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Higher collection rates and cost increases for consumers are creating the fiscal space for Nigeria’s government to revive plans for a string of solar PV projects and direct trading between generation and distribution companies, writes Marc Howard.

The emergence of a new variant of Covid-19 in southern Africa sent oil prices tumbling and prompted governments around the world to block flights to the region, potentially causing fresh headaches for project development. It will be some weeks before the Omicron variant’s impact becomes clear, but the episode show how any recovery from the pandemic can be quickly derailed and the need for an accelerated vaccination programme around Africa, writes Dominic Dudley.

A reduction in Nigerian governmental support for the Azura Edo gas project may allow the revival of 14 solar PV projects which signed power purchase agreements (PPAs) with the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trader (NBET) in 2016, but which have been on life support since then because of the sector’s financial difficulties. There have been various attempts to resuscitate the solar programme, including an attempt earlier this year to fast-track five projects through negotiations with the Ministry of Finance, but none have yet met with success.

The East African Community (EAC)’s Council of Ministers voted on 22 November to recommend Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)’s admission to the regional body at their 44th extraordinary meeting. Negotiations will follow before heads of state give their final approval to make DRC the bloc’s seventh member.

Colonel Mamady Doumbouya’s cabinet has been presented by his regime as bringing technocrats into key positions to improve the government’s performance, but critics say ministers are either too ‘apolitical’ to enact genuine change, or compromised by past business dealings. A strong signal comes with the presidency taking direct control of major state assets from other public sector bodies, write David Slater, Jon Marks and our Special Correspondent

The rapid advance of the Tigrayan Defence Force (TDF) and its United Front of Ethiopian Federalist and Confederalist Forces (UFEFC) allies has led many to speculate that the Tirgayans’ promise to take Addis Ababa may be realised.

TotalEnergies’ move to increase its interest in the Waha oil concessions, plus a separate agreement with General Electric Company of Libya (Gecol) to build 500MW of solar power, shows how the politically nimble oil major intends to trace a line between its fossil-fuelled past and the net zero future.

President Félix Tshisekedi’s promotion of potentially radical change has accelerated since the appointment in April of Prime Minister Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde Kyenge, and the end of his alliance of convenience with the pro-Kabila Front Commun pour le Congo coalition (AE 433/23).

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.

President Tshisekedi is seeking to make waves in upstream oil policy, just as he has in the power and mining sectors since breaking away from his alliance with Joseph Kabila. With the Kabila legacy in question over the controversial Albertine Graben fields, more legal disputes could beckon, but the government sees considerable investment upside, despite the outlook for hydrocarbons looking very different from a decade ago, writes François Misser

The British government, which remains COP president until November 2022 when Egypt takes over, is expected to take a more than usually active approach to climate change diplomacy over the next 12 months. One reason for this is that the United Kingdom has had an unusually long time to focus on the issue and it has an incentive to keep doing so.

The Saied administration is expected to push ahead with its renewable power procurement programme, despite significant constitutional, legal and political barriers, writes John Hamilton

The Hichilema government says it wants to resolve the long-running dispute between Zesco and CEC, but the duelling companies continue to operate in parallel universes of competing claims around tariffs and arrears, while state miners’ financial shortfalls add to problems, write Dan Marks and Chiwoyu Sinyangwe.

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.

Hard work to restore the electricity supply industry via grid and plant maintenance, and the expected completion of three new gas-fired plants near the main coastal population centres, has raised the prospect of an end to a decade-long energy crisis. African Energy’s analysis of recent project developments offers a rare positive message from a still highly unstable Libya, writes John Hamilton.