But now it is becoming the end-point for the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) where, after a journey of over 1,400 km through Uganda and Tanzania, the oil is stored and put onto ships bound for customers abroad.

EACOP is a joint venture between French multinational TotalEnergies, the China National Offshore Oil Corporation and the governments of Uganda and Tanzania. It plans to bring oil from the Tilenga and Kingfisher oil fields near Uganda’s Lake Albert, down past Lake Victoria and all the way east through Tanzania to the Chongoleani Peninsula.

While the $4-billion project promises economic growth and energy security for the region, it has sparked protests due to its negative environmental, economic and social impacts – which have been met by crackdowns on the part of the authorities in both countries.

East African climate activists have joined forces with their international counterparts in a campaign called #StopEACOP, arguing that the pipeline will exacerbate climate change by transporting 246,000 barrels of oil a day to customers to burn, releasing greenhouse gases. They also warn that it will displace thousands of people and endangers water resources, wetlands, nature reserves and wildlife.

The Ugandan government says that it has the right to exploit the country’s fossil fuel resources in order to fund much-needed economic development and is taking measures to reduce the project’s climate impact, such as heating the pipeline with solar energy. Wealthy nations like the US, Canada and Australia, meanwhile, are also increasing fossil fuel production.

Living “like town dwellers”

In Tanzania, Chongoleani residents said they had been warned by the village chairman and other ward leaders not to talk to journalists, but Climate Home spoke to two whose land had been taken over by the government for the pipeline and its port.

Without adequate compensation, they said they had been unable to buy a new farm in the area and have to buy food from the city rather than growing their own and selling the surplus.

Mustafa Mohammed Mustafa said his family used to own two farms in Kigomeni village, together about as big as eight football pitches. On these, they grew coconut, cassava, corn and groundnuts. They ate some of it and sold the rest.

But with the pipeline coming, the government-owned Tanzania Ports Authority took over their land, compensating them with 15m Tanzanian shillings ($5,700), which hasn’t been enough for them to buy new farmland in the area.

“We live like town dwellers these days,” said Mustafa. “We buy firewood, we buy charcoal, we buy lemons, coconut, cassava. We buy all of these supplies from the city centre. How is this alright?”

House prices soar

Part of the reason they cannot afford a farm, says Mustafa, is that EACOP’s arrival has increased the price of local land, as it is considered a project area with potential for business investment.

Villagers either put a high price on their land or hold onto it and only accept offers from the government or foreign investors, according to Mustafa, believing this will get them a better deal.

A sign for Chongoleani oil terminal (Photo: Climate Home News)

Mustafa blames the government for not giving them proper information from the initial stages of the project, nor a choice about whether they wanted to sell their property. Instead, he said, they were told that the project is of great economic importance for the country.

“I am angry that the government took advantage of our ignorance of legal matters and gave us a bad deal that we couldn’t argue against,” Mustafa said.

Sitting alongside Mustafa in Chongoleani village, Mdiri Akida Sharifu said he regrets selling his family’s land in Kigomeni but they had no other option.

“At the moment, we have very little faith that this will benefit us. When government officials came here, they encouraged us to give up our land with the promise that once the project started, we would be given priority in getting jobs. But now that we’ve given up our land, we even have to buy lemons from Tanga town,” he said.

Countrywide compensation battles

Elsewhere along the pipeline’s routes, landowners have complained about unfair compensation, saying the government paid them in 2023 using price estimates made in 2016, ignoring seven years of inflation. Kamili Fabian from the Manyara region told local paper Mwananchi that he was paid less than a third of his land’s value. “Where is the justice in that?” he asked.

The government says it uses national and international standards to compensate people fairly. Energy minister Doto Biteko has said 35bn shillings ($13m) had been allocated for this purpose and the government had built 340 new homes for relocated people.

Reporting on these issues is a challenge. When Climate Home visited the coastal village of Putini, a man called Mahimbo – who would only give one name – refused to comment on the compensation process and said local leaders had told the villagers not to speak to journalists about the pipeline.

But he took Climate Home to the office of village chairperson Abdallah Said Kanuni to seek permission to comment on the record. “We have been given clear instructions to neither speak with journalists nor allow them to interview villagers on matters relating to the pipeline, unless the journalists have official permits from the regional [government] office,” Kanuni said.

Sign up to get our weekly newsletter straight to your inbox, plus breaking news, investigations and extra bulletins from key events

Compensation battles are playing out far beyond this area.  A Total spokesperson told Climate Home nearly 19,000 households have been compensated for the effects of the pipeline and the associated Tilenga oil field on them and about 750 replacement houses have been handed over.

But Diana Nabiruma, communications officer for the Africa Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO), said her organisation had spoken to hundreds of people who had received compensation and had yet to meet any that said it was adequate.

She said a major problem has been that people were paid in 2023 based on their land’s value in 2019. As in Chongoleani, the price of land rose in those four years, partly because of EACOP and the promise of paved roads. Many people have not been able to replace the property they lost, she said.

Ugandan riot police officers detain an anti-EACOP activist in Kampala, Uganda, on October 4, 2022. (REUTERS/Abubaker Lubowa)

Nabiruma added that many people want to seek top-up compensation but are scared – and unable to afford – to challenge EACOP and the government in court. In Uganda’s capital Kampala, police have beaten and arrested activists protesting against the pipeline.

The Total spokesperson said EACOP will improve living conditions, adding that Total complies with local regulations and international standards and there is a fair grievance management mechanism in place for local people.

An EACOP spokesperson said that since last year, the project has provided households affected by leasing of their land in Chongoleani with food baskets and cash transfers, adding that the villagers are given preferential access to unskilled or semi-skilled work on the project.

The Tanzania Ports Authority did not respond to a request for comment.

(Reporting by CHN staff and Joe Lo, editing by Joe Lo and Megan Rowling)

The post Where East African oil pipeline meets sea, displaced farmers bemoan “bad deal” on compensation appeared first on Climate Home News.

At the COP28 climate summit in Dubai in 2023, nearly 200 countries committed to tripling global renewable energy capacity – measured as the maximum generating capacity of sources like wind, solar and hydro – by 2030, in an effort to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

According to figures published on Thursday by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), renewables are the fastest-growing source of power worldwide, with new global renewable capacity in 2023 representing a record 14% increase from 2022.

But IRENA’s analysis found that even if renewables continue to be deployed at the current rate over the next seven years, the world will fall 13.5% short of the target to triple renewables to 11.2 terawatts.

A higher annual growth rate of at least 16.4% is required to reach the 2030 goal, IRENA said.

Renewable electricity generation by energy source

Chart courtesy of IRENA

IRENA Director-General Francesco La Camera warned against complacency. “Renewables must grow at higher speed and scale,” he said in a statement, calling for concrete policy action and a massive mobilisation of finance.

The United Arab Emirates’ COP28 President Sultan Al-Jaber called the report “a wake-up call for the entire world” and urged countries to add strong national energy targets to their updated national climate action plans (NDCs) due by early next year.

Geographical disparities

Bruce Douglas, CEO of the Global Renewables Alliance, a coalition of private-sector organisations working on renewable technologies, highlighted imbalances in the global picture of record renewables deployment.

“We shouldn’t be celebrating,” he said. “This growth is nowhere near enough and it’s not in the right places.

Africa saw only incremental growth of 3.5% in new renewables capacity last year compared with around 9% growth in Asia and North America, and 12% growth in South America.

And despite those higher increases in Asia and South America, data released last month by international policy group REN21 shows that less than 18% of renewables capacity added in 2023 was in Asia (excluding China), South America, Africa and the Middle East, despite these regions collectively representing nearly two-thirds of the global population.

A simmering conflict over one of Latin America’s biggest wind hubs confronts Mexico’s next president

Slow growth in Africa is failing to live up to the huge potential for renewables on the continent, whose leaders last year pledged to scale up renewables more than five-fold by 2030, to 300 gigawatts.

“The justice piece is huge and too often overlooked,” Douglas said, adding that finance is “by far” the biggest challenge to getting renewables off the ground in the Global South.

Africa, for example, has received less than 2% of global investments in renewable energy over the past twenty years, according to IRENA.

“That’s not acceptable in terms of an equitable transition,” Douglas said, noting that when countries miss out on renewables financing, they are also missing out on the development benefits, jobs creation and improved access to affordable energy that clean energy can bring.

Finance not flowing

The scarcity of financing for renewables in developing countries is in large part due to investors being put off by the high borrowing costs and risk profiles of many such markets, Douglas said.

William Brent, chief marketing officer at Husk Power Systems, which installs and runs solar micro-grids in rural communities in Nigeria and Tanzania, explained: “Most sources of big capital in the West seem largely uninterested in Africa.”

“Despite being home to some of the fastest growing economies in the world, Africa is perceived as having a much higher risk profile and returns that cannot match the Americas, Asia or Europe,” Brent said.

New South African government fuels optimism for faster energy transition

Sonia Dunlop, CEO of the Global Solar Council, a body that represents the solar industry, told Climate Home that financial incentives provided by the public sector could help de-risk renewables projects for private investors.

“We need to get MDBs (multilateral development banks) leaning into big renewables projects and taking on some of the risk, which can then attract private finance,” she said, adding that governments in all countries must also play their part in creating policy environments that support and incentivise investment.

Grids and permitting barriers

Grids and permitting for renewables projects also pose major practical challenges, particularly in developed countries.

According to REN21, the potential renewable capacity that is ‘stuck’ waiting to be connected to grids around the world is equivalent to three times the amount of wind and solar power installed in 2023.

For Dunlop, the solution to grid congestion is more storage – batteries for short-term storage and other technologies for longer-term storage, such as storing electricity as heat or pumping water uphill that can then be released to produce hydroelectricity.

Beyond lithium: how a Swedish battery company wants to power Europe’s green transition with salt

Complex planning processes can also mean it takes longer to get planning permission for projects, such as wind farms, than it does to build them – if they even get approval at all.

For Douglas, something as simple as hiring more staff to process project applications in grid and planning authorities could begin to unlock thousands of gigawatts of renewable power.

Energy efficiency overlooked

Although renewables are growing faster than any other energy source, companies and governments are boosting investments in fossil fuels at the same time.

The use of fossil fuels for electricity generation continues to grow, while renewables only provide 6.3% of the energy required for heat, which is mainly used in buildings and industrial operations.

Electricity generation by energy source

Chart courtesy of IRENA

“We are not moving fast enough to fully meet the staggering rise in energy demand, let alone replace existing fossil fuels,” said REN21 Executive Director Rana Adib in a statement on the group’s recent statistics.

Another – neglected – solution is energy efficiency, experts said. The Global Renewables Alliance is running a ‘double down, triple up’ campaign, which calls on countries not only to triple renewables by 2030, but also to double the rate of improvement in energy efficiency, to reduce emissions and help stem energy demand – another goal countries signed up to at COP28.

“We absolutely need that doubling of energy efficiency as well,” said Dunlop. “That isn’t discussed enough.”

(Reporting by Daisy Clague; editing by Megan Rowling)

The post Global goal of tripling renewables by 2030 still out of reach, says IRENA  appeared first on Climate Home News.

On Sunday President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed ministers from his ANC party and the pro-business opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) to serve in his “government of national unity”.

In one of the most significant changes, Ramaphosa took away pro-coal minister Gwede Mantashe’s control of the energy sector. Hilton Trollip, a Cape Town University energy researcher, told Climate Home that Mantashe had previously “paralysed” the government’s renewables programme.

The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy has now been split in two. Mantashe is only keeping control of mining and hydrocarbons, while the ANC’s Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, previously the electricity minister, will now be in charge of setting energy policy with a wider mandate. 

EU “green” funds invest millions in expanding coal giants in China, India

Trollip said it was unclear if Ramokgopa would boost renewables as he has not held much power until now. But there is now a better chance that Mantashe’s highly contentious Integrated Resource Plan – which envisages a slowdown in renewable energy investments and a switch to gas-fired power – will be revised, he added.

DA’s Dion George is the new environment minister replacing Barbara Creecy, who has been moved to transport.

Creecy played an active role in several COP climate talks, most importantly successfully proposing a global goal on adaptation at COP26 in 2021. 

JETP talks

Owing to its heavy reliance on coal for electricity, the country is Africa’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases. 

That made it a prime candidate for a world-first funding agreement, backed by wealthy nations, aimed at ramping up investments in clean energy while also protecting those reliant on the fossil fuel sector.

But two and a half years after it was announced, the now $9.3 billion “Just Energy Transition Partnership” (JETP) has made little tangible progress on the ground. 

Meanwhile, as the country grapples with rolling blackouts, state-owned utility Eskom has announced plans to delay the decommissioning of at least three of its coal-fired power plants by several years  – raising the risk that funding partners will walk back on their offers.

A general view of Kendal Power Station, a coal-fired station of South African utility Eskom, in the Mpumalanga province. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

Kevin Mileham, the DA’s shadow minister of mineral resources and energy, told Climate Home that South Africa’s JETP “will need to be accelerated” as the country is currently not on track to meet global climate goals.

The party wants to see “a rapid roll out” of the programme which will require improved dialogue with the wealthy European and North American countries funding part of it, he added.

It also wants to advance the implementation of a climate change adaptation strategy and believes South Africa needs to do a better job at tracking and reporting its efforts to reduce carbon emissions, Mileham said.

Much of the progress will hinge on the government’s ability to form a united front on foreign policy and forge an effective relationship with the international funding partners.

