Search results

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 .

President Samia Suluhu Hassan has made sweeping changes to the leadership of Tanzania’s energy sector in the post-Magufuli period but macroeconomic, political and legislative obstacles to deeper change will remain for some time, writes Dan Marks.

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 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

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.

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.

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.

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.

National utility Eskom is gauging interest in a $10bn plan to become carbon neutral by 2050. The plan was first devised by the Eskom Sustainability Task Team and hinges on South Africa having one of the highest carbon emissions per capita in the world, providing plenty of scope for emissions reductions.

Cairo has secured the hosting rights for the COP27 intergovernmental meeting next year, in further evidence of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s interest in using climate change as a diplomatic tool, but the short-term prospects for large renewable schemes will remain limited until the economy expands by enough to use up existing surplus generation capacity, writes John Hamilton.

We all agree: the future is necessarily based on renewable energy and storage solutions, as economies, corporations and communities work to tackle the climate crisis by achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Africa understands the need for this better than most, as vulnerable populations in regions like the Sahel suffer the consequences of global warming on their daily lives and resource distribution.

As the hype around hydrogen gets ever louder, governments and developers are putting forward grandiose plans to manufacture green hydrogen – ‘the new oil and gas’ – across the continent. African Energy has been sceptical about the hydrogen boom’s relevance to economies that are hard pressed to finance basic needs, but high hopes are being generated in countries like Mauritania and Namibia, where schemes to install an unimaginable 65GW of hydrogen-driven capacity are promised, writes John Hamilton.

Policymakers agree more action is needed to counter debt distress and unlock funds for the energy transition, but there are few signs that a more effective financial architecture will emerge any time soon. Meanwhile concerns over rising sovereign debt are feeding into hesitancy over new lending, writes Jon Marks.

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.