Tanzania Puts Green Manufacturing at Centre of Industrialisation Plans

What changed

Tanzania is placing low-carbon manufacturing at the centre of its industrialisation plans as COP31’s Green Industrialisation Action Agenda takes shape. The conference is scheduled for November 9–20, 2026, in Antalya, Türkiye, and its agenda proposes raising recycled materials in manufacturing to at least 15% by 2035.

Why it matters

Tanzania has the raw ingredients for a bigger industrial economy: mineral resources, expanding electricity infrastructure, agricultural production and growing investment activity. The harder task is turning those assets into factories that can compete without locking in expensive, carbon-heavy production.

That means reliable and affordable power, modern technology, industrial infrastructure, skilled workers, accessible finance and predictable investment rules. A mine or a power line alone does not make a green industry. The value comes when Tanzania can process more of what it produces and build businesses around it.

The COP31 agenda treats this as an economic question, not simply an environmental one. Its five priorities are international cooperation, industrial decarbonisation hubs, demand for cleaner products, near-zero-emission technologies and sustainable value chains. It also proposes an Antalya Green Industrialisation Compact, a circularity knowledge network, an AI-enabled clean-technology initiative and support for green industrialisation in least-developed countries.

The stakes are high because industry produces approximately a quarter of global emissions, while sectors such as steel, cement, chemicals, aluminium and fertiliser require large amounts of energy. Tanzania’s opportunity is to attract investment into cleaner production while expanding jobs and domestic processing.

The outlook is promising but still unproven. Tanzania has been linked to the agenda, but no funded national projects, investment commitments, implementation dates or measurable national targets are identified yet. The next test will be whether the policy language becomes affordable power, working technology, trained labour and finance that manufacturers can actually use.