The ANC and DA have regularly clashed on international affairs, such as the country’s support to Palestine.

They will need to “reconcile their differences [on foreign policy] and come to a shared understanding on international multilateral processes,” says Happy Khambule, energy and environment policy director at Business Unity South Africa, a business lobby group.

Tensions over private sector role

He added that private companies, which will have a significant role in the transition, want to see policy certainty enhanced in the months ahead.

The group is awaiting the finalisation of the Electricity Regulation Amendment Bill, which promises to open up the electricity market and put an end to Eskom’s longstanding monopoly, and the Integrated Resource Plan.

Comment: Africa cannot afford to be complacent about solar radiation management

Meanwhile, the DA’s preference for greater private sector involvement in the energy transition could create fresh tensions with key stakeholders. Left-wing adversaries often deridingly label the DA a “neoliberal” party.

The country’s largest trade union group COSATU wants the newly separated energy department to “stop the privatisation of electricity and energy”, and instead promote state and social ownership models.

“We don’t expect major shifts with regards to the just transition, but rather a more focused approach on its implementation, in particular to make sure workers and communities and value chains are not left behind,” a spokesperson for the organisation told Climate Home.

The just transition should be overseen by multiple government departments given “the triple crisis” of unemployment, climate change and energy shortages, they added, suggesting that, for example, the finance ministry should raise spending on climate-focused public employment schemes.

(Reporting by Nick Hedley, editing by Joe Lo and Matteo Civillini)

The post New South African government fuels optimism for faster energy transition appeared first on Climate Home News.

Global temperatures have crossed 1.1^oC above pre-industrial levels. They are likely to cross the 1.5^oC Paris Agreement threshold within the next decade, and despite countries’ pledges to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions entering the atmosphere, the world is likely to breach  2^oC of warming.

Moving beyond these thresholds significantly raises the threat of irreversible tipping points around the world. 

While scientists insist that decarbonization efforts, net-zero targets, and wide-scale adaptation must be prioritized, the Global Stocktake Report notes that our emissions keep rising. Given this race against time, controversial approaches are being put on the table, such as solar radiation modification (SRM, also known as solar geoengineering), a potential stopgap measure against worsening climate change. 

Still in its research infancy, SRM refers to large-scale, intentional interventions that increase the amount of sunlight reflected back into space to counteract some types of climate change impacts.

If ever used, it is proposed as a range of relatively fast-acting approaches with potential global benefits, but even this may well be debatable. Governance over the use or non-use of these technologies needs a global approach that requires deep public understanding. 

Untangling uncertainty

SRM technologies offer two sides of the same coin –  potential benefits include reducing global temperature rise and secondary benefits such as slowing the rate of sea level rise, and limiting harm to the poles, but potential risks include impacts on precipitation patterns, agriculture, and biodiversity. 

Uncertainty exists in both the science and the social response.

The usefulness of SRM in the context of climate change is deeply dependent on how science unfolds, who the decision makers are, who has access, willingness, capacity and resources required to master these technologies and the context within which it exists.

Nations fail to agree ban or research on solar geoengineering

To be clear, SRM is not a solution to climate change. It can only be considered alongside robust decarbonization and adaptation efforts. Given the early stages of the development of SRM, more information, discussion, and open-minded conversations with broad groups of stakeholders are needed.

We are at a clear inflection point for the field where momentum is clearly shifting in funding, research, media, and governance. However, much of the narrative about SRM is currently being built in the Global North, where the majority of research and funding on this subject exists.

African voices unheard

The use, or non-use, of this suite of technologies will have global impacts. It is all the more important for the Global South to be actively and effectively engaged with SRM research and governance, due to its potential impacts on their climate vulnerable communities. 

Despite Africa’s low contributions (< 4%) to global greenhouse gas emissions, it suffers disproportionate climate change impacts. Its agrarian-dependent economy  necessitates an elevated interest in changing local and regional weather patterns; there are strong incentives for Africa to better understand the physical and socio-economic implications of SRM. 

African research and policy perspectives on SRM are starting, highlighting several gaps that exist in understanding how these technologies may benefit or harm the continent’s climate efforts.

EU “green” funds invest millions in expanding coal giants in China, India

One key example is the recent deliberation on a SRM resolution at the Sixth United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-6). The Africa Group (AG) functioned as a bloc during the deliberation, and proposed the establishment of a publicly accessible repository of existing scientific information, research, and activities on SRM, including submissions from member states and stakeholders.

While the resolution did not reach consensus, the deliberations signified an important shift that African nations are starting to weigh in on the issue. 

Building awareness

But more resources, expertise, and engagement are necessary to generate African knowledge and capacity across a range of sectors to contribute to – and start leading – SRM deliberations in the international sphere.

Policymakers across Africa need access to relevant information and an informed civil society sector to shape decisions. Diverse perspectives on whether and how to consider SRM, with grounding and knowledge in the near term, can help African nations prepare for the critical decisions to come.   

Building awareness on this topic, with unbiased information rooted in science and based in the African context, will provide answers from both physical and social science perspectives for inclusive and fair SRM decision-making.

UN action on gender and climate faces uphill climb as warming hurts women

Driving demand to focus on specific issues that Africans are raising, and building their capacity to govern through their key government and NGO institutions, is necessary to enable informed deliberations on SRM regulations at national, regional and international levels. 

This summer, the African Climate Foundation and The Alliance for Just Deliberation on Solar Geoengineering are kicking off a series of Africa-focused workshops to build knowledge around the science, governance, and justice dimensions of SRM.

The first two in the series will highlight African scientists and thought leaders and are virtual and open to the public.

We hope to catalyze interest and engagement across the African continent, widen public discourse on SRM and ensure these discussions go beyond certain circles of experts and the negotiating community. Debates on SRM need to reflect the full spectrum of interests in Africa, and it is time for voices across the continent to coordinate and coalesce.

The post Africa cannot afford to be complacent about solar radiation management appeared first on Climate Home News.

President Cyril Ramaphosa described the $8.5 billion “Just Energy Transition Partnership” (JETP) as a “watershed moment” – and then British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called it a “game-changing partnership”.

But, as South Africa prepares to head to the polls next Wednesday in an election that could force Ramaphosa’s ruling party to share power for the first time since apartheid ended, there is still little to show for the energy transition deal on the ground.

Africa must reap the benefits of its energy transition minerals

Crispian Olver, executive director of the Presidential Climate Commission which is advising the government on the JETP, told Climate Home: “This is a bit like trying to turn a big container-ship – it’s slow to shift onto a new path, but once it’s on that new course, things will start to move faster.”  

As of last November, just $308 million of grant-funded projects under the JETP had reached the implementation phase, government data shows. Of this, just $30m was categorised as spending on the just transition in the coal-dependent Mpumalanga province.

The government has not published equivalent information on loans – which make up 97% of the donor-backed support. But those following the JETP say progress has been slow partly because South Africa’s state-owned electricity generator Eskom is reluctant to take on more debt.

In addition, South Africa’s energy ministry and the wealthy governments that are providing funding disagree on the role of gas in the country’s energy transition. The donors backing the JETP are the US, Canada, Britain, Switzerland, the European Union, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Denmark and Spain.

Coal plant closures have been delayed by South Africa’s lack of reliable electricity, which has led to rolling power black-outs known as “load-shedding”.

While problems affecting the coal sector are a key cause of unreliable electricity supplies, Eskom has said it will delay the closure of three coal-fired power plants in response to the crisis. 

South Africa’s best wind and solar resources, in the south and west, meanwhile remain under-utilised because the national power grid is already congested in those areas.

Azerbaijan pursues clean energy to export more ‘god-given’ gas to Europe

To transport the clean power, Eskom is trying to build transmission cables but progress has been slow as the utility is deeply in debt and reluctant to take on new loans through the JETP – even if those loans are offered on cheap terms.

An Eskom spokesperson said that “off-balance sheet options” – like allowing the private sector to build cables and substations – are being considered, but the details are still to be finalised. 

Electricity cables at South Africa’s Lethaba power station in 2007 (Photos: World Bank)

Yet not all government departments want a rapid transition to renewables. The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE), led by pro-coal minister Gwede Mantashe, recently published an energy planning document that envisages a sharp slowdown in the roll-out of solar and wind power and instead more of a shift from coal to gas power plants.   

This has complicated things for the international partner group behind the JETP. Two people with knowledge of the negotiations told Climate Home that South Africa’s apparent reticence to switch to renewables is slowing the pace of funding flows under the deal. 

On the other hand, South Africa’s parliament recently approved a Climate Change Bill and a Electricity Regulation Amendment Bill, which seeks to create a competitive power market and end Eskom’s century-long, coal-dominated monopoly. The legislation will render the DMRE’s controversial gas-reliant energy plans less relevant, as it paves the way for more electricity to be produced by private companies.

Energy minister Gwede Mantashe (left) speaks to President Cyril Ramaphosa (right) in 2018 (Photos: South African government)

But that has done little to appease anxious workers and residents in the heart of the country’s coal belt. In particular, the town of Komati offers a warning of the electoral damage that can occur if coal-plant repurposing projects don’t go smoothly. 

Eskom’s coal-fired power station in Komati was retired from service in October 2022 after reaching its end-of-life date. It is now being converted into a solar, wind and food farm, a solar microgrid assembly factory and training facility.

Parts of it are now starting to open but for many local people, it is too little too late. “The community is currently facing a pandemic of unemployment and poverty,” said community leader Carlos Vilankulu, who is also a repurposing project liaison officer. 

Eskom says none of its workers lost their jobs when the last coal units were taken offline – many were transferred to other power stations. But local guesthouses and other small businesses in the community say they are struggling as a result of the closure. 

A man selling second-hand tyres waits for customers in Komati village, May 9, 2024 (Photo: REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko)

“Everything has come to a standstill. Many people are unemployed,” said Alta de Bruin, a guest-house owner based in Komati village. While the repurposing project has generally been well received, it “could have started a long time ago”, de Bruin told Climate Home.

The decision to close down Komati was made long before South Africa agreed to its climate finance package at COP26, but the local transformation project is intended to serve as a blueprint for other just transition initiatives in the country.  

It has been a cautionary tale, according to Olver. Community consultations on the way forward only took place years after the decision was made to shut Komati – meaning local residents and businesses were left in a state of limbo. “The next [coal power] stations will do it better,“ he said.

Besides South Africa, JETPs have also been signed with Indonesia, Vietnam and Senegal. Leo Roberts, an analyst with climate change think-tank E3G, said South Africa’s delays in closing down its coal plants are concerning.

Indonesia has also postponed coal plant closures after expressing disappointment with rich countries’ support, while Vietnam’s partnership has ground to a halt amid political turmoil.

“We mustn’t lose sight of what the JETPs need to deliver,” Roberts said. “This is ultimately about reducing emissions to avoid catastrophic climate change, dealing with the huge health pollution challenges coal causes, and supporting countries to deliver self-defined low-carbon development pathways.”

(Reporting by Nick Hedley; editing by Joe Lo and Megan Rowling)

The post As South Africa heads to the polls, voters await stalled “just energy transition” appeared first on Climate Home News.

A few months later, the US government accused Mmobuosi of fraud over his business dealings. Climate Home News visited Mchenga this month and found the new homes have cracks in the walls and floors, with residents scared they will collapse.

Emma Jeremia, a pregnant woman living in one house, said it would have been better to die in the storm than be killed by her house collapsing on her. Simon Mweyeli, who liaised with the Red Cross on behalf of Mchenga’s residents, said the homes can “fall anytime”.

This unsafe housing for cyclone survivors in Malawi, funded by a suspected fraudster, shows why governments need to get the new UN loss and damage fund up and running with decent resources and quality control, climate campaigners told Climate Home.

Cracks in the wall inside one of the homes in Mchenga, Malawi, pictured on May 8, 2024 (Photo: Raphael Mweninguwe)

International climate justice activists said the local testimonies show why funding for disaster victims should come from the governments that have predominantly caused the climate crisis rather than unaccountable benefactors – and recommended that affected people should be involved in designing and building their new homes.

After last year’s devastating cyclone – with the loss and damage fund not yet up and running – the cash-strapped Malawian government went looking for financial help around the world. According to national media, ex-president Bakili Muluzi recruited Nigerian businessman Dozy Mmobuosi.

The day after promising to build the homes – and the same day he was accused by short-selling firm Hindenburg Research of operating a scam company – Mmobuosi received a Malawian diplomatic passport, which is usually reserved for senior politicians, national media reported.

“Such instances highlight why we need a loss and damage fund that empowers affected communities to lead recovery and reconstruction efforts, and not allow politicians or corporations to further their own interests,” said Harjeet Singh, a climate activist who has long advocated for the fund.

In 2022, governments finally agreed at the COP27 climate talks to set up such a fund to channel money from wealthy nations to people in developing countries who have been harmed by climate change. The fund’s board hopes it can start distributing money next year.

Cyclone Freddy strikes

In March last year, Cyclone Freddy travelled from the west coast of Australia across the Indian Ocean over Madagascar and into southern Africa, where it caused floods and mudslides that killed more than 1,000 people in Malawi.

The village of Mchenga, in Malawi’s southern Phalombe district, was among the worst-hit. Its 72-year-old headman Laften Nangazi told Climate Home that 80 people died there in a single day.

He said he saw men, women and children being swept away in despair. “I cried when I saw children dying,” he said, “I saw about 40 people in a tree, and they were there for three days waiting for the water levels to go down.”

