The war on Iran, launched in late February by the United States and Israel, is doing more than rattling oil markets. It is accelerating a determination among African countries to reduce their dependence on imported fossil fuels and to turn toward renewable power. Africa has extraordinary solar, wind, and geothermal resources, but until the early 2010s, much of this potential had gone untapped. Most African states had long generated electricity from fossil fuels and hydropower, because these technologies were already well established, whereas solar and wind were the new, expensive, kids on the block.

That calculus began to change around 2022, when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine exposed the vulnerability of fossil fuel dependence. In sub-Saharan Africa, the cost of imported diesel and other fuels surged, with import bills rising by more than 35 percent in many countries over the course of a year, squeezing public finances and raising electricity bills for homes and businesses. The recent instability across the Middle East is only reinforcing that sense of vulnerability. And so African countries are now leaning toward the “electro-state” development model advanced by China, in which abundant, low-cost electricity from renewables underpins industrialization and economic growth. China is electrifying Africa through large-scale investment in renewable power generation, building electricity transmission and distribution infrastructure, and making electrified transport more accessible by financing electric-vehicle assembly lines, battery-swapping networks, and charging infrastructure.

Africa is now at the center of the world’s clean energy push, no longer at its periphery. And by embedding itself deeply into Africa’s energy infrastructure, China is positioning itself as a long-term strategic partner for industrializing the world’s youngest and fastest-growing continent. The United States under President Donald Trump, however, simply appears not to understand the appeal of renewables on the continent. (For instance, Washington has approved a $4.7 billion U.S. export-import bank loan to try to revive a liquefied natural gas project in Mozambique.) The truth is that infrastructure creates path dependency: countries tend to build future systems around the technologies, financing structures, and supply chains they already have.

If the United States cedes a role in Africa’s clean energy transition to China, it risks losing more than commercial opportunities. Beijing would deepen its diplomatic influence both in Africa and worldwide, shape the standards and supply chains underpinning the global energy transition, and strengthen its access to critical minerals essential for low-carbon technologies. And many African governments now prioritizing renewable energy are likely to view external partners that continue to emphasize fossil-fuel investments with growing skepticism. Rather than pushing hydrocarbons, the United States should partner with African countries on clean energy in ways that align with those countries’ development priorities. Doing so would not only expand Africa’s access to reliable and affordable energy; it would shore up American economic and geopolitical interests.

Nearly 600 million people in sub-Saharan Africa still lack access to electricity in their homes, roughly 80 percent of the world’s unelectrified population. Throughout much of the twentieth century, electrification relied on large, centralized fossil fuel and hydropower plants designed to serve cities, mines, and industry. Dispersed rural populations........

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