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Tensions in implementing an $8.5bn package agreed at COP26 in November to help South Africa decarbonise its power sector illustrate many of the problems around climate change and finance in emerging countries.  

The Ministry of Petroleum and Energy (MPE) has requested expressions of interest for consultants to advise on Senegal’s $2.7bn Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP).

A series of increasingly high-profile and commercialised UN climate change summits has driven a global boom in climate finance, but Africa is being left behind as a result of poor infrastructure, weak governance and other issues. As discussions start at COP28 in Dubai, African Energy assesses the data and what needs to change if Africa is to hit its climate change targets.

Efforts to mitigate climate change, while electricity supply industries, transport networks and other big consumers of energy are put on a more sustainable, less carbon-intense footing, will rise sharply up the global agenda in 2021, ahead of the next big round of climate talks to be held on 1-12 November in Glasgow. This is likely to involve a rush into green bonds, new project financing and other instruments that could significantly increase the pace of Africa’s shift into a more sustainable energy future.

President Félix Tshisekedi’s efforts to revive Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)’s attraction to international oil companies (IOCs) are admirable on paper, as are his efforts to revive – and bring improved governance to – the crucial energy and mining sectors. Having broken with his alliance of convenience with ex-president Joseph Kabila, Tshisekedi’s government is looking for takers for blocks 1 and 2 in the Albertine Graben, and there is talk of a new licensing round, with plans to tender for 16 oil and three gas blocks in the onshore Atlantic basin, Cuvette Centrale and the western Rift Valley.

The global energy transition is having profound impacts on natural resource producers, from the oil majors who are morphing into energy providers, to mining companies whose priorities are shifting as electric vehicles (EVs), battery storage and other new technologies take hold, and African governments and non-state actors who might profit from these changes but could also find themselves embroiled in new resource wars.

The rules governing a new mechanism for the international trading of carbon emission reduction credits is due to be agreed at the Bonn Climate Change Conference, which runs from 6-16 June in Germany. The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) – which has so far proved of limited value to Africa – is set to be replaced by Article 6 of the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference’s Paris Agreement, which is intended to offer governments and project owners the potential to tap into a  new source of finance.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has agreed a €10m ($10.2m) local currency loan backing the deployment of 107,000 solar home systems in Benin by Engie Energy Access. The systems are expected to provide power to around 643,000 people.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has committed a $100m loan to Cairo-based Banque Misr for on-lending to local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in the Egyptian green economy.

Less than three weeks after Norway’s Scatec signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to develop an export-focused green hydrogen and green ammonia production facility in the Suez Canal Economic Zone, Danish shipping giant AP Moller-Maersk has signed an MoU with exactly the same team of key institutions to explore the establishment of large-scale green fuel production in the zone

Legal proceedings are due to be launched to challenge fundamental aspects of South Africa’s electricity policy, as the stakes in the battle between the government and environmentalists escalate, writes Dan Marks

The Luxembourg Agency for Development Cooperation (LuxDev) has asked for expressions of interest from consultants to conduct a feasibility study into the production of green hydrogen in Cape Verde.

The World Bank Group (WBG) has launched a new $311m fund for renewables in Chad, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Togo.

Decarbonisation programmes being drawn up at Eskom and Sasol have the potential to drastically alter the energy landscape in South Africa and Mozambique, potentially catalysing investment in gas infrastructure and offering new opportunities in renewable energy, green hydrogen, and sustainable aviation fuel.

African Energy understands that a shortage of finance is hampering the progress of two solar PV plants that form part of a national programme to hybridise existing heavy fuel oil (HFO) plants, reduce emissions and increase energy security through grid diversification.