UN University’s (UNU-INRA) 8th Kwapong Lecture on the Age of Contradictions: Reflections on Power, Narratives and Green Transitions

This year’s United Nations University’s (UNU-INRA) annual Kwapong Lectures, will be headlined by Professor Fatima Denton (Director, United Nations University-Institute for Natural Resources in Africa)

The event is co-convened by the UN University’s Institute for Natural Resources in Africa (UNU-INRA) and the University of Ghana. It will be held on Thursday, 3rd September 2026 at the West African Genetic Medicine Centre (WAGMC) Seminar Room, University of Ghana-Legon Campus, at 1 pm prompt.

This year's lecture also marks a significant milestone, serving as Professor Denton's farewell lecture at UNU-INRA, following eight years of leadership as Director of the Institute. It provides an opportunity to reflect on her contributions to advancing research, policy dialogue and international cooperation on natural resources, climate change, and sustainable development in Africa, while looking ahead to the future of the continent's green transitions.

The global transition towards low-carbon economies is taking place in an age of profound contradictions. The imperative to decarbonise is increasingly urgent, yet global demand for oil and gas remains high, geopolitical competition is reshaping energy priorities, and energy poverty continues to constrain development prospects across much of Africa. Even the language of the transition reveals important tensions. Critical minerals are increasingly described as "green", despite the environmental and social costs often associated with their extraction; climate finance is presented as the solution to the climate crisis yet continues to operate within financial structures that have struggled to deliver equitable outcomes; and carbon markets are portrayed as markets, although they are fundamentally shaped by political choices, standards and institutions. Together, these contradictions raise fundamental questions about how benefits, costs, risks and opportunities are defined and distributed.

Against this backdrop, Professor Denton's lecture, will reflect on the power relations shaping the direction and outcomes of green transitions. Economic, political and technological power determine who can influence transition pathways, who participates in decision-making, who captures emerging opportunities and value, and who bears the costs of adjustment. The lecture will consider how these asymmetries are playing out within a rapidly changing geopolitical and economic landscape, particularly from an African perspective.

It will also interrogate the narratives and assumptions through which the transition itself is understood and defined. Who defines what constitutes a transition, and whose terms? Who decides what is considered "green", what makes a mineral "critical", whether carbon markets are truly equitable markets, and whose understanding of a "just transition" prevails? Questions such as "justice for whom?" and "critical for whom?" draw attention to the epistemic as well as the material dimensions of power, and to the importance of African knowledge, priorities and agency in shaping transition pathways.

The Kwapong Lecture Series brings together a broad range of stakeholders, including policymakers, members of the diplomatic corps, academia, civil society, the private sector, development partners and the media. The High-Level Lecture Series provides a platform for distinguished thought leaders to foster independent thinking, challenge conventional wisdom and advance innovative and transformative ideas. 

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