Exxaro is open for green business as it participates in COP26

Diversified miner Exxaro Resources, geared with both a Sustainable Growth and Impact Strategy and A Climate Change Response Strategy, hopes to garner investor interest at this year’s COP26 climate change summit.    The company has been setting out to become a principal driver of the just energy transition in South Africa over the past few years, all while targeting carbon neutrality by 2050.
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Amendments demand stringent compliance

With the new amendments to the Carbon Tax Act earmarked to pave the way for developing a national standard to approve offset carbon positive projects and administer these projects on a national database, Economic Development Solutions (EDS) head of business development Eckart Zollner says compliance by companies nationally is important to participate in global markets.
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Mobile e-air compressor suitable for niche markets

Given global demand for carbon-neutral products, industrial equipment manufacturer Atlas Copco Industrial Southern Africa is increasing its range of electric equipment, such as its mobile e-air compressor, says business line manager David Stanford.
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Funding Africa’s $2.8tr net-zero transition by 2050 a ‘pressing issue’

Funding Africa’s transition to net zero by 2050 is one of the most pressing issues that Africa and the world must address, PwC states in a new report that estimates the cost of such a transition to be about $2.8-trillion. The ‘Africa Energy Review 2021’ calculates that $33-billion would be required yearly between 2020 and 2030 to place Africa on a path to a net-zero energy mix by 2050. Yearly costs would then rise substantially to $111-billion between 2030 and 2040 and to $142-billion between 2040 and 2050.
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Ramaphosa says $8.5bn just transition partnership could become model for others

President Cyril Ramaphosa says the initial $8.5-billion to be mobilised over the next three to five years in support of South Africa’s just transition to a low-carbon economy, will facilitate the implementation of the country’s ambitious emission-reduction goals and develop a model for a just transition that could be used elsewhere. In a message to the COP26 Energy session held on November 4, Ramaphosa reiterated that South Africa required support to achieve its Nationally Determined Contribution targets, which would involve South Africa transforming its coal-dependent energy system at “unprecedented speed and scale”.
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Top-performing South African fund rides bet on energy stocks

South Africa’s top-performing equity fund has reaped the benefit of a wager that battered stocks, particularly in the energy sector, would flourish as economies rebounded from the worst of the pandemic. Blue Quadrant Capital Management’s Worldwide Flexible Prescient Fund has returned 125% this year, the most of any South African fund of at least 100 million rand ($6.5 million), and more than double its nearest rival. Additions made while Covid-19 ravaged markets in the first quarter of 2020 have proved key, said Leandro Gastaldi, who runs the R120-million portfolio.
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Natural gas key to Africa’s energy security, says AfDB’s Adesina

Natural gas remains key to Africa’s energy security and economic prosperity, even as political pressure grows to speed up the transition away from fossil fuels, according to the continent’s biggest development bank. “Gas is fundamental to Africa’s energy system,” African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina said in an interview with Bloomberg News on Wednesday. “We’ve got to make sure that we’re pragmatic” and that a system is created to support long-term development, he said.
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India, UK International Solar programme seeks to connect 140 countries

The International Solar Alliance (ISA) on November 3 unveiled plans for the first transnational network of solar power grids, known as the Green Grids Initiative – One Sun One World One Grid (GGI-OSOWOG), at COP26, in Glasgow, Scotland. The initiative is aimed at connecting 140 countries to round-the-clock green and renewable power.
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Spanish firms seeking to sell stake in South African solar plant – sources

 Spain’s Grupo Cobra and SENER companies are seeking to exit their stake in the 100 MW Ilanga solar power plant, which supplies electricity to South Africa’s national grid, two sources with knowledge of the process told Reuters. Grupo Solar and SENER have hired bankers for the transaction, the sources said, in line with their strategies to exit minority stakes in up and running assets.
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Urgent need to address grid constraints in high-yield renewables areas – Magoro

Grid constraints in South Africa’s high-yield renewable-energy areas need to be addressed urgently, Independent Power Producer (IPP) Office CEO Bernard Magoro has again warned. Reflecting on the lessons learned from the most recent renewables procurement round during a Power Futures Lab webinar, Magoro said that government had been unable to procure several extremely competitively priced projects during bid window five (BW5) because of an absence of grid capacity.
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