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The results are in from African Energy’s carbon and renewable credit survey, with almost 50% of respondents saying the certification of carbon or renewable credits is either too costly or time-intensive. This will not be of great surprise to those who complain the market is not fit for purpose in meeting Africa’s needs.

The Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources has signed a memorandum of understanding with a coalition of local and international companies to support the decarbonisation of downstream facilities in Egypt.

Tunisia’s industry, energy and mines ministry is working on the early stages of a green hydrogen (GH2) scheme called H2vert.TUN with the German Federal Ministry for Economic Co-operation and Development (BMZ) and its Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) development agency.

President Ramaphosa’s announcement that the capacity threshold at which a generation licence would be required for embedded power plants would increase to 100MW was greeted with enthusiasm by the energy industry, but the devil will be in the detail, writes Dan Marks.

A realignment of global alliances is ever more apparent as the first anniversary of Russia’s attempted conquest of Ukraine approaches and global power and wealth seem to concentrate in ever fewer hands. This has been seen in the solidarity among members of the Opec+ oil exporters’ alliance, in which long western-aligned Saudi Arabia and President Vladimir Putin’s Russia remain the driving forces.

Demand for voluntary carbon credits from Africa has risen sharply over the past decade, but in recent years the supply of new credits has fallen away. Developers blame a complex and fragmented marketplace, with numerous credit certifiers, exchanges, brokers and aggregated funds making it challenging to navigate.

Galvanised by the possibilities presented by green hydrogen (GH2), the Cairo authorities have drawn up an extraordinary vision for transforming the Egyptian energy sector and economy in the coming decades. The plans include tens or possibly hundreds of gigawatts of renewable power, barrages of electrolysers, an entirely new export-focused energy infrastructure, plus renewables-powered sea water desalination projects to break the millennia-old dependence on the River Nile. Most of the technology, financing and fully worked-out strategies have yet to be put in place, but the government aims to sign the first commercial deals at the COP27 summit in November. African Energy gives details of this policy in a series of articles

Total Eren and Cairo-based Enara Capital’s agreement to develop a green ammonia plant in the Suez Canal Development Zone (SCZone) is the sixth Egyptian green hydrogen (GH2) project to be agreed in the past three months. With Masdar, EDF, Amea Power, Maersk and Scatec already pursuing schemes, the pace at which these deals are being put in place demonstrates Egypt’s determination to establish a leading position in GH2 exploitation – and to make this part of a broader energy hub strategy.

The global hydrocarbons industry is entering a critical period, as oil majors press on with attempts to reinvent their businesses to meet ambitious emissions reduction targets and accommodate shifting investor expectations. That is likely to lead to further retrenchment from key African markets as the biggest international players reassess their priorities, which will favour gas over crude projects. But not everyone is heading for the exit, writes James Gavin.

The island states off the coast of East Africa are pushing ahead forcefully with renewable energy schemes to reduce their hydrocarbons use. The moves will save money for the authorities in Comoros, Mauritius and the Seychelles by cutting expensive imports of refined products and will also help to address the effects of climate change to which they are particularly vulnerable, writes Marc Howard.

Southern Africa leaders have made a joint appeal at COP27 for nearly $20bn from investors to complete electricity transmission interconnectors and fund new renewable energy projects, in part to increase energy capacity in the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP).

President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on 5 July that the framework, which sets the agenda for the governments ‘just energy transition’ policy, had been finalised, five months after a public consultation document was published.

The British government, which remains COP president until November 2022 when Egypt takes over, is expected to take a more than usually active approach to climate change diplomacy over the next 12 months. One reason for this is that the United Kingdom has had an unusually long time to focus on the issue and it has an incentive to keep doing so.

President Cyril Ramaphosa on 8 February appointed Daniel Mminele as head of the Presidential Climate Task Team, which will negotiate the details of a possible $8.5bn agreement with the European Union, France, Germany, the UK and the US to support South Africa’s transition to a low greenhouse gas emission energy system.

An FPSO vessel under construction at Malaysia’s Yinson Production yard is thought to be the first of its type to be fitted with a post-combustion carbon capture unit. It will be used on the Agogo field in Angola by BP/Eni joint venture Azule Energy .