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The political centre of gravity is shifting away from coal-fired plants in South Africa and Eskom hopes to use the run-in to the COP26 climate change conference in November to generate interest in its plan to retire some plants early, but much remains to be resolved if its ambitions are to be realised, writes Dan Marks.

The Gabonese government is planning to sell carbon credits to fund two hydroelectric projects, with a combined capacity of 88MW.

South Africa’s national utility Eskom has selected 18 companies with renewable energy projects with a combined 1.8GW capacity for land leases at the utility’s power stations in Mpumalanga. The project is part of efforts by its Just Energy Transition Office to mitigate the impact of closing coal power plants, with knock-on impacts on coal transport and mining.

State owned power utility Eskom has signed commercial lease agreements with four independent power producers (IPPs) for land use at two of its coal power stations in Mpumalanga, in a plan to grow renewable energy capacity by the private sector.

The quartet of public institutions driving Egypt’s green hydrogen (GH2) development have signed eight new memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with international partners in the past month, seven of them in one session on 25 August, bringing to at least 17 the number of projects under consideration. The new participants include UK-based Actis and Globeleq, two of India’s largest renewables developers, Acme Group and ReNew Power, and Gulf-based investors Alcazar Energy, Alfanar Group and K&K Energy, plus Egypt- and US-backed Mediterranean Energy Partners.

The East African Crude Oil Pipeline has boosted regional energy ambitions and is poised to swell the treasuries of Tanzania and Uganda, but while the project’s supporters laud its potential economic and developmental benefits it has also ignited a fierce debate over hydrocarbons financing and how deals are structured in the energy transition age.

A presidential taskforce report which recommended that PPAs be redrawn has been greeted with resignation by stakeholders who have been ground down by years of dithering. Industry players are now left hoping the government will adopt a realistic outlook in renegotiations, writes Dan Marks

National utility Eskom says it plans to submit a final application to regulators in April to allow it to exceed the emissions limits at the troubled Kusile coal-fired power station while repairs are carried out.

With winter on the horizon and no sign of an end to the energy crisis, the South African government is considering slowing down its decommissioning plans for the country’s fleet of ageing coal-fired power stations, but international partners have called on it to stick to its Just Energy Transition Partnership commitments, writes Tonderayi Mukeredzi.

European Union Delegation to South Africa head of co-operation Bernard Rey told the recent Enlit Africa event in Cape Town that the EU was heavily committed to supporting the energy transition in Africa, while recognising the need for flexibility.

Climate change negotiators have agreed to continue working on a proposed new international carbon trading mechanism, after failing to reach agreement at the Bonn Climate Change Conference in Germany in June. A new system under Article 6 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)’s Paris Agreement had been anticipated by some advocates, to replace the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) which has proved of limited value to Africa.

Copenhagen-based start-up Solstroem has received a $150,000 convertible loan from Shell’s All On to roll out its carbon credit platform to Nigerian solar home system developers.

A lack of consistent financial reporting on climate finance within the World Bank Group (WBG) means it is impossible to verify the bank’s climate-related finance claims, according to a report from charity Oxfam.

Germany’s commitment of ZAR6.2bn towards South Africa’s Just Energy Partnership (JETP) is assisting government efforts to approve a detailed investment plan in time for COP27.

Much of the news flow ahead of the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow in November has been about which global leaders will turn up and what carbon reduction commitments they will make. Many in Africa are more concerned the least-developed continent will be forced to adopt ill-fitting policy straightjackets and forced to choose between rival superpower-led development models, most notably China’s One Belt, One Road Initiative (BRI) and the US-led Clean Green Initiative (CGI) and Build Back Better for the World (B3W) programmes.