In June 2023, Germany and South Africa agreed to cooperate on green hydrogen projects in the latest bid by Europe to tap into Africa's huge renewable resource potential to meet 2050 net-zero targets.

President Ramaphosa announced the country would need around $17billion of investment to kick-start the industry. So far, $8.5billion has been pledged by France, Germany, Britain, the USA and the EU.

Governments of South Africa, the Netherlands and Denmark also concluded a Heads of Agreement (HoA) with the intention to launch a new SA-H2 Fund, an innovative blended finance $1billion fund that will facilitate and accelerate the development of a green hydrogen sector and circular economy in South Africa.

In October 2023, Japan and South Africa signed a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) that will make it possible for Japan to transfer technologies to South Africa to help it with its hydrogen economy and to decarbonize some of its key industries that are hard to abate or that struggle to lower emissions, such as the steel, cement and aviation industries.