The President of the Association of African Sustainability Practitioners (AASuP), Humphrey Tetteh, has expressed concern about Africa’s slow progress in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs).
He said out of the 32 areas outlined by the UN, Africa has only made notable progress in three, with others either stagnating or regressing.
Speaking to energycrossroad.com on the sidelines of the First Stakeholders’ meeting on the Sixth Africa Sustainability Report and the Think Energy SDG Awards on August 28, 2025, Mr Tetteh said sustainability and climate issues have evolved globally from mere advocacy to a new era of accountability, as countries and industries are now expected to back their environmental commitments with legislation.
“Sustainability and climate related issues has moved from just advocacy to accountability. And when it comes to accountability, what it means is that we need to have laws or regulations guiding us in practise. And Africa hasn’t got it. We don’t have any ESG law in the whole of Africa,” he stated.
He added that while some African countries have developed environmental guidelines through agencies like the EPA, these remain non-binding and ineffective.
He called for proper legislation and enforcement of laws to help attain desired goals in like with the UN’s SDG goals.
“So the issue is, we need to have a law that mandates all of us to reduce our green gas emissions by a certain percentage every year going into 2030. And that’s what Africa is missing. What we are doing is still the advocacy. We’ve not gone into the accountability side of climate change. And for me and for the association, that is the greatest worry. And we are going to spend most of our resources in empowering communities to really get into accountability part of it,” he added.
Building capacity for sustainability
The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR), Elvis Asare-Bediako for his part emphasised the role the initiative seeks to achieve in bringing stakeholders and industry experts together to interrogate the data, sharpen our strategies, and ensure that the report and award reflect Africa’s realities while pointing towards actionable solutions.
He added that Ghana continues to demonstrate strong commitment to the SDGs, especially in, the areas of energy access, renewable energy development, climate resilience, and natural resource management.
The statement comes as the international community continues to push for accelerated climate action ahead of the 2030 SDG deadline, with Africa’s pushing hard to hit the SDG in the next five years.