When the waters eventually receded, 176 of the village’s families were left homeless – a problem repeated across the country’s south.

Hendry Keinga reacts after he lost a family member during the Mtauchira village mudslide in the aftermath of Cyclone Freddy in Blantyre, Malawi, March 16, 2023. (REUTERS/Esa Alexander)

Looking for funds

Malawi is the world’s tenth poorest country, so government money to rebuild housing was scarce. The international fund for loss and damage, meant to address disasters like this, had just been agreed at COP27 but was not yet up and running.

President Lazarus Chakwera invited his three living predecessors for a meeting. Two of them – Bakili Muluzi and Joyce Banda – showed up and were made “Goodwill Ambassadors of Tropical Cyclone Freddy”, national media reported.

Muluzi’s son Atupele told Climate Home that his father and Banda tried to access finance “to support the very real costs to the country for housing, social infrastructure, agriculture and industry as we try to rebuild in a resilient manner”.

“Of course, the global economy and international politics means that this is a challenging task in the midst of the chaos, conflict and climate impact everywhere in the world,” he added.

To meet this challenge, Bakili Muluzi turned to Mmobuosi, a Nigerian businessman and founder of mobile banking company Tingo Group, who was then in the news for trying to take over English football club Sheffield United.

Twitter

Controversial Nigerian tech entrepreneur Dozy Mmobuosi recently visited the country to participate in the launch of a Cyclone Freddy relief project in Phalombe, an event supported by former Presidents Bakili Muluzi and Joyce Banda. pic.twitter.com/w1WlzANAKM

— Platform for Investigative Journalism – Malawi (@PlatformMalawi) June 15, 2023

On June 6, Mmobuosi, Muluzi and Banda travelled to Mchenga to launch construction work on new houses, posing with a foundation stone bearing their names. On Facebook, Banda said the houses “will be made possible because of a generous contribution” from Mmobuosi, who she called “a distinguished son of Africa” and “good friend” of Muluzi.

The next day, according to the Platform for Investigative Journalism, Mmobuosi met with Muluzi and President Chakwera at the president’s home. The Nigerian was unusually quickly granted a diplomatic passport, usually reserved for top Malawian politicians and their spouses.

“Exceptionally obvious scam”

But on the same day Mmobusi was in Mchenga, Hindenburg Research, which specialises in “forensic financial research”, accused his Tingo Group – which says it provides mobile banking to farmers – of being “an exceptionally obvious scam with completely fabricated financials”.

Hindenburg was short-selling Tingo Group shares, so it stood to profit if the share price of the firm – listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange in the US – went down.

Hindenburg accused Mmobuosi of inventing much of his backstory, of settling out of court with Nigerian authorities over alleged bad cheques in 2017, of photo-shopping Tingo logos onto planes to claim the company had an airline, and generally exaggerating the company’s assets.

While Muluzi stood by him, in December 2023 the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sided with Hindenburg. They accused Mmobuosi of a “staggering” fraud against Tingo’s investors.

In Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan’s net zero vision clashes with legacy of war

The SEC’s 72-page complaint included images of what it said was a real and an edited Tingo bank statement. The edited one had several zeros added to the balance.

US authorities charged Mmobuosi with security fraud and froze his assets. His whereabouts are reportedly unknown. If found guilty, he faces up to 20 years in prison.

On October 6 – after Hindenburg’s complaint but before the SEC’s – Muluzi and Mmobuosi went back to Mchenga village in Malawi to hand over the first batch of 17 houses.

Muluzi thanked Mmobuosi for the funding and said he had “committed to buy beds, mattresses and furniture for the households and also to bring solar electricity to the area”. In December, another 28 houses were handed over.

@MalawiRedCross has today handed over 45 houses to beneficiaries of T/A Phweremwe in Phalombe, that have been constructed with funding from The Dozy Mmobuosi Foundation through Goodwill Ambassador on TC Freddy Former President Dr Bakili Muluzi. pic.twitter.com/hVhOYdScjS

— Malawi Red Cross Society (@MalawiRedCross) December 19, 2023

Cracks and missing crockery

But five months on, when Climate Home visited the village, residents complained the homes were too few, dangerous and small, adding they had not yet received the promised furniture or solar power.

Jeremia said her father was given one of the houses but she sleeps in it instead. “He and my mother and my other siblings are living in a rented house. They cannot stay in a house that is threatening their lives. After all, it’s also a very small house to accommodate all of us,” she said.

Mweyeli, the chair of the village civil protection committee, said most new homes are “showing cracks – a sign that these houses are of sub-standard”. He said the first 17 homes were built with 45 bags of cement, but the later 28 were built with just 28 bags, making them weak and liable to fall down.

He demonstrated how the floors were made of sand covered by plastic with a “thin layer of cement which is now showing cracks all over”.

Simon Mweyeli shows cracks in the floor of one of the houses, which he said were sand covered by plastic and a thin cement layer

Charles Macheso, who climbed a mango tree to save himself from the cyclone but lost all his possessions, said village coordinators told the Malawi Red Cross that more cement was needed. But, he said, the Red Cross officers “were so defensive”. Mweyeli said he called the Red Cross to report the cracks and the aid organisation came to take pictures.

Charles Macheso in Mchenga village on May 8, 2024 (Photo: Raphael Mweninguwe)

Asked about these houses, the Malawi Red Cross’s communications specialist in the capital Lilongwe, Felix Washon, initially told Climate Home to go see them, and then hung up the phone without answering further questions.

“Not aware”

After a two-day journey from Lilongwe to the village, Climate Home contacted Washon again and was told by email that “we are not aware of any report about cracking of houses in Phalombe [the district that covers Mchenga]”.

Washon later said the Red Cross had a contract to build the homes with Muluzi rather than Mmobuosi. “We never received any money from Dozy [Mmobuosi] – direct from Dozy,” he said by phone. “Malawi Red Cross Society has no other links or contracts with Dozy,” he added.

Climate Home News emailed the contact address listed on the Dozy Mmobuosi Foundation’s website, but the email bounced.

Mmobuosi told Arise News in February that he was “taken aback” and “shocked” by the SEC’s allegations about Tingo Group. He said he had not run Tingo directly for seven years, adding that his lawyers were “on top of” responding to the SEC charges and that Tingo was conducting its own internal investigation. Mmobuosi is not currently listed as a member of the company’s board of directors.

In Mchenga, village headman Nangazi told Climate Home that 131 families are still without a home and called on national organisations like the Catholic Development Commission – that has provided iron sheets – to help build more accommodation.

Ida Mayilosi, 75, is one of those who missed out. “I wished I had also been assisted,” she said. “This house I am living in was built by some relatives but it took time.”

Ida Mayilosi, whose house was destroyed by Cyclone Freddy, sits in Mchenga village, May 8, 2024 (Photo: Raphael Mweninguwe)

Mattias Söderberg, climate lead for Danish charity DanChurchAid, which is currently building homes in Nepal after landslides there, said support for communities to rebuild after extreme weather that causes loss and damage “should be done so that they are more secure and robust to face the next climate-related disaster”.  “Investments which are not adapted risk being lost,” he added.

Singh – who fought to solve similar problems in India’s Andaman and Nicobar islands following the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2006 – said he had seen “firsthand how involving communities not only places them in the driving seat but also ensures accountability”.

(Reporting from Raphael Mweninguwe in Mchenga and Joe Lo in London; editing by Sebastian Rodriguez and Megan Rowling)

The post In Malawi, dubious cyclone aid highlights need for loss and damage fund appeared first on Climate Home News.

For too long, Africa has supplied the raw materials which drive development abroad, while Africans remain locked in endless cycles of poverty at home.  

This has been happening even before Western European colonial powers carved up the African continent in the 19th century’s “scramble for Africa”, exporting rubber, diamonds, gold, ivory, palm oil and other wealth, to process and transform it into saleable commodities. 

Today, this damaging pattern remains intact, as wealth continues to haemorrhage from Africa in this way. 

To take just one graphic example: 600 million people in sub-Saharan Africa – or 53% of the region’s population — still don’t have access to electricity on a continent that possesses all the minerals needed to build its own energy infrastructure.  

Now a new “scramble for Africa” has begun. This time, it is for the African minerals that will be crucial for the world to have any chance of halting climate chaos.  

Q&A: What you need to know about clean energy and critical minerals supply chains

The African continent holds vast quantities of the transition minerals – such as cobalt, lithium and nickel – which are used to help produce, transport, store and use electricity generated from cleaner sources such as wind and sun – and which are a prerequisite for a clean energy future.  

Tanzania, for instance, possesses huge reserves of nickel which is a key ingredient in the lithium-ion batteries that power everything from mobile phones to electric vehicles. 

As the world rushes to secure these precious materials, Africans must break with the past.  

The wealth these minerals generate must spur African development, giving our citizens the roads, hospitals, schools, electricity and other basic services so many of them desperately need. 

“New” partnerships? 

Many of Africa’s historic exploiters are among the Western powers which are now rushing to secure transition minerals. 

The US-led “Mineral Security Partnership,” which includes the European Union and other most powerful economies from the OECD block, is positioning itself in Africa’s resource-rich countries.  

Concurrently, the EU is supposedly redesigning its ties with Africa and other mineral-rich nations through “Strategic Partnerships“.  

All those initiatives are committed to “bring economic benefits to local communities”, allowing partner countries to “move up the value chain” – but are effectively enveloping the continent from multiple angles in a concerted push for resources. 

And it is no secret that mineral exports are ruled by international trade policies set up, influenced and dominated by Western powers, allowing them to access African resources at a good price. 

Zimbabwe looks to China to secure a place in the EV battery supply chain

In this realm, it remains an open question whether these partnerships will pave the way for genuine development, or – as so often in the past – merely serve foreign interests.  

In other words, will they simply be a means of continuing business as usual – keeping Africa trapped in ‘extractivism’ – or offer Africa a path to self-determination? 

Challenging the status quo 

The OECD Forum on Responsible Minerals Supply Chains, taking place this week in Paris, is a crucial opportunity for African leaders to assert their vision for a new era of mineral resource management.  

This event remains a forum dominated by consumer regions’ representatives and priorities, but we Africans need to make ourselves heard.  

We cannot wait any longer. African leaders must challenge the status quo and advocate for deals and trade policies that empower producer nations. 

They can also insist that mining companies respect the rights of the Indigenous and local communities most impacted by mining – peoples whose way of life protects priceless ecosystems that are crucial for preventing climate change, biodiversity loss and the risk of future pandemics emerging from deforested landscapes.  

Calls for responsible mining fail to stem rights abuses linked to transition minerals

Free trade rules favour already industrialised regions. One of the ways to counter this is by creating a web of preferential trade agreements among African countries. This would allow them to access their neighbours’ transition minerals at lower prices, to help them build their own clean energy technologies.  

Regional collaboration is the key to ensuring that Africa gains its rightful place in the new power map drawn by the energy transition. The African Union, the Southern African Development Community and other regional blocs could play a pivotal role in this process, promoting intra-regional trade and economic cohesion. 

African civil society works across borders to ensure that deals signed by African governments with consumer regions reflect the continent’s collective interests. But we can’t do this alone. 

We need to unite with our leaders around a just vision for our minerals. Only then can the continent truly benefit from them, turning the page on a history of exploitation and underdevelopment.  

The post Africa must reap the benefits of its energy transition minerals  appeared first on Climate Home News.

Conservationists have challenged the road construction project in the East African nation’s courts since 2009, arguing it threatens the region’s rich ecosystem and wildlife. But in January, President William Ruto declared his government would proceed with the works, a decision critics said undermined his climate-friendly image on the global stage. 

The road – now a rough dirt track punctuated with mounds of elephant dung – dissects the Aberdare Forest in central Kenya, cutting through an expanse of dense woods mingled with thick bamboo and colourful alpine vegetation. It also crosses the mountainous Aberdare National Park, a haven for wildlife including lions, antelope and elephants. 

The government wants to widen and tarmac the picturesque road to connect the two agricultural counties of Nyandarua and Nyeri, which it says would reduce local travel time and the cost of farm produce while boosting tourism. 

Environmentalists argue that the potential negative consequences for the forest, biodiversity and climate change far outweigh the purported benefits.   

“I don’t feel that this is what we want to offer to the Kenyan people in terms of connectivity,” Christian Lambrechts, executive director of conservation trust Rhino Ark, told journalists during a trip to the Aberdare Forest in Nyeri County.  

“We feel that this road is not justifiable from a socioeconomic standpoint. It will cut the Aberdare ecosystem into two, and lead to road user-wildlife conflicts.”   

Rhino Ark Executive Director Christian Lambrechts addresses journalists in Nyeri County, Kenya, during a media tour of Aberdare Forest and National Park on February 29, 2024. (Photo: Joseph Maina)

Threat to wildlife and water

In March, the East African Wild Life Society – in response to Ruto’s decision to press ahead with the project – filed a fresh petition to a local court in Nyeri. It ordered the road’s construction to be put on hold, pending a hearing in early June. 

Conservationists are calling for the government to upgrade an alternative road instead, which largely skirts around the forest, saying it will still cut travel time while protecting wildlife and the Aberdare ecosystem that is vital for the water cycle. 

Enock Ole Kiminta, CEO of KeNAWRUA, a national organisation bringing together local water user associations, told Climate Home that expanding the Ihithe-Ndunyu Njeru road in the Aberdare Forest would destroy almost 400 hectares of indigenous forests and 327 water springs. 

