A Week in the Horn 28.03.2025
Ethiopia participated in the 2nd BRICS Energy Senior Officials meeting held in Brasilia on March 20 and 21, 2025. The meeting, chaired by Brazil, the 2025 BRICS Presidency, deliberated on the roadmap for BRICS energy cooperation.
Representing Ethiopia, Leulseged Tadesse, Ethiopia’s ambassador to Brazil, delivered a statement focusing on Ethiopia’s policy framework on the energy sector. In his statement, Ambassador Leulseged mentioned Ethiopia’s diverse renewable energy potentials such as hydro, wind, geothermal, solar, and bio-energy. He further explained the national policy targets centered on energy security, energy access, regional energy integration, and energy efficiency.
Existing power capacity across all technologies in BRICS countries totals 4.2 terawatts (TW), with power generation from a mix of sources including coal, oil, and gas, as well as renewable sources including solar, wind, hydropower, nuclear, bioenergy, and geothermal.
Through the Ten-Year Development Plan, Ethiopia aims to achieve universal electrification and increase its electricity generation capacity from the current 6 gigawatts (GW) to over 17 GW by 2030. Its energy diversification strategy also promotes regional energy supply, fostering cooperation through power interconnections. To this end, Ethiopia has been making an effort towards the expansion of energy power infrastructure, including transmission, substations, and distribution networks for national and regional power trade and exchange. These efforts have facilitated energy interconnection and trade with Djibouti, Sudan, Kenya, and more recently, Tanzania. By accelerating energy interconnection, Ethiopia aims to foster cross-border collaborations and ensure a reliable and affordable supply of clean energy, serving as a catalyst for continental development and integration across Africa.
While 70 percent of the power-generating capacity in BRICS countries is reliant on fossil power, the non-fossil-fueled capacity under construction in BRICS countries stands at 629 GW. Ethiopia’s renewable energy mix, which sources over 95 percent of energy from renewables, aims to share its best practices and benefit from technology transfer and energy development financing within the BRICS platform.
During the meeting, the senior officials and representatives of BRICS countries presented their national energy policy priorities and experiences. The meeting concluded in outlining a draft roadmap of energy cooperation within BRICS framework to be discussed at the upcoming ministerial meeting scheduled for May 2025.