International environmental movement 350Africa! said on Thursday that for Africa to realise a just transition to renewable energy, significant investment from financial institutions and developed nations is essential and urgent. 350Africa! senior Africa organiser Rukiya Khamis was speaking the launch of REPower Afrika, a movement aimed at uniting regional community renewable-energy projects to urge financiers and governments to prioritise and increase investments in affordable and clean energy. Khamis highlighted that African governments must create an enabling framework, enacting policies and regulations that facilitate the deployment of renewable energy and attract substantial investments. 350Africa! global campaigns director Agnes Appiah-Hall highlighted that the main barrier to renewable energy across Africa was finance. “For the sources of finance, we must turn to the rich countries and corporations that have exploited African countries for fossil fuels and have imposed huge amounts of historical debt to drive their own prosperity within rich nations, with no regard for the development or harmful impacts on communities within Africa itself,” she said.
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana reports that the National Treasury is working on signing memoranda of agreement in the transport and water sectors with the goal of fast-tracking private sector participation. Delivering his Budget Vote, the Minister said that the agreements would be similar to the one that governs the Independent Power Producers Office (IPPO).
Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has announced the successful auction of R36-million in carbon credits, generated by reducing gas emissions at city landfill sites via waste-to-energy initiatives. The funds will be ring-fenced for urban waste management projects aimed at reducing pollution and improving environmental health within the city.
While proclaiming industrial policy to be the “centre piece” of the government of national unity’s economic development strategy, new Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau indicated he would be leaning on local procurement to create early-stage demand in targeted sectors. In his maiden Budget Vote address to Parliament, attended by his predecessor Ebrahim Patel, Tau said industrial policy was the anchor around which the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (dtic) would deploy trade instruments, incentives, tools and regulation, including any support for new energy vehicle production and green industrialisation.
Energy company Energy Partners (EP) has successfully delivered a 3.2 MW, 3.1 MWh hybrid power project for the Futuregrowth Community Property Fund- (Comprop-) owned Heidelberg Mall, in Gauteng. The company says this project ensures all-day uninterrupted power, significantly reducing total electricity expenditure and offering a compelling value proposition for retail tenants.
Five development finance institutions have banded together to find a way to develop the world’s biggest electricity-generation project, the planned Grand Inga hydropower complex in the Democratic Republic of Congo that’s been stalled for decades. The Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) and the Industrial Development Corporation, both South African State banks, are working with pan-African institutions — the African Development Bank and African Export-Import Bank — as well as the New Development Bank, the finance arm of the BRICS groups of nations.
Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Minister Dr Dion George has promised “wide consultation” on South Africa’s next nationally determined contribution (NDC) decarbonisation pledge that will be lodged with the United Nations next year. Delivering his maiden Budget Vote, George stressed that South Africa remained a responsible global citizen and committed to the multilateral rules-based regime under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Paris Agreement.
With the African continent being home to the majority of the 700-million people worldwide with no access to electricity and clean cooking technology, energy investment in the region is deemed imperative for industrialisation and universal access to electricity, the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) has said. The bank hosted delegates from various African countries at the Continental Energy Investment Forum, in Johannesburg, on July 15, during which it pointed out that about 43% of Africa’s population lacks access to reliable electricity.
South Africa’s National Nuclear Regulator (NNR) board has approved a 20-year life extension for Koeberg Unit 1, but has deferred a decision on the nuclear power station’s Unit 2 until late 2025, owing to the fact that an assessment of the second reactor’s safety case is still ongoing. The decision, which was announced on July 15, came only days ahead of the July 21, 2024 expiry of Unit 1’s existing licence and effectively extended its operating life until July 21, 2044.
The carbon intensity of our economy has become unsustainable, President Cyril Ramaphosa writes in his latest weekly newsletter, published ahead of his address to a climate finance symposium being hosted jointly by the National Treasury and the Presidential Climate Commission. Ramaphosa notes that the world is moving towards greener economies and that a number of South Africa’s major trading partners are also taking measures to decarbonise that will affect the competitiveness of the country’s exports to these markets.
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