It would also negatively impact close to 70 percent of local biodiversity, including endangered birds and animals, and elephant breeding areas, he added.   

“And yet the president appears to be saying, ‘To hell with you – go to court. We don’t care what the courts will say; we’ll still go ahead and do it’,” Kiminta said, before the latest suspension of the project.    

A scene in the Aberdare National Park, central Kenya, pictured on March 1, 2024 (Photo: Joseph Maina)

In January, the National Environment Management Authority approved the road’s construction in a surprise move, after earlier opposing it, and issued a license for the roadworks to the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA).   

It did, however, give instructions to reduce the road’s width from 40 metres to 25 metres in sections traversing the Aberdare Forest and the Aberdare National Park.  

On a tour of the region that month, Ruto asked a local crowd if they wanted the road’s expansion to proceed or to wait for the court’s final decision. After gaining their backing, Ruto instructed government officials to allocate funds to push ahead immediately.   

Neither KeNHA nor the Kenya Wildlife Service responded to requests for comment for this article.  

International accolades  

Kenyan climate policy experts told Climate Home the Aberdare case symbolises a wider disconnect between Ruto’s vocal support for greater climate action on the global stage and decisions by his government that threaten natural ecoystems and carbon sinks at home.   

Ruto has pushed for more climate finance for the African continent and hosted the African Climate Summit last September in Nairobi, which secured $23 billion in funding for green projects for the continent.  

Last November, he made it onto Time Magazine’s list of the 100 most influential leaders driving business to real climate action. 

He also rolled out an ambitious plan in 2022 to plant 15 billion trees in Kenya by 2032, in a bid to reach 30% tree cover, with all ministries urged to allocate funds for the initiative.  

Loss and damage board speeds up work to allow countries direct access to funds

“His right hand doesn’t know what his left is doing,” said Kiminta. “He’s not being honest when he’s out of the country speaking all about climate change in rosy terms and doing something different on the ground.”   

While attempting to plant billions of trees, the Kenyan authorities have also been dishing out permits to timber dealers, Kiminta added. 

According to the Global Forest Watch monitoring service, tree loss in Kenya increased to 11,000 hectares in 2023, of which about 10,000 hectares was natural forest. That rise followed a two-year decline in 2021 and 2022, when the country recorded its lowest deforestation levels since 2001. 

Failed effort to lift logging ban  

The Aberdare row is not the first time Ruto has pitted himself against the justice system over decisions involving forests.  

Last July, less than two years after coming to power, he unilaterally lifted a six-year logging ban in the country’s forests, saying it would benefit local economies – sparking a legal backlash.  

The Law Society of Kenya (LSK) petitioned against the move, saying it disregarded the crucial role forests play in mitigating climate change, preserving biodiversity and safeguarding vital ecosystems. 

“It may be for lack of vision, foresight, or even commitment to sustainable development, but it is by all means a blow to Kenya’s environmental conservation efforts and international standing,” wrote Faith Odhiambo, the current LSK president, in a post on Twitter.   

The LSK argued the public had not been involved in the process leading to the decision to lift the ban, as stipulated in the constitution – and in October succeeded in its push for the Environmental and Lands Courts to void the president’s directive.  

Farmers tilling land cleared from the forest in Kinale on March 7, 2024 (Photo: Joseph Maina)

Indigenous rights 

Another row erupted last year over the Mau Forest Complex in Kenya’s Rift Valley, following an effort by the government to evict indigenous communities who have resisted such attempts for years.   

The evictions are part of an official strategy to protect Kenya’s principal water catchment areas, with speculation the latest round may also have been tied to a deal with UAE-based firm Blue Carbon to generate carbon credits for use under the Paris Agreement on climate change. 

The Mau – Kenya’s largest forest – has been the theatre of drawn-out conflict between the government and forest communities, particularly the Ogiek, a minority ethnic group that lays claim to the forest as its ancestral land.  

The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights determined in 2022 that the state had violated the Ogiek’s rights over a substantial period and directed it to adopt appropriate measures to prevent the recurrence of abuses.   

But in a surprise twist last October, the government embarked on another forceful eviction of forest communities, including the Ogiek.    

Damaris Bonareri, an advocate of the High Court of Kenya and senior programme advisor for legal affairs at the Kenya Human Rights Commission, told Climate Home the Ogiek people are protected by the constitution and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. 

“According to our constitution, the Ogiek have a right to be in that forest. The president is wrong,” she added, noting that Ruto has spoken about the country’s judiciary in ways that could turn public opinion against it. 

Indigenous lands feel cruel bite of green energy transition

The president has publicly defended his green agenda, and often ties climate change and its causes to the extreme weather hitting the country, including torrential rains that have caused severe flooding and landslides in recent weeks, killing around 230 people. 

“We must be careful on environmental issues,” Ruto told a political rally in March in Kericho, one of four counties covered by the Mau Forest, stressing that his administration would not permit people to graze animals or cultivate crops in forests. 

“You have heard about climate change. Kenya was almost destroyed by adverse weather conditions just the other year and it was because of environmental degradation,” he said.

(Reporting by Joseph Maina; editing by Megan Rowling)

The post Road row in protected forest exposes Kenya’s climate conundrum  appeared first on Climate Home News.

Just a few kilometres further south, however, local fishermen in Mbour, the country’s second-largest fishing port, are struggling. The beaches where they keep their boats are being progressively eaten away by rising seas that also threaten their homes.

The stark contrast between the neighbouring coastal areas highlights how global funding for climate projects – largely taxpayers’ money from rich countries – often fails to help those shouldering the burden of warming impacts, especially when it is being used to mobilise more private investment for green aims.

“They prioritise Saly because the hotels are wealthy,” said Saliou Diouf, a retired fisherman who lost his house in Mbour to encroaching waves. “The World Bank should help the most vulnerable.” 

Map showing the location of the neighbouring communities of Saly and Mbour on Senegal’s coast (Graphic: Fanis Kollias)

Le Lamantin is one of a dozen upscale hotels in sub-Saharan Africa acquired by Mauritius-based Kasada Hospitality Fund LP – whose investors are Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund and multinational hotel giant Accor – which it is revamping in accordance with EDGE, a green building certification created by the World Bank.

Kasada was granted over $190 million in guarantees by the World Bank Group’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), and loans of up to $160 million by its private-sector lender, the International Finance Corporation, to help it snap up hotels across Kenya, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Rwanda, Namibia and Senegal, and spruce them up as Accor brands like Mövenpick.

The Mövenpick Resort Lamantin Saly, where a standard hotel room costs about £220 a night (Photo: Jack Thompson)

MIGA, the little-known insurance arm of the World Bank Group, has counted its backing for the hotels as part of its climate efforts for the past three years, according to annual sustainability reports.

The five-star resort in the West African nation of Senegal, where rooms cost at least £220 a night ($270), is being refurbished to consume at least 20% less energy and water than other comparable buildings by its owner Kasada, which expects it to obtain EDGE certification this year.

Teresa Anderson, global lead on climate justice for ActionAid International, told Climate Home it is “shocking that what little funds there are for climate action are benefiting luxury hotels”.

 

Ver esta publicación en Instagram

 

Una publicación compartida de Mövenpick Resort Lamantin Saly (@movenpicklamantinsaly)

“Climate finance must be used to help those most vulnerable – not to help the world’s wealthiest add a climate hashtag to their Instagram posts by the pool,” she said.

MIGA told Climate Home its support for Kasada is primarily aimed at developing Senegal’s tourism sector and creating jobs, adding that refurbishing hotels can also have beneficial climate impacts and play an important role in decarbonising the hospitality industry.

Mbour, just a few miles from the pristine beaches of Saly, is the second-largest fishing hub in Senegal with 11,000 fishers. (Photo: Jack Thompson)

‘The money is missing’

In nearby Mbour, however, the fishing community feels left behind.

“I was born here, I grew up here – when I was a child, the sea only came up to the last pole,” Diouf told Climate Home, pointing to the remnants of a Portuguese-built pontoon used to moor colonial ships in the 1800s. 

In just one generation, he said, the sea has gobbled up more than 100 metres of beach in Mbour, forcing 30 families to abandon their houses and threatening hundreds more. A quarter of the Senegalese coastline – home to 60% of the population – is at high risk of erosion.

Mbour’s fast-disappearing shore is a crisis for its 11,000 fishers as big swells destroy their boats, crammed into the remaining patch of sand.

But in Saly, it’s a different story. Here, between 2017 and 2022, under a separate project, the World Bank invested $74 million in beach protection, building 19 stone walls, groynes and breakwaters to reclaim 8-9 kilometres of hotel-lined beachfront, popular with tourists.

The World Bank Group said the project helped preserve around 15,000 direct and indirect jobs by saving tourism infrastructure, while also protecting two fishing villages in Saly.

Satellite data shows the changing coastline in Saly (north), where protective infrastructure was developed, and Mbour (south), which has none. (Photo: Modified Copernicus Sentinel data [2024]/Sentinel Hub)

The World Bank Group (WBG) said its units work together to avoid trade-offs. “It’s not to either support hotels and the tourism sector as a driver of development, or to enhance the resilience of local communities – the WBG does both,” it said in a written response to Climate Home.

But fishermen in Mbour – which was outside the scope of the Saly coastal protection infrastructure project – are not benefiting from that approach, and even say the works in Saly have exacerbated erosion in their area. The Mbour artisanal fisheries council has devised a climate adaptation strategy to address the problem. 

One of its coordinators, Moustapha Senghor, said seawalls and breakwaters are needed, but there are no funds for what would amount to “a colossal investment”. “We know exactly what we need to do, but the money is missing,” he said.

Sea level rise is threatening beach-side homes and swallowing coconut trees that protect the coastline in Mbour, Senegal. (Photo: Jack Thompson)

Private-sector trillions

Governments and climate justice activists are putting pressure on the World Bank to significantly step up its role in funding climate projects, especially to help the most vulnerable countries and communities. 

For the past three years, a group of countries led by Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Mottley has called for reforms so that the bank can better address climate change.

At the same time, wealthy nations have been reluctant to inject more capital into its coffers, while attempts at tinkering with the balance sheet to squeeze out more climate cash only go so far. 

For World Bank Group President Ajay Banga, the real solution lies in greater private-sector involvement, using scarce public money as a lever to help mobilise huge dollar sums for climate and development goals this decade.

“We know that governments and multilateral institutions and philanthropies all working together will still fall short of providing the trillions that we will require annually for climate, for fragility, for inequality in the world. We therefore need the private sector,” Banga told media ahead of this week’s annual Spring Meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

MIGA’s guarantees can be a key driver of climate investments in developing countries. (Graphic: Fanis Kollias)

Following suggestions from a group of CEOs convened by Banga, the World Bank Group announced in February a major overhaul of its guarantee business to enable “improved access and faster execution”. The goal is to triple issuances, including those from MIGA, to $20 billion by 2030, with a significant proportion of that expected to support green projects.

MIGA – as a provider of guarantees aimed at encouraging private capital into developing countries – may not be the obvious choice to help low-income communities like Mbour’s fishers. 

But, in its 2023 sustainability report, the agency wrote: “because the poorest are the most vulnerable to climate change, MIGA is working to mobilize more private finance to scale up climate adaptation, resilience and preparedness”.

Last year, less than one percent of MIGA’s total guarantees directly supported climate adaptation measures, according to its annual report.  

The guarantees generally act as a form of political risk insurance, making an investment less risky and giving companies access to cheaper loans as a result.

MIGA’s 2023 sustainability report showcases the Kasada-owned hotels as an example of its efforts to “rapidly ramp up” private capital for climate action, with the agency providing its highest volume of climate finance last year.

Struggle to fund adaptation

But some experts argue the World Bank Group should be targeting its efforts more closely on communities who are struggling to survive as global warming exacerbates extreme weather and rising seas. 

Vijaya Ramachandran, a director at the Breakthrough Institute, a California-based environmental research centre, said projects like the Kasada-backed hotels are “not where the dollars are best spent from a climate perspective”.

Ramachandran, a former World Bank economist, co-authored a study last year analysing the climate portfolio of the bank’s public-sector lending arms, which exclude MIGA. It found a lack of clarity over what constitutes a climate project and showed that hundreds of projects had been tagged as climate finance despite having little to do with emissions-reduction efforts or adaptation.

Ramachandran told Climate Home that, in the case of MIGA’s backing for the African hotels, Kasada “should just be doing the energy saving itself as part of its own efforts to address climate change”. 

Holidaymakers enjoy a spacious, ocean-side pool at the five-star Le Lamantin resort in Saly, Senegal. (Photo: Jack Thompson)

Olivier Granet and David Damiba, managing partners of Kasada Capital Management, told Climate Home the hotel investment fund had always planned to be “a leader in energy and water efficiency in its properties”. 

But, they added, the financial and technical support of MIGA and the IFC had helped them implement their strategy “further and more easily”, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Eight Kasada-owned hotels have already been certified under EDGE and the rest are expected to achieve the standard this year, they noted.

Ramachandran said making hotels energy-efficient is a good thing – “but from a public finance perspective, for poorer African countries the focus should be on adaptation and making them more resilient”.

Developing countries need an estimated $387 billion a year to carry out their current adaptation plans, but in 2021 they received only $24.6 billion in international adaptation finance, according to the latest figures published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

MIGA to miss climate target?

