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Attention in the two Maghreb countries least endowed with hydrocarbons has turned to the potential of green hydrogen and fuel cell technology. On 23 December, Moroccan energy minister Aziz Rabbah told a virtual seminar organised by the Arab Renewable Energy Commission (Arec) that the Arab world should harness the “fuel of the future” as a catalyst for sustainable development and the green economy. He called for the establishment of infrastructure and the creation of research and development centres.

Chair of the US House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organisations, Democrat senator Karen Bass, and Republican ranking member Christopher Smith last month introduced a resolution to the House of Representatives (HoR) calling for free and fair elections in Tanzania. If passed, the resolution would give the US administration the legal basis to impose economic and other sanctions on the country.

Proposals to solve Libya’s interminable power and water supply crises are being advanced by competing institutions, but deep uncertainties about governance, security and finance mean only the most expensive and least sustainable projects are likely to be completed. Pragmatic renewable power schemes will remain on the sidelines, writes John Hamilton

The sudden death of Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly has undermined President Alassane Dramane Ouattara’s strategy for ensuring a seamless political succession and maintaining high levels of economic growth. Not the most charismatic of politicians – although close observers told African Energy he was nevertheless driven by considerable personal ambition – Gon Coulibaly’s career was marked by intense personal loyalty to Ouattara and an understanding of complex economic issues, which the president sees as essential for Côte d’Ivoire’s next leader to maintain his legacy of prudent management.

The government of prime minister Abdulla al-Thinni, now based in the eastern town of al-Baida, is persisting with its intention to take exclusive control of oil revenues, but faces growing internal divisions of its own. Some powerful Cyrenaican factions plan to demand independence early next year, while army leaders in the east face allegations that they intend to abolish the interim democratic institutions and rule through a military council.

Speeches made by African leaders at the 1-2 November opening of COP26 provided some insights into how they plan to move ahead with decarbonisation, while ensuring they don’t lose out on development opportunities for their economies. African Energy examines an A-to-Z of the leaders’ preoccupations

For Africans who depend on the environment for their livelihoods, human security is more closely tied in with the effects of climate change than it is elsewhere.

COP26 opened with high-minded speeches and a welter of public and private sector commitments, as dozens of African nations said they would accelerate their own decarbonisation. Governments called for existing pledges to tackle environmental disaster to be met, underpinning a ‘just transition’ in which poorer economies aren’t penalised by big emitters’ plans to cut carbon.

One of the most ambitious claims to emerge from COP26 was that substantial public financing commitments from wealthy nations would unlock a much larger amount of international and domestic private finance. But numbers reviewed by African Energy reveal that there is a staggeringly large finance gap to bridge in Africa.

Recent wide-ranging diplomatic efforts have been directed at trying to set up Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETPs) with developing countries. But it is still far from certain which countries (if any) will sign up, and what commitments wealthy nations can make to ensure success.

Arguments are intensifying over climate justice, the very meaning of climate finance, the role of gas as a transition fuel and – most of all – money. The combination of which means a ‘just energy transition’ that enables African nations to meet economic development targets seems a long way off.

Questions of greater social equity and sustainable development, more stringent governance and controls over globalisation widely discussed in a world looking to emerge from coronavirus are all ideas that President John Magufuli has worked into Tanzania’s policy mix since taking office in November 2015. Magufuli has built up popular support with his assaults on international capital, donor interference and even Beijing and the burden of Chinese debt. However, Tanzania’s experience suggests that good ideas do not make for good policy if they are wrongly implemented.

The Djibouti government on 22 February cancelled a 30-year contract with Dubai’s DP World to manage the Doraleh Container Terminal (DCT). DP World had been active in Djibouti’s port since 2000, but Gulf involvement in Djibouti and other neighbouring countries has gained more serious traction since the launch in 2015 of the military campaign in Yemen, which is a short hop away across the Bab El-Mandeb Strait. DP World held 33% of DCT after winning the formal concession in 2006.

Documents disclosed in the ongoing legal battle between Arandis Power and NamPower over the tender award to Xaris Energy have brought to light how the electricity sector has been paralysed by contradictory policy and competing financial agendas. The controversial Xaris scheme, promoted as a fast-track solution for the country’s looming energy problems, was suspended in 2015 amid concerns about the tender process, but the suspension was lifted in December. The 200MW shortage that Namibia Power Corporation (NamPower) said would cause rolling blackouts in the winter of 2016 did not materialise, but this has not stopped the competing political factions from undermining each other at every opportunity.

Leaked national electoral commission data showed Martin Fayulu had Democratic Republic of Congo’s presidency stolen from him in the 23 December poll won by Félix Tshisekedi Tshilombo. Ex-president Joseph Kabila Kabange’s candidate Emmanuel Shadary gained only 23.8% of the official vote – and unofficially much less – but politicians allied to now senator-for-life Kabila have since taken a dominant position in national and local government and parastatals.