still "more urgent than ever to join forces and make the European Union and the parts of the African continent free of fossil fuels from Russia.

"And this goal can only be achieved by working together to advocate for clean, fiable, and cheaper energy," he adds.

The joint EnR and European Commission roundtable in Brussels brought together high-level political representatives from the European Union, Africa, the International Energy Agency, the International Renewable Energy Agency, as well as the business and financial sectors to discuss the energy transition on the African continent, which has been affected by the consequences of covid-19 on public investments and now by the war in Ukraine, with rising fossil fuel prices.