Once regarded by campaigners as the “World Bank’s dirtiest wing” for its support of fossil fuels, MIGA has come under mounting pressure to shift its subsidies in a greener direction, in line with broader institutional goals.

In response, the agency has committed to throw more of its financial weight behind projects that aim to cut greenhouse gas emissions or alleviate the impacts of climate change. 

In 2020, it revealed a plan to dedicate at least 35% of its guarantees to climate projects on average from fiscal year 2021 through 2025, embracing a target set by the wider World Bank Group. 

MIGA conceded at the time this would be “a challenge” – and it now looks likely to fall short of the goal. In 2023, climate finance represented 28% of its guaranteed investments.

According to the agency’s 2023 sustainability report, 31 out of 40 projects it supported with guarantees last year had a climate mitigation or adaptation component, but it did not disclose what percentage of each was counted as climate finance.

Meanwhile, over the last three years, MIGA has backed three gas-fired power plants in Mozambique and Bangladesh, while it is also planning to support an additional one in Togo. 

In monetary terms, MIGA’s annual provision of climate guarantees has risen from just over $1 billion in 2019 to $1.5 billion in 2023, pushing up the total size of its climate portfolio to $8.4 billion. But the headline numbers only paint a partial picture, clouded by a lack of transparency in the data.

MIGA’s portfolio of climate investments has grown in the past six years. (Photo: MIGA Climate Change)

In response to Climate Home’s request for a full list of MIGA’s climate projects, the agency said it could not disclose the information for confidentiality reasons. 

“Our clients are private-sector investors or financiers, and we do not have agreement to release disaggregated information about their investments and financing,” a MIGA spokesperson said.

The only clues about the make-up of MIGA’s climate portfolio come in its glossy annual sustainability reports, which highlight a handful of initiatives. 

Climate Home News reviewed these reports from the last three available years – 2021, 2022 and 2023 – and tracked highlighted projects, which are framed as positive examples of climate finance. 

Motorways and elite universities 

They show that support for renewable energy made up a quarter of MIGA’s climate guarantees in 2023. 

But its track record of climate investments raises questions about the agency’s criteria for designating projects as climate finance and how it allocates those resources to help people most in need, experts said. 

Karen Mathiasen, a former director of the multilateral development bank office in the US Treasury, said MIGA should not be using its resources to expand investment in things like luxury hotels and then counting them as climate finance. 

“There is a real problem in the World Bank Group with greenwashing,” added Mathiasen, who is now a project director with the Center for Global Development.

World Bank approves green reforms, appeals for more money

MIGA said it calculates the climate co-benefits from its projects using the same methodologies as other multilateral development banks, and applies them consistently according to a “rigorous internal consultation and review process”. 

Large infrastructure projects feature heavily in MIGA’s climate portfolio. 

For example, a group of international banks, including JP Morgan, Banco Santander and Credit Agricole, have received a total of €1.4 billion in guarantees to bankroll the construction of a new motorway in Serbia, in an area prone to severe flooding. 

The 112-km dual-carriageway, in the West Morava river valley, is implementing measures to reduce flood risk, including river regulation – and so was counted as climate finance.  

In 2022, MIGA’s largest climate guarantee – worth €570 million ($615 million) – helped finance the construction of a new campus in Morocco’s capital Rabat for the Mohammed VI Polytechnic, a private university owned by mining and fertiliser company OCP Group and frequented by the country’s elite.

According to MIGA, the project would seek to obtain LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) green-building certification “for key facilities”, and include hydraulic structures to enhance the climate resilience of the campus.

Similarly, support for a new hospital in Gaziantep, Turkey, was tagged as 100% climate finance because it features energy efficiency measures and flood drainage works. 

In 2023, just under half of MIGA’s climate guarantees went towards “greening” the financial sector in mainly middle-income countries like Argentina, Colombia, Hungary, Algeria and Botswana. 

These guarantees are intended to help local banks free up more capital and boost loans to climate projects, although in some cases they are only expected to do so on a “best effort basis” involving no strict obligation, according to MIGA’s annual reports.

MIGA said this clause is included for regulatory reasons and requires banks to “take all necessary actions to provide climate loan commitments” as far as is “commercially reasonable”.

UN climate chief calls for “quantum leap in climate finance”

Call for clarity 

Ramachandran of the Breakthrough Institute said MIGA should demonstrate the outcomes of its climate finance projects “in terms of reduced emissions or of improved resilience, (and) what the overarching strategy is to make sure the money is best spent”. 

“Instead the focus is simply on dollar amounts,” she added – a criticism rejected by the World Bank Group. 

MIGA said it supports projects in all sectors that contribute to development and enables the inclusion of emissions-cutting and climate adaptation measures in their design and operation. 

Former U.S. official Mathiasen believes MIGA could be a powerful engine to mobilise more private money for climate action, but said it needs a cultural change to focus more on results rather than numerical targets which give staff an incentive to “pump up the numbers”. 

“A little bit of an add-on – that is not a climate project. There needs to be clear, transparent criteria of what constitutes a climate project,” she said. 

(Reporting by Jack Thompson in Senegal and Matteo Civillini in London; additional reporting by Sebastian Rodriguez; editing by Megan Rowling, Sebastian Rodriguez and Joe Lo; graphics by Fanis Kollias)

This article was amended on April 17 to clarify that the Qatar Investment Authority and Accor are investors in the Kasada Hospitality Fund. It is run by Kasada Capital Management.

The post World Bank climate funding greens African hotels while fishermen sink appeared first on Climate Home News.

Set against the global backdrop of poverty, hunger, climate change, debt and conflict, it can feel hard to be hopeful at present. But there is a real win-win opportunity – as well as a deep moral obligation – to heal geopolitical divisions, foster peace, alleviate poverty, ensure food and nutrition security, address the climate crisis, and deliver a better, fairer future for people and planet. It lies in the reforms of the global financial architecture necessary to deliver the additional sum of at least $3 trillion required to support countries to meet the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Last year’s international meetings in Paris and Nairobi – leading to the Paris Pact for People and Planet, and the Nairobi Declaration – have made the case for debt relief, enhanced international taxation and global financial architecture reform. These reforms will be centre-stage at next week’s Spring Meetings of the World Bank and the IMF in Washington DC.

Here the world must urgently come together to articulate and deliver a clear plan for how to end hunger and build resilient food systems, backed by real leadership, enhanced coordination, accountability and finance. The task at hand is to connect the global imperative to act on food security, sustainable agriculture and malnutrition with the broader efforts underway to drive a reform agenda and to replenish the World Bank’s concessional lending arm, the International Development Association (IDA).

At UN climate talks in Dubai last year, 159 world leaders committed themselves to action on food security and climate change by signing the COP28 Emirates Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems, and Climate Action – the first of its kind. The commitments in this declaration now need to be linked with the emerging global plan for increased finance.

Is water provision in drought-hit Zambia climate ‘loss and damage’ or adaptation?

African potential

Africa is ground zero for the climate crisis, but is also the continent where solutions will have the most impact. Of the 9.8 billion people expected to live on the planet by 2050, a quarter will be African. Financial reforms must unlock climate-positive green industrialization and transform food systems across the continent in a way that is compatible with sustainable and inclusive economic growth. But the ultimate test will be whether the funds released reach the communities who need them most, when they need them, producing the desired results of ending poverty, building climate-resilient infrastructure, saving nature and biodiversity from extinction, and delivering prosperous lives for all.

This goal is within our reach – with evidence and farmers’ testimonials showing the success of innovative models such as the Arcos community-led scheme in Rwanda, which has empowered smallholder farmers to preserve and restore forests and agricultural landscapes. To date, 12,000 community members have grown 4.2 million trees, including fruit trees for boosting income and nutrition, nitrogen-fixing species to improve soil health, fodder species for livestock and indigenous species for biodiversity, on more than 20,000 hectares. The farmers have also built terraces across the hilly landscapes to reduce soil erosion and prevent pollution of lakes and rivers.

Nigeria’s path to net zero should be fully lined with trees – and fairness

Across much of the Global South, there are numerous such inspiring examples of where communities and societies have established social safety nets, fostered rural development, and promoted gender and social equity. These approaches have enhanced  communities’ capacity to plan for and respond to more extreme weather, to continue to deliver their crops to market despite climate change and other challenges, and to provide nutritious food for their families.

Smallholder farmers produce a third of the world’s food, yet receive only 1.7 percent of climate finance. Globally, there must be a major shift in financial flows to change that, including efforts by international development partners such as the World Bank and the philanthropic sector. National government leadership is a prerequisite to success, including revising agricultural subsidy programs to ensure they incentivize farming practices and behaviour that will help the world close the hunger gap while reducing greenhouse gas emissions, protecting biodiversity and restoring degraded lands.

Global momentum growing

This year there is a golden opportunity to make progress on financing for food systems. As a result of consistent advocacy – including from Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, Kenyan President William Ruto and World Bank President Ajay Banga – an additional $300–400 billion in low-cost concessional finance and lending has been promised over the next decade by the multilateral development banks (MDBs) to low- and lower-middle income countries.

This recalibration of the international finance institutions’ balance sheets is a welcome development to build on – and demonstrates that climate and development commitments can be honoured. The social, economic and environmental case for making these kinds of investments in food security is unequivocal. Well-designed investments deliver four-fold benefits: they strengthen food security and nutrition; reduce greenhouse gas emissions; support nations and communities to adapt to a changing climate; and protect and restore nature.

The Brazilian government has committed to put zero hunger, sustainable agriculture and food systems centre-stage at the G20 this year, through its Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty, and has committed to work closely with Italy and the rest of the G7 on this agenda. President Lula has also rightly placed the ongoing deeper reboot and replenishment of the multilateral development bank system at the heart of his G20 agenda. His leadership – in partnership with African governments and the G7, and harnessing such key moments as the UN Summit for the Future – could drive major progress at this critical time, starting at the Spring Meetings this April.

The post Spring Meetings can jump-start financial reform for food and climate  appeared first on Climate Home News.

In January, the two United Nations agencies that will manage the Santiago Network on loss and damage recommended that its headquarters should be in Nairobi as it is a relatively cheap location and home to other UN environmental bodies.

But during the first meeting of the network’s advisory board this week, at the four-star Warwick Hotel in Geneva, government climate negotiators rejected that proposal and instead chose the Swiss lakeside city as its headquarters.

The Advisory Board of the #SantiagoNetwork convenes for its inaugural meeting on 18-20 March in Geneva. Established in 2019, the Santiago Network aims to address loss & damage from climate change in vulnerable countries. Learn more: https://t.co/w9UwskGMW1#LossAndDamage pic.twitter.com/m3DTUCiT6g

— Adaptation Exchange by the NWP (@AdaptXChange) March 20, 2024

Last year, the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked Geneva as the third most expensive city in the world, twice as expensive as the 141st city on the list: Nairobi.

“Missed opportunity” for Global South

Swiss climate ambassador Felix Wertli called the decision an “honour”. “Geneva will offer great added value to the network” because of the wide range of relevant organisations in the city, while the network will in turn help strengthen that international ecosystem, he added.

But, according to a source who attended the meeting, African climate negotiators only accepted the decision grudgingly, asking for their reservations to be officially noted.

The source said Geneva had been pushed mainly by Latin American negotiators, who were angry that Panama had been ruled out for time-zone reasons and argued Nairobi was difficult to get to and did not have enough embassies.

At December’s Cop28 climate summit, the Swiss government said that, if the network was based in Geneva, it would donate 1 million Swiss francs ($1.1m), cover office costs and provide up to 10,000 francs ($11,000) per person for office materials and infrastructure. The network will spend about $8m a year. The source said the Swiss government had emailed board members last month, making the case for Geneva.

Mohammed Adow, the Nairobi-based founder of the Power Shift Africa think-tank, called the decision “yet another stitch-up by the Global North to keep power away from the places where the impacts of climate change are being felt”.

It “fails to put affected communities at the centre of decision-making” and further erodes the trust between the Global North and South that is needed to tackle climate change, he added.

Tasneem Essop, head of Climate Action Network International, told Climate Home it was “a real missed opportunity”. “It is unfortunate that wealthy countries can use their ability to resource infrastructure as a way to secure the presence of UN bodies in their territories,” she said.

Loss and damage expertise in demand

Governments agreed at Cop25 in 2019 to set up the Santiago Network and tasked it with “averting, minimizing and addressing loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change” by collecting and sharing expert advice. Since then, the host organisation and location of the network’s secretariat has been debated at UN climate talks.

Small islands wanted the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank to host it, while African countries wanted the United Nations Office for Project Services (Unops) and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) to host it in Nairobi.

Both groups thought the other would not place sufficient priority – or have enough expertise – on the types of climate damage they are facing. For small islands, the main threats are rising sea levels and destructive storms, whereas Africa is grappling with more frequent and severe floods and droughts.

At Cop28, governments agreed that Copenhagen-based Unops would be the operational host, while Geneva-based UNDRR would organise the expert advice. The two agencies were commissioned to explore the best physical location for the network’s headquarters.

In Somalia, Green Climate Fund tests new approach for left-out communities

They shortlisted five options that were safe enough for staff to bring their families, in the European and African time zones, and had a UNDRR presence: Nairobi, Geneva, the German city of Bonn, Brussels in Belgium and the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

They evaluated the five locations based on staff, office and set-up costs, “operational efficiency” criteria like security, infrastructure and the skills of the local workforce and other factors, including being close to other UN agencies. 

