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With less than six months to go before COP27 opens at Sharm El Sheikh, a power shift is under way as energy and momentum drain from the United Kingdom’s presidency and build in Egypt’s camp. The early signs are that the next event will have a very different tone and character from COP26 in Glasgow, with considerably less emphasis on making big policy claims that may be hard to keep and a focus on getting climate-related business deals signed.

Finance should be a major focus of the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow in November, based on enlarging and relaunching established initiatives, and progressing new ideas like the US-led Clean Green Initiative and Build Back Better for the World programmes.

The UN’s Green Climate Fund (GCF) has postponed a decision on whether to re-accredit the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), amid strong opposition from some members to a demand that the DBSA commit to a net-zero emissions target for its investments. It adds another element to wider arguments over Africa’s responsibilities in relation to climate change in the run-up to COP26 summit in Glasgow in November .

The $8.5bn framework agreement signed during COP26 to support South Africa in reducing its greenhouse gas emissions – one of the conference’s headline achievements (AE 449/1) – is unlikely to include funding for gas projects, African Energy has been told. The terms of the deal will be heavily influenced by the commitment of a powerful group of countries to immediately halt fossil fuel-related financing. The agreement – which G7 governments intend to use as a model for deals with other countries – is highly dependent on concessional funding, the provision of which is in question.

Uncomfortable financial disputes are expected to dominate the 27th United Nations Climate Change (COP27) conference, to be held in the Egyptian Red Sea resort city of Sharm El Sheikh on 6-18 November. African nations may achieve progress in some areas – perhaps by forcing the vexed question of compensation for loss and damage onto the agenda – but the meeting will likely once again fail to identify a way forward for electricity supply industries (ESIs) across the continent.

£10m ($12.7m) from the United Kingdom International Development-funded FSD Africa Investments (FSDAi) to a new Risk Sharing Backstop Facility (RSBF), which is intended to support sustainable climate infrastructure in Nigeria, was announced on 2 August, during a visit to Abuja by UK foreign secretary James Cleverly.

The final COP28 communiqué included – for the first time – a commitment to eventually phase out fossil fuels, going beyond previous declarations that focused on coal. However, there are few signs that Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) members and their Opec+ allies, led by Russia, have any intention of allowing their core source of revenues to disappear anytime soon. So what can we learn from recent statements by oil producers – including Opec+’s quota commitments at a meeting on 30 November – and from leaks and comments made during COP28?

The UK government has announced that it will no longer provide funding for fossil fuel projects overseas as it prepares to host the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow next year. The UK has been talking up plans for a green economy as the end of the Brexit transition period approaches, and funding from UK Export Finance (UKEF) for oil and gas projects has attracted criticism at a time when Prime Minister Boris Johnson is keen to position the UK as a global leader on climate change.

A rarity until a few years ago, battery and renewable power plants have more recently outcompeted fossil fuel projects without subsidy in several African markets. The AIX: Financing Battery Storage meeting heard about the extent Bess projects are making headway, despite financiers’ reservations.

TotalEnergies’ latest Strategy and Outlook paper, Building a sustainable multi-energy company, offers a heavily-illustrated, if light-on-detail, glimpse of how the corporate giants formally known as ‘oil majors’ may change in the coming decade. The document, presented at a 28 September shareholders meeting, is strong on TotalEnergies’ plan for “reinvention”, from being a bad old oil major to one with a cleverly constructed – and often very valuable – sustainable energy strategy.

A 22 March agreement between the government and a joint venture called Koko Rwanda – majority owned by Koko Networks alongside consulting company and co-developer Dalberg – will see Rwanda waive VAT and import duties on equipment and ethanol while Koko Rwanda invests $25m developing a nationwide bioethanol cooking fuel network.

London AIM-listed Savannah Energy has joined the trend for independent oil companies (IOCs) to follow their larger peers’ move into renewable energy (RE), with the signing of a memorandum of understanding for a 250MW wind project in Niger. It is understood the project that will emerge is likely to be much smaller than the announced amount.

Sub-Saharan African countries flared 12.15bcm of natural gas in 2021, according to newly-released data from the World Bank Group’s Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership (GGFR), the equivalent of 32.4m tonnes of CO2 and $1.4bn worth of gas sales.

Morocco is to develop a legally-binding framework to exchange carbon credits with Singapore. The deal falls under Article 6.2 of the United Nations Framework on Climate Change’s Paris Agreement which permits countries to exchange carbon credits bilaterally.

InfraCo Africa, part of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG), is investing $43m in the Climate, Energy Access and Resilience (Clear) Fund, which is advised by Helios Investment Partners. InfraCo and Helios had said during COP26 last November that they were working to set up the new pan-African fund, to raise more than $350m for investment into sustainable infrastructure and businesses.