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Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC) has launched a $54m ‘green’ bond, as part of a larger $200m programme of issuance to fund an expansion of its solar photovoltaic generation capacity to 300MW.

The COP28 climate talks in Dubai ended on a more positive note than many had thought possible, but for all the talk of eventually phasing out fossil fuels, multi-billions of dollars-worth of climate finance and operationalising the long-awaited Loss and Damage Fund, the crowds who descended on Dubai left with much to do and huge financial shortfalls to make up.

To keep South Africa’s faltering flagship Just Energy Transition Programme (JETP) on the road, the African Development Bank (AfDB) and United Kingdom government approved a $1bn guarantee to allow the bank to increase its lending capacity to the programme.

The announcement that a unit of United Arab Emirates national security adviser Sheikh Tahnoun Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan’s International Holding Company was winning bidder for a stake in loss-making Mopani Copper Mines points to the emergence of ‘middle powers’ in strategic African resources plays and a hoped-for revival in Zambia’s mining ambitions.

A Franco-Japanese consortium of TotalEnergies, EDF and Sumitomo Corporation has signed joint development and framework agreements for Mozambique’s long-delayed 1.5GW Mphanda Nkuwa hydroelectric power plant.

Hyphen Hydrogen Energy and Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) have agreed a finance package for engineering, environmental and socio-economic development work on Hyphen’s multi-billion-dollar green hydrogen (GH2) project. The agreement was signed at the COP28 summit in Dubai.

The South African government’s decision to approve state-owned PetroSA’s selection of an affiliate of Russia’s sanctioned Gazprombank as the preferred investment partner for the Mossel Bay GTL plant has sparked controversy.

Danish investor and developer Frontier Energy has announced a co-investment with three European development finance agencies for the 50MWp, under-construction, multi-site Planet Solar independent power producer (IPP) plant. Planet Solar will be Sierra Leone’s first large grid-connected IPP, the funders said.

UAE-based players have used COP28 to commit – and recommit – to projects that could supply over 12GW of renewables capacity across Africa. Emiratis argue this displays a willingness to push projects forward and shoulder risk, while others have failed to deliver – and if critics complain they are also prominent in the oil lobby, Abu Dhabi can counter that the UAE has assumed a leading role in enabling Africa’s energy transition.

Nearly all of South Africa’s climate finance is being provided from local sources, while inflows from international funders remain very low, a new Presidential Climate Commission report shows. While more funds have flowed into Africa’s largest greenhouse gas emitter in recent years, these resources remain insufficient compared to the extent of the actions required to adapt and mitigate the impacts of climate change.

Rio Tinto said it expects first production from the Simandou iron ore development in 2025 and that regulatory approvals are “imminent”, as it revealed details of the $11.6bn costs its Simfer joint venture has committed to develop blocks 3 and 4 and the joint Simandou infrastructure development. The mining major also confirmed what markets knew: that China’s Baowu had taken a big stake in Simandou blocks 1 and 2.

State-owned utility Zesco is looking for a new renewable energy contractor, having put on hold a 2.4GW solar PV development with China’s CiEG. Work on other projects is continuing, but this is a difficult period for Zambia, which has still to implement its multilateral debt deal amid a lack of foreign currency and financing, writes Chiwoyu Sinyangwe in Lusaka.

In a recent conversation, an independent power producer (IPP) told African Energy that its southern African utility client has been paying for its electricity “more or less on time”. The problem was those payments were being made in a local currency that cannot be exchanged as “the central bank has no money”. The IPP could turn to international arbitration to try and enforce its contract terms, “but what’s the use of that,” the executive asks, “when there’s nothing to be had?”

War-torn but entrepreneurial Somalia is edging back towards normality, at last securing membership of the East African Community and reporting some progress in tackling Al-Shabaab militants. The government also has longer-term ambitions to exploit ample renewable energy potential and offshore oil and gas resources, writes Dominic Dudley.

Angola's President João Lourenço travelled to Washington on 30 November to meet his American counterpart Joe Biden, in a meeting described by the White House as advancing the development of the 1,290km Lobito Corridor rail project.