The reviewers recommended Nairobi as “the optimal location”, citing strong UN relations with the Kenyan government, “maximum time zone coverage” for co-ordinating with developing countries, and its hosting of other UN agencies.

Nairobi is the base for the UN’s African headquarters, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and its sustainable towns and cities programme (UN Habitat), as well as Unops and UNDRR’s African regional offices.

But now that the Santiago Network’s advisory board has opted for Geneva, Unops and UNDRR will look for office space in the city. The network will have eight full-time staff members in Geneva and four regional officers based around the world. 

A Swiss government spokesperson said Switzerland had “emphasised its stance of accepting any location choice deemed most beneficial to the affected regions”. It had suggested Geneva to advisory board members “as an alternative venue in case discussions over the future location stalled progress in the creation of the [Santiago Network] Secretariat and its important work”, the spokesperson added.

This article was updated on 21/3/2024 to include the Swiss government’s comment

The post African dismay at decision to host loss and damage advice hub in Geneva appeared first on Climate Home News.

The hope is that it would raise gas exports and bring money into state coffers. The plan got a boost in 2021 as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine left Europe scrambling for alternative sources of gas in the short-term.

But now, as more problems emerge, experts are questioning the wisdom of investing vast public sums in the project. 

Europe’s gas demand is declining and is likely to be increasingly fulfilled by booming exports of liquified natural gas (LNG) from the US and Qatar.

Meanwhile, theft of gas from pipelines remains an issue as northern Nigeria and Niger, where the pipeline will pass through, have grown more insecure.

The Nigerian government has spent over $1 billion on its section, with plans for a further $1 billion more to be invested. Experts told Climate Home they fear that much of this money could be wasted.

Indonesia turns traditional Indigenous land into nickel industrial zone

Stranded asset

Ademola Henry is an independent adviser to the oil and gas industry. He warned that the pipeline could become economically unviable before the end of its expected lifespan.

He warned that if this happens, the government might have to increase borrowing or taxes or cut spending to offset the losses.

Chukwumerije Okereke is a professor of global climate governance and public policy at Bristol University. He said the pipeline “could result in profits and socioeconomic benefits for the people”.

But, he warned that gas thefts and insecurity in Niger “could pose significant challenges”. Niger suffered a military coup last year and the new government has withdrawn from the Economic Organisation of West African States (Ecowas), a regional political union. This “further complicates the situation”, Okereke said.

He said that the government must “deeply consider” any investments in the sector, especially given global commitments to triple renewable energy and Nigeria’s abundant resources like solar.

US trade agency backs oil and gas drilling in Bahrain despite Biden pledge

Gas glut

The Trans-Saharan pipeline is a joint project between Nigeria, Algeria and Niger. The plan is for a 4,000 km pipeline to ferry up to 30 billion cubic meters of gas a year from Nigeria, through Niger, to Algeria where it would connect up with existing pipelines across the Mediterranean to Europe.

With Nigeria and Algeria’s state oil and gas companies taking the lead, it was originally scheduled to open in 2015 but there was no progress on it between 2009 and 2019.

In 2019, the pipeline began to be mentioned in planning documents. The three governments signed an agreement to speed it up after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine left Europe looking for more non-Russian gas. 

At that time, Nigeria’s then oil minister Timpire Sylva told European Union diplomats that Nigeria would like to sell them more gas, which he said would “solve the energy problem in Europe”.

But he was not the only one making that offer. The US in particular has ramped up its investment in export terminals to ship its liquified natural gas to Europe and elsewhere. 

Ecuador’s new president tries to wriggle out of oil drilling referendum

The International Energy Agency predicts a glut of this gas when this infrastructure is up and running, meaning more competition for Nigerian gas sellers.

At the same time, the IEA predicts that Europe’s demand for gas will keep falling, as the invasion of Ukraine fast-tracked plans to get off fossil fuels.

At the time of publication, only the Nigerian section of the pipeline – known as AKK – is being built. 

Okereke warned: “If the Nigerian government proceeds with its part of the Trans-Saharan project and launches it in July this year, despite uncertainties in other participating countries, there’s a risk of assets being stranded – this could lead to substantial losses for the government, impacting taxpayers”.

The post Problems mount for Sahara gas pipeline, leaving Nigerian taxpayers at risk appeared first on Climate Home News.

Last month, Shell announced it had agreed to sell its land-based oil business to a consortium of five mainly Nigerian oil companies while keeping its offshore oil and its gas businesses in the country.

But the $1.3bn deal is dependent on the Nigerian government’s approval and will face legal challenges. Nigeria’s oil regulator stopped a similar sale by ExxonMobil in 2022.

Nigerian environmentalists and local residents want Shell to clean up land and water ruined by oil spills and to pay compensation before it sells of its assets.

“It would be unconscionable for Shell to pack up its onshore operations in Nigeria without cleaning up its mess and paying compensation” said some of the oil spill victims’ lawyer Steve Bilko.

Oil in the water in the Niger Delta in 2015 (Photos: Lilieudefensie)

Toxic history

The UK-Dutch company Shell has been drilling oil in Nigeria since the 1950s. In the southern Niger Delta region, many local residents have complained that their land is polluted while they are left out of the economic benefits. 

This has led to sometimes violent conflict with Shell and the Nigerian government including the government’s hanging of local activist Ken Saro-Wiwa in 1995.

The National Oil Spill Detection Agency (Nosda) reports that Shell is responsible for hundreds of oil spills, mostly from pipelines around the city of Port Harcourt. These spills ruin farmland and kill the fish which many rely on for food and their livelihoods.

A map of oil leaks from Shell’s oil pipelines around Port Harcourt (Photos: Nosda)

The Nosda says over 95% of these spills to sabotage or theft of the oil. This is a big illegal business in the region. But Shell is legally responsible for the leaks, a headache which is pushing them to want to sell up.

In March 2022 though, Nigeria’s second-highest court issued an order preventing the company from selling any assets in Nigeria until a decision was reached on whether the company should pay over $2 billion in compensation for oil spills.

But last month, this court was overuled by Nigeria’s Supreme Court, who told them to look at it again. Soon after, Shell announced again that it was selling these assets.

Don’t let them sell

Bilko said many of his clients are “worried that the sale could affect [the Shell Petroleum Development Company’s] ability or willingness to fulfill the terms of any judgment which may be made against it, including in relation to orders to clean up and remediate the polluted areas”.

“We consider that Shell, having made billions of pounds over decades from extracting oil resources from Nigeria, should fulfill its legal responsibilities and not leave behind an environmental catastrophe as it seeks to exit the Niger Delta”, he added.

Bilko said he was also concerned that Shell “is leaving behind a vast network of crumbling infrastructure after decades of neglect and failures to properly maintain their pipelines and other assets”.

Chima Williams is the head of Nigerian campaign group Environmental Rights Action. He told Climate Home that citizens could take legal action against Shell to stop the sale “until there is a restoration of the spoilt environment to its original state”.

“Shameful”: Shell uses carbon credits under investigation to meet climate targets

Local groups like the Alliance for the Defence of Eleme have also opposed the sale and the leader of the Ijaw Nation leader ethnic group said he would explore legal options to halt the sale.

The consortium Shell is trying to sell its assets to is called Renaissance. It is made up of four Nigerian companies and a firm called Petrolin, co-founded by Gabon’s former oil minister Samuel Dossou-Aworet. The group’s CEO is former Shell employee Tony Attah.

The compensation could amount to nearly $2 billion. While Shell brought in revenues of $381 billion last year, the potential buyers are much smaller. Petrolin is headquartered in Switzerland, where revenue figures are not made public and Aradel Energy’s annual revenues are well under $1 billion.

Shell declined to comment but pointed Climate Home to a webpage which says that the new owners of Shell’s onshore oil business “will continue to be accountable” for that businesses share of any commitments to cleaning up oil spills.

It says the new owners have “significant combined experience” including in the Niger Delta, where four of the companies currently operate oil fields and that Shell is selling to “focus future investment in Nigeria on our Deepwater and Integrated Gas positions”.

The post Shell accused of trying to wash hands of Nigerian oil spill mess appeared first on Climate Home News.

At a summit in Rome with two dozen African and European leaders on Monday, Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni unveiled a long-awaited initiative aimed at boosting economic ties and curbing migration.

The transformation of Italy into “an energy hub” that creates “a bridge between Europe and Africa” is a central plank of the ‘Mattei Plan’ – named after Enrico Mattei, founder of state oil and gas company Eni.

Biden misses chance to tackle “huge” US landfill emissions

Meloni said initial resources for the scheme would total 5.5 billion euros ($5.95 billion), including loans, guarantees and grants. Over half of the budget would come from a climate fund set up in 2022 to finance international projects in line with the Paris Agreement, she added.

Widespread concerns

Campaigners in Italy and across Africa have expressed concerns over the initiative.

Silvia Francescon, from Italian think tank Ecco, told Climate Home that the plan presents “enormous ambiguities” that leave the door open to fossil fuel investment.

A document released by the Italian government indicated the initiative would strengthen the use of renewables and  “accelerate the transition of electricity systems”, but did not explicitly rule out oil and gas projects.

Zimbabwe looks to China to secure a place in the EV battery supply chain

“There is no reference to the Paris Agreement or the Cop decisions. Based on what we currently know, there is undoubtedly a risk that funds meant for climate and international development could be used for projects managed by companies like Eni”, she added. “The ambiguity is very worrying”.

Eni’s long shadow

Eni has extensive oil and gas operations across a dozen African countries, including Nigeria, Mozambique, Ivory Coast and the Republic of Congo.

Its CEO Claudio Descalzi attended the launch of the Mattei Plan in the Italian Senate alongside executives of other state-controlled companies.

At a political event organised by Meloni’s right-wing populist party last December, he said Italy was “ready to invest in Africa both to get the energy needed for economic growth but also to tackle migration flows”.

Cop29 host Azerbaijan launches green energy unit to sceptical response

Concerns over Eni’s looming presence over the initiative have been widespread ever since Meloni named the plan after the company’s founder.

Enrico Mattei led the company’s quest in the mid-20th century to capture a significant share of the fast-expanding market.

His willingness to give oil-producing states a larger share of the profits than its American and British rivals is widely credited as a key reason behind Eni’s success at the time. Mattei died in 1962 in a plane crash caused by a suspected sabotage.

Mutual benefits

Meloni hailed Mattei as an inspiration for her plan that, she said, would be “a cooperation among equals” and “non-predatory”.

But African Union Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat told the summit that African countries would have liked to have been consulted beforehand.

“We need to pass from words to deeds,” he said, striking a cautious note. “You can understand that we cannot be happy with promises that often are not maintained.”

The Italian government has put energy at the centre of the partnership but details of which energy sources will be included have been very limited.

Governments fail to agree timeline for climate science reports in fraught IPCC talks

Italy signed several gas deals with African countries over the last two years as it sought to replace Russian supplies. But gas was the “elephant in the room” at the summit, as Kenyan president William Ruto described it in his address.

Ruto said he believed “that no African country can be asked to halt the exploration of its natural resources, including fossil fuels”. But “that does not mean that it makes economic sense to build a dependency on fossil fuels in our economies”, he added, calling gas “a temporary solution, primarily for export”.

‘False solutions’

Among a limited number of “pilot projects” referenced in Meloni’s speech is a biofuel production operation launched by Eni in Kenya in 2021.

Supporters of biofuels see them as an important contributor to the energy transition away from fossil fuels. But critics argue they can do more harm than good by diverting land away from food production, destroying forests, worsening water scarcity and unleashing significant amounts of emissions across their supply chains.

Amazon nations to tackle rainforest crime together in donor-funded new office

Dean Bhebhe, campaigns lead at Power Shift Africa, called Meloni’s focus “very problematic”. “Africa has an enormous amount of solar and wind – genuine renewable energy sources – and instead she chooses a false solution like biofuels”, he told Climate Home.

Concerns have also been raised over the lack of engagement with civil society representatives that were not invited to the summit. Ahead of the event, over 50 African groups wrote a letter to the Italian government asking for an “end of neo-colonial approaches” and “a more consultative approach”.

“Currently the Mattei plan does not offer Africa a path to escape the systematic traps that prevent its development”, said Bhebhe. “We need plans that rebalance Africa’s position globally in truly innovative ways, not convenings that keep it at the bottom of the food chain”.

The post Italy launches ‘ambiguous’ Africa plan fuelling fears over fossil fuels role appeared first on Climate Home News.

The Societe Conservation Forestiere (SCF) was set up in December 2022 and is co-owned by two adult children of the DRC’s defence minister Jean-Pierre Bemba, who was accused of war crimes and found guilty of bribing witnesses. This is according to previously unreported company documents seen by Climate Home.

The documents show its stated goal is to sell carbon credits and it has applied to the provincial government for a “forest conservation concession” in the DRC province of Sud-Ubangi but it has not made progress on the ground and little else is known about it.

Anti-corruption activists raised concerns that Bemba could use his political power over the environment minister Eve Bazaiba, as her party leader, to benefit the company. Human rights activists criticised the war crimes committed by Bemba’s forces across Central Africa.

“A la carte menu”: Saudi minister claims Cop28 fossil fuel agreement is only optional

Carbon Market Watch researcher Jonathan Crook said the revelations raised “red flags” over whether the company is free from conflicts of interest and has the experience to conduct forest conservation projects that get informed consent from local peoples.

He added: “It is very concerning to hear of potentially significant conflicts of interest and serious allegations of human and land right abuses reported about individuals linked to this company”.

Bemba was charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity but, after a 10-year trial at the International Criminal Court, he was eventually acquitted on appeal. He was found guilty of bribing witnesses in the case.

Ban on business

The documents show SCF’s shares are owned equally by Bemba’s 30-year old son Jean-Emmanuel Teixera and 29-year old daughter Magalie Tema Teixera. They are listed under their mother’s last name and as Portugese citizens.

The SCF’s constiution

Article 97 of the DRC’s constitution bans government ministers from carrying out “any professional activity”.

Jimmy Kande is an anti-corruption activist from the DRC. He told Climate Home that the country’s politicians often put projects in the names of their children.

Kande told Climate Home that this company may find it easy to get the support of the environment minister because she “depends on Jean-Pierre Bemba”.

Neither child has any track record of forest conservation and both remain close to their father. Magalie goes by Magalie Bemba on social media and re-posts her father’s messages praising his militia turned political party – the Movement for the Liberation of the Congo (MLC).

Jean-Emmanuel’s recent wedding was attended by his father, the president of the DRC Felix Tshisekedi and Laurent Gbagbo, the former president of the Ivory Coast who Jean-Pierre Bemba met whilst they were both on trial for alleged war crimes in The Hague.

A power player

Jean-Pierre Bemba was born into extreme wealth and power. His father was a minister under the DRC’s long-time dictator Mobutu Sese Seko.

When the DRC descended into wars which would end Mobutu’s rule, Bemba set up the MLC as a rebel militia and took control of almost a third of the country.

South African ministry uses opaque modelling to argue for weakening climate ambition

Human rights groups have accused them of raping and massacring and indigenous pygmy people during these wars.

In 2003, the warring factions signed a peace agreement which made Bemba one of five vice-presidents in the transitional government.

Three years later, Bemba was the main challenger to Joseph Kabila in presidential elections. The electoral commission declared Kabila the winner.

War crimes

The next year, on a trip to Belgium, Bemba was arrested on the orders of the International Criminal Court.

Their arrest warrant says he was suspected of perpetrating crimes against humanity and war crimes, particularly allowing his MLC troops to rape, murder and pillage during a conflict in the Central African Republic (CAR). In 2002, MLC fighters interceded to suppress a coup attempt against CAR president Ange-Félix Patassé.

Witnesseses told the court that civilians were murdered when they tried to stop their property being stolen. The thefts were “not justified by military necessity”, the ICC ruled.

In 2016, three different ICC judges found Bemba guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, namely the murder, rape and pillage committed by MLC fighters.

The three judges which declared Bemba guilty in 2016 (Photos: International Criminal Court)

While human rights groups celebrated the decision, then-MLC legislator Bazaiba called it “selective justice”. Bemba immeditately appealed. Two years later, a panel of five brand new judges narrowly reversed the decision, arguing the previous judges failed to properly prove that Bemba had the power to stop the war crimes.

The ruling was enough to free Bemba from prison in time for him to return to the DRC and try to run for president in the 2018 elections.

But the electoral authorities banned him from running because, while the ICC failed to convict him for war crimes and crimes against humanity, it did find him guilty of bribing witnesses in the trial.

The elections were won by Felix Tshisekedi, who sought to bring rivals from the MLC into his coalition.

He appointed the MLC’s secretary general Eve Baziaba as environment minister in April 2021 and Bemba as defence minister in March 2023.

The MLC’s support helped Tshisekedi win a second term in office last month and he is likely to keep both Bemba and Bazaiba as ministers.

Carbon offsets supporter

Since her appointment as environment minister, Bazaiba has been a vocal supporter of carbon offsets at Cop climate talks.

At Cop28, UN records show she was accompanied by her own daughter Nono Manganza and by Jean-Pierre Bemba’s eldest daughter Cynthia Bemba-Gombo.

At the conference, she stood alongside indigenous people from around the world and argued: “The world asks us – Amazonia, Congo Basin, Mekong basin – to preserve our forests. But to do this means adaptation of our lives, our agriculture, of everything”.

“And this adaptation needs funds,” she added, “so, we say OK, and we entered the carbon markets.

But back home, Greenpeace Africa have accused her of encouraging land-grabbing after she signed a mission order telling a team to “arracher” (which translates as “wrest”) consent from local communities for a carbon offset programme.

At the time, Greenpeace campaigner Irene Wabiwa accused her of “demonstrat[ing] contempt for Congolese law, civil society and the rights of local communities”.

Human Rights Watch researcher Thomas Fessy said “it’s easy to suspect that Bemba’s family – particularly at a time when a close political ally is at the helm of the environment ministry – has seen a business opportunity in a field that relatively new to Congo”.

The DRC is home to a twentieth of the world’s forest and polluting companies are expected be buying $10-40 billion a year of carbon offsets by 2030.

Magalie Bemba, Eve Bazaiba and the government of the DRC did not respond to requests for comment.

The post Witness bribing minister’s family own Congolese carbon credit company appeared first on Climate Home News.

The ministry, led by pro-coal minister Gwede Mantatashe, released its draft Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) on Thursday.

Energy analysts complained that it fails to reveal the figures on which its controversial assumptions are based and pointed out that it contrasts sharply with South Africa’s already approved just energy transition strategy.  

Under the new IRP’s preferred scenario, the government will add 6 gigawatts (GW) of new gas by 2030 but just 4.5 GW of new wind and solar between 2024 and 2030.  

Azerbaijan appoint state oil company veteran as Cop29 president

Together with private sector-led projects, this would lift the share of renewables in the power mix to 22% by the end of the decade. 

That’s according to calculations by Tobias Bischof-Niemz, a former policy adviser at the state-owned energy research unit CSIR.

That is a step back from the 2019 iteration of the IRP, which saw renewables reaching at least 33% of the mix by 2030.  

Moreover, in April local universities, research entities, business groups and the government’s official climate advisers found that South Africa needs to add 50-60GW of solar and wind this decade to end rolling blackouts and meet its climate commitments. Doing so would push the share of renewables above 40%. 

Happy Khambule, environment and energy manager at Business Unity South Africa and former member of the government’s climate advisory body, told Climate Home that “the IRP deviates from widely accepted models and shows a lack of ambition”.

Ten climate questions for 2024

South Africa is Africa’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter thanks to its heavy reliance on coal, which supplies more than four-fifths of the nation’s electricity. 

Yet regular power cuts have hobbled the economy since 2007 due to ongoing breakdowns across the country’s fleet of ageing coal plants.  

At the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow in 2021, a group of wealthy nations announced they would help fund South African investments in renewable energy, transmission infrastructure, green hydrogen, and electric vehicle manufacturing. 

The South African government has since approved a just energy transition investment plan, which has $11.9 billion in financial commitments so far and which largely follows the climate commission’s recommendations. 

But the new IRP, which says rolling blackouts will likely continue until at least 2028, shows that Mantashe’s department has different ideas. 

Mantashe is a former coal miner who rose to power through the trade union movement. He has long called for new public investments in coal, gas and nuclear power, arguing that these technologies which can provide electricity when called upon are necessary for both energy security and economic development. 

Six takeaways from 2023’s climate change news

In 2022, Mantashe clashed publicly with the then head of the state-owned power company Eskom Andre De Ruyter, who favoured a more ambitious renewable energy programme.

Mantashe signed off on the draft IRP, a 48-page document which looks at a number of possible pathways to 2030 and then to 2050. 

One pathway relies on delaying the closure of five coal plants by a decade and focusing on improving their performance, while another envisages the addition of up to 6GW of so-called “cleaner coal” technologies.

The IRP also considers investment in nuclear energy as well as a renewables-only pathway – although it claims that this option is not feasible. 

“It is evident that energy pathways based on renewable and clean energy technologies only deliver the desired outcome insofar as decarbonising the power system,” the IRP reads. “However, these pathways do not provide security of supply while carrying the highest cost to implement.” 

Indonesia promises to fine palm oil companies operating in forests

But Emily Tyler, the climate policy lead at Meridian Economics Emily Tyler dispute this conclusion. She told Climate Home: “All credible South African power system modelling exercises show substantial renewable energy capacity in the least-cost case…and little utilised gas, no nuclear, and no new coal”.

While it does not make any definitive conclusions, the IRP suggests that the best option would be to reduce the renewables programme and build up a gas industry.

According to this pathway, South Africa should procure 7 GW of gas capacity by 2030 and another 33.4 GW over the following two decades, increasingly using gas drilled locally.

Tyler said that, if this plan goes ahead, private industry would build its own cheap renewable energy while “the poor will be left with very expensive grid electricity as the only option”.

Tyler adds that the lack of technical detail in the draft IRP makes it “impossible to assess”.

We must make it easier to attend Cops virtually

Despite deadly air pollution in coal regions like Mpumalanga, the plan suggests the need to find a way around compliance with South Africa’s air quality standards to ensure coal plants can legally remain online. 

Eskom is technically in breach of the nation’s minimum emission standards, but has been granted exemptions until March 2025. If the rules are implemented from that date, Eskom would have to remove up to 30GW of coal capacity from the mix. 

“A balance will have to be found between energy security, the adverse health impacts of poor air quality, and the economic cost associated with these plants shutting down,” the IRP states. 

The draft plan is out for public comment. Once approved, it will allow policymakers to procure new generating capacity in line with its recommendations. 

The post South African ministry uses opaque modelling to argue for weakening climate ambition appeared first on Climate Home News.

The American firm had offered Ruto support in running the summit during a meeting with him and US ambassador to Kenya Meg Whitman in late May, several sources told Climate Home News. 

A few days later, in early June, McKinsey wrote the concept note, which set the summit’s structure, and later drafted a paper to frame its outcome. 

“For a few weeks, it was their way or the highway,” a source close to the summit’s organisation told Climate Home. 

At the time, the Kenyan government said civil society accusations that Mckinsey had captured the summit were “extremely far from the truth”. McKinsey said the claims were “inaccurate”. 

But the backlash publicly exposed the influence McKinsey wields on Africa’s climate agenda – a position it would prefer to keep discreet. 

Leaked documents 

Now, Climate Home has obtained leaked documents and interviewed multiple sources, who have asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the issue.

They show how McKinsey dominates an ecosystem pushing carbon markets in Africa and processes designed to help governments develop long-term energy plans.  

This has been facilitated by McKinsey’s deep-rooted ties with Sustainable Energy For All (SEforAll), which is responsible for delivering on a 2030 sustainable development goal for everyone to have access to affordable, reliable and sustainable energy; and the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP), which works to accelerate the energy transition.  

In numbers: The state of the climate ahead of Cop28

Climate Home’s investigation reveals that SEforAll staff complained of CEO Damilola Ogunbiyi’s “preferential treatment” of McKinsey in a whistleblower report in 2020.

That year, SEforAll brought in the firm to facilitate a leadership retreat and develop the organisation’s business plan. At the time, SEforAll’s top management dismissed the allegation. 

Three years on, documents show how McKinsey has turned initial pro-bono work into lucrative contracts. 

A source close to SEforAll told Climate Home that McKinsey encountered hardly any competition and enjoyed “almost unrestricted access to the highest levels of the UN and national governments”. 

An SEforAll spokesperson said: “All SEforALL processes are followed at all times in the selection and engagement of any advisory services,” adding that any idea to the contrary was “baseless”.  

“Come to take over” 

African government insiders say McKinsey’s domination is problematic because it is pushing a top-down tunnel vision and non-Afro-centric view of how to address the continent’s climate and development challenges, which, if unquestioned, could constrain its ambition. 

“The role of McKinsey is highly problematic because they don’t come in a capacity support role, they come to take over,” said one source. 

There is a role for consultants to help governments and international organisations plug skill and knowledge gaps.

In numbers: The state of the climate ahead of Cop28

But consultancies should advise “from the sidelines in a transparent way… rather than be allowed to run the show from the centre,” economist Mariana Mazzucato and researcher Rosie Collington write in their book about the consulting industry The Big Con.

Michael Marchant is head of investigations at Open Secrets, an NGO which advocates for private sector accountability and investigated McKinsey’s work in South Africa. 

He told Climate Home that despite receiving large amounts of public money, large consultancy firms like McKinsey “operate in secrecy and with almost no public accountability”.  

Heart of climate governance 

Yet, allowed in by governments, McKinsey has found a place at the heart of critical climate governance processes. France24 recently reported that McKinsey is pushing fossil fuel interests in its advisor role to the UAE, which will preside over the Cop28 climate talks in Dubai starting this week. 

The company’s client list includes some of the world’s biggest fossil fuel companies, including Saudi Aramco, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Shell, according to court filings in the US, where McKinsey is being sued alongside Big Oil. McKinsey rejects the accusations.

In more recent years, McKinsey has advised polluters, including oil and gas companies, on how to use the carbon market to offset their emissions or raise revenue. A 2022 internal McKinsey document, seen by Climate Home, names Chevron and BP among clients of its carbon market business line.

Meet the Italian fugitive advising Emirati start-up Blue Carbon

In Africa, the consultancy is behind a push to significantly grow the continent’s carbon offset offering, working closely with both GEAPP and SEforAll. 

In 2021, McKinsey supported the Rockefeller Foundation to design and establish GEAPP, according to a McKinsey document seen by Climate Home. The following year, GEAPP asked SEforAll to hire McKinsey to develop the African Carbon Market Initiative for $1.5 million as part of its grant to the organisation, Climate Home understands.  

