Climate Action
Scaling African climate champions, supporting the transition to a lower-emissions future, and strengthening resilience to climate-related risks ensuring portfolio resilience and reducing emissions intensity.
Climate action in Africa
Africa accounts for only 3-4% of global greenhouse gas emissions despite representing 17% of the world's population. As African economies grow and urbanize, businesses will need to scale in ways that are resilient to climate change and aligned with lower-carbon development pathways.
This is driving demand for sustainable infrastructure, resource-efficient business models and climate solutions across sectors including energy, agriculture, and transport. In many African markets, newer technologies can be deployed without the constraints of legacy infrastructure, creating opportunities to build more efficient businesses from the outset. Moreover, meeting the continent's infrastructure, energy, and adaptation needs will require substantial investment. The Climate Policy Initiative estimates that Africa requires approximately $200 billion of climate investment annually, of which around 80% is currently unmet. We view this as an opportunity to scale and deploy cleaner, better, and cheaper technologies.
Case studies
Case Study: Sun Mobility
Scaling e-mobility in Africa
Investment date
July 2025
Urban transport across African markets relies heavily on 2- and 3-wheelers. Although electrification offers fuel cost savings, high up-front cost, long charging times and limited infrastructure have held back uptake in practice.
SUN Mobility addresses these barriers through a battery swapping and Battery-as-a-Service (BaaS) model, reducing upfront costs and eliminating charging downtime via quick interchange stations (QIS). This enables higher vehicle utilisation and improves the economics of electric mobility for drivers and fleet operators. The company’s OEM-agnostic platform supports multiple vehicle types and has scaled in India. Helios CLEAR’s investment will support its expansion into Africa, starting with Kenya, to deploy infrastructure and accelerate the adoption of electric transport.
