Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter reports that the State-owned utility has already taken some initial steps to ensure that the $8.5-billion political declaration signed at COP26 in early November is urgently converted into a practical commercial agreement to support its just transition programme. Addressing the second of what have become daily briefings on the state of the system, which has once again succumbed to an intensive period of load-shedding, De Ruyter reported that follow-up discussions had been held on Wednesday with one of the multilateral lenders involved in the declaration to assess whether the flow of funds could be accelerated.
Shumba Energy secured the first equity commitments to develop an $80 million solar project in Botswana as part of the coal company’s plan to shift to renewable energy. The company’s green energy unit, Shumba Renewables, received commitments of $950,000 from international investors, Shumba Energy’s MD Mashale Phumaphi said in an interview Tuesday, without disclosing the names. Full funding for the 100-megawatt solar project that will be the nation’s largest and situated in north-eastern Botswana is expected by the second quarter of next year, Phumaphi said.
The global energy landscape is changing amid a rush to net-zero emissions by 2050, and renewable energy is going from strength to strength, with these projects having captured nearly 50% of all new generation build capital in 2020.
Energy services company Wärtsilä Canada business development manager Mark Kennedy said during an Energy and Mines World Congress 2021 session on November 9 that, by 2030, this would likely increase to 67%.
Deputy Director General of the Department of Mineral Resources Ntokozo Ngcwabe has slammed what she called “financial bullying” by funders who refuse to finance coal projects, saying that South Africa needs to pace itself in its move away from the polluting resource. “We need to pace ourselves [in scaling down coal use] … and not be pressured to meet certain deadlines by a certain time if we are not at the same level of development [as richer countries],” Ngcwabe said in a media interview on Wednesday.
In this opinion article, Boston Consulting Group MD and partner Lucas Chaumontet writes about the need for South Africa to coordinate its climate change adaptation and mitigation plans with its broader national reindustrialisation plans.
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