Launched at Cop27 in Egypt, the initiative aims to scale carbon markets on the continent 19-fold by 2030.

While GEAPP and SEforAll publicly sponsored the initiative, McKinsey described its role in a sustainability report as “shaping and refining the initiative’s ambition” and “developing its strategy”. McKinsey’s concept note for the Africa Climate Summit elevated carbon markets to a core theme.

President Ruto appointed Joseph Ng’ang’a, GEAPP’s vice president of Africa, CEO of the summit. 

President William Ruto has appointed Mr Joseph Ng’ang’a, Vice President of Africa at the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP, as Chief Executive Officer of the inaugural Africa Climate Summit, which will take place in Nairobi from 4- 6 September 2023.… pic.twitter.com/eKtjGri5s8

— Kenyan Wallstreet (@kenyanwalstreet) June 12, 2023

Climate campaigners denounced the focus on carbon markets as “a dangerous distraction” from African climate priorities and accused McKinsey of working to protect the interests of its western corporate clients. 

McKinsey has repeatedly dismissed these allegations, arguing there is no way to deliver emissions reductions without working with high-emitting industries and that it has rigorous policies to manage conflict of interests. 

A spokesperson for the company said “sustainability is a mission-critical priority for McKinsey”, which has “committed to rapidly scale this work to help clients in all industries reach net zero by 2050”. 

A GEAPP spokesperson said it was established “to unite a diverse range of partners” to rapidly facilitate a global shift towards renewable energy. In doing so, it “leverages a spectrum of… experts and consultants”. 

A close relationship  

McKinsey’s rapidly growing climate work in Africa has been facilitated by a close relationship between its African Sustainability Practice lead Adam Kendall and SEforAll’s CEO Ogunbiyi, who also serves as a UN special representative for sustainable energy. 

Before joining SEforAll, Ogunbiyi worked closely with Kendall, who led McKinsey’s natural gas practice in Lagos, Nigeria. He helped build the Nigerian vice president’s advisory power team and worked with the Rural Electrification Agency, which Ogunbiyi both headed. 

A McKinsey document describing its previous work for SEforAll said the firm “provided strategic support to Ms. Ogunbiyi during her transition” into her new CEO role, starting in January 2020.  

Weeks later, Kendall was invited to co-facilitate an SEforAll leadership retreat in London and subsequently developed the organisation’s 2021-2023 business plan, effectively for free. 

Thanks @Shell for hosting our Leadership Team meeting and @RockyMtnInst and @McKinsey for facilitating #SEforALL 3.0 strategy in making. pic.twitter.com/BPue9Fhyez

— Sustainable Energy for All | #SDG7BeBold (@SEforALLorg) January 24, 2020

The same year, McKinsey seconded employee Ugo Nwadiani to SEforAll. An SEforAll recruitment note shows he was directly appointed Ogunbiyi’s special assistant. 

Whistleblower report  

An anonymous complaint prepared by several SEforAll staff raised concerns about these developments.  

A source said the complaint was backed widely among employees and sent to the organisation’s whistleblowing account and to one of its major funders. 

It described “a culture of fear” at SEforAll, and accused Ogunbiyi’s leadership of being “marked by favouritism”, including towards McKinsey. 

During the business planning process, McKinsey “had direct access to SEforALL financial information and organizational systems and processes” putting the company “in a privileged position” to apply for any future tender, it said.

It raised concerns that McKinsey had been the only firm asked to comment on terms of reference for work to update Nigeria’s integrated energy plan which SEforAll was seeking to contract out. McKinsey had worked with the Nigerian government on the first version of the plan the previous year. It was eventually hired for the job. 

Slow start for Indonesia’s much-hyped carbon market

Responding to the complaint at the time, SEforAll’s management said it had strengthened procurement oversight and put in place mechanisms to help “create a climate of trust”.  

Since then, SEforAll has hired McKinsey to work on at least three of its five core initiatives in Africa: developing energy transition plans, scaling up the carbon market, and boosting renewable energy manufacturing capabilities.  

Francesco Starace, chair of SEforAll’s governance board, said the board was satisfied with the outcome of a review process following the complaint. “We are confident with the integrity of the SEforALL procurement process and the leadership demonstrated by the CEO and the executive management team,” he said. 

McKinsey’s work in Nigeria  

McKinsey’s extensive work for SEforAll in the early days of Ogunbiyi’s leadership set it up for further opportunities.   

In Nigeria, McKinsey provided the modelling which underpins the country’s energy transition plan pro bono, working with SEforAll and the former government. A new government, which came into office in May, has warned that it will need a lot more investment to deliver

Chukwumerije Okereke, a Nigerian climate governance expert, said the exercise was a “cautionary tale”. The use of McKinsey-owned tools prevented robust scrutiny of the assumptions in the model, he told Climate Home. And the “closed door” process and lack of consultation may partly explain diminished political momentum to implement it, he added.  

Ghana’s flood victims blame government for overflowing dam destruction

More recently, SEforAll and Kendall’s McKinsey team have sought funding to develop energy transition plans in up to ten developing countries, according to a 2021 joint concept note for funders, obtained by Climate Home.

With support from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the pair has developed a plan for Ghana, and is working to do the same in Kenya and Barbados using a joint open-source model. In Kenya, draft plans, seen by Climate Home, would increase gas power capacity in the 2040s.

SEforAll told Climate Home these plans were procured through an open and transparent process, rigorously peer reviewed and subject to civil society consultations.  

For Okereke, international consultants can bring quality and gravitas to energy planning. “But it’s about the way they do it.”  

The post Leaks reveal how McKinsey drives African climate agenda appeared first on Climate Home News.

In a panic, she ran home to gather her children and the few belongings they could salvage and fled to higher ground.

The family is now among the more than 26,000 displaced by the floods. They are sheltering at a local school, unsure when or how they will be able to return to their land and rebuild.

“I have three children and I’m the only one who takes care of them”, Ofeforpa told Climate Home outside the school shelter. “One of them is Delali who I was helping prepare to go to university. All those preparations were taken away.”

Janet Ofeforpa outside the school she and her family are sheltering in in Mepe (Photo: Elikem Akpalu)

Ofeforpa lives in Mepe, one of the towns that was hardest hit. Entire homes were flattened, crops were wiped out, schooling was put on hold and the flooding of toilets, cemeteries and rubbish dumps has led to a surge in typhoid and cholera cases.

The flooding happened because heavy rains had increased the volume of water in the Akosombo dam dangerously close to its limit.

In September, the government-owned electricity company which manages the dam – the Volta River Authority (VRA) – began what it calls a “controlled spillage” of water from the reservoir.

This is a standard practice after heavy rainfall that typically doesn’t have a significant impact on downstream communities. But this time it caused the worst destruction since the dam was built in the 1960s.

Climate change’s role

The kind of unpredictable and heavy rainfall which filled up the reservoir has become the new norm in West Africa, which scientists link to climate change.

But many locals allege the disaster was the result of government negligence too, with the VRA failing to properly warn people their homes may flood.

Togbe Korsi Nego VI, the Chief of Mepe, spoke to Climate Home from his home, where local volunteers had gathered to help distribute donated water sachets, rice and sleeping mats. His phone rang constantly.

“This is not a natural disaster. This is a man-made disaster,” he said. He added that “nobody came to warn us” and “the government has refused to take responsibility”.

Togbe Korsi Nego VI, the chief of Mepe, sits on his throne (Photo: Elikem Akpalu)

Were they warned?

The VRA says it did put out warnings and deputy minister Freda Prempeh accused victims of ignoring them.

The VRA’s website claims that on September 8, it notified “key stakeholders” of potential spillage in the coming days.

Four days later, they issued a press release “notifying the public of the consistent rise in water levels and the need to commence spilling”.

A car is destroyed by flood waters (Photo: Elikem Akpalu)

But this didn’t reach everyone. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa is the member of parliament for North Tongu, which includes Mepe.

Despite his position, he told Climate Home he was not among the “key stakeholders” that VRA says it warned on September 8.

“They kept us in the dark,” he said. “I just saw a press statement on the twelfth of September [but] they didn’t talk about the water volumes [or] how significant this will be.”

Accusing the VRA of “recklessness and negligence”, he added “nobody came here to engage communities, to prepare us to evacuate”.

Lessons to learn

Ghana is not the only country where warnings have failed to reach those who need them.

In August 2021, 12 disabled people drowned in a care home in Germany when the River Ahr burst its banks, and the local district authority was accused of ordering an evacuation too late.

A girl learns at the school in Mepe flood victims are sheltering in (Photo: Elikem Akpalu)

Ilan Kelman is a professor of disasters and health at University College London, specialising in disaster prevention. He said that it’s not enough for authorities like the VRA to be aware of a risk – they need to make potential victims aware too.

“A successful warning has to involve the people affected from the beginning, long before any hazard appears, so that they know exactly what the issue is [and] have the choices and resources to settle elsewhere,” he said.

Nella Canales, a research fellow at the Stockholm Environment Institute, said that it needs to be clear whose job it is to manage a risk like flooding.

“There has to be communication,” she said. “It’s not enough to just say that the person receiving the risk is now accepting part of the risk management responsibilities. The risk owner should be the one who has the capacity to manage it.”

After pressure from MPs like Ablawka, the government announced a parliamentary inquiry to investigate what went wrong.

Awusife Kagbitor pictured at the door of the classroom she is sheltering in (Photo: Elikem Akpalu)

Until then, people like Awusife Kagbitor, a flood-hit resident sheltering in a cramped classroom with 15 members of her family, are left to fend for themselves.

“A lot of people came to take our pictures with a promise to help,” said Kagbitor. “So far, they’ve spoken in the wind.”

Government and VRA officials did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The post Ghana’s flood victims blame government for overflowing dam destruction appeared first on Climate Home News.

Now, a study by the multi-faith organisation GreenFaith has revealed a new dimension to Eacop’s misconduct in our region: disrespect for many of the more than 2,000 graves that are being displaced to make way for the 1,443-km long underground pipeline.

The investigation found that Total, the French oil and gas company leading the project, has caused damages while relocating graves.

It found they had revealed their indifferent disregard for the final resting places of the deceased members of our close families and extended community.

UK aid cuts leave Malawi vulnerable to droughts and cyclones

Often, the company showed a profound disrespect for the cultural and religious burial customs of the communities affected.

A prime example is the one of unmarked graves. These are common in rural East Africa, where some of our religious communities do not customarily mark graves while some
families lack the resources for grave markers.

However, this in no way diminishes the significance of the grave nor erases family memories of the graves’ locations.

Repeatedly, families informed Total or its subcontractors about the location of unmarked graves, urging them to respect the sites and relocate the graves. Their pleas were often ignored.

Offences against dignity

In one case, a Ugandan man was custodian for a site with 60 graves. As is customary there, the Muslim graves are low earthen mounds, while Christian graves are marked with brick or
concrete plinths.

Total refused to acknowledge the unmarked Muslim graves’ existence, despite the custodian pointing out the exact location of each and providing the name of every person buried there.

These offences against dignity would be one thing if it was hard for Total to verify the location of graves. But this is not the case. Corporations regularly use inexpensive, ground-penetrating
radar at infrastructure project sites.

Instead, Total is ignoring these graves and consciously risking desecrating graves during construction.

Colombia’s big green plans run into headwinds

Another appalling finding was that families received inadequate compensation for the cost of grave relocation. Total underpaid for actual costs and, insultingly, supplied inferior quality
materials inconsistent with local standards.

Compensation has often come after years of delay, during which inflation rates made the original request vastly outdated.

“We bought cement, iron bars, tiles and paid for water when we mixed cement with sand,” said one Tanzanian man. “They have compensated us with a very low amount.”

Total posted a record profit of $36 billion in 2022 by digging into the Earth for oil and gas.

Yet when asked to provide adequate sums to relocate the earthen human remains of people whose descendants they have displaced, they have refused. This is obscene.

Spiritual harm

Families in our communities affected by this violation have suffered painful spiritual and psychological harm.

They feel guilty for allowing loved ones’ remains to be mistreated. They fear for their families and themselves because of the disrespect suffered by their forebears. Their spiritual, traditional, and cultural injuries are traumatic and real.

For centuries, global north countries have frequently devalued the graves in communities which they have colonised, disrupting them without concern as part of the process of cultural erasure.

In recent years, these practices have been more widely recognized as disgraceful. Yet Totals has perpetuated this neocolonial behavior.

The reasonable conclusion is that for Total, grave disruption is an inconsequential part of the construction process.

In other words, they do not care. That is why we are speaking out.

Argentine rewilding debate descends into legal threats

As religious leaders from Africa’s two largest religions, we condemn this inhumanity and are determined not to allow Total’s degrading mindset to stand.

We call on Total to relocate all unmarked graves, with ceremonial assistance.

Stop Eacop

We renew the call, sounded by a diverse coalition of organisations, for Total, the Ugandan and Tanzanian governments, and the project’s financial backers, to stop the Eacop project.

We call on people of diverse religious and spiritual backgrounds to speak out. The climate crisis is a challenge to our fundamental humanity.

We must uphold human decency and justice in the face of suffering due to a hotter climate, which is hitting those hardest who have contributed the least.

To protect our shared cultural, spiritual, and moral dignity, we must denounce the malfeasance of extractive industries and work together to consign behaviors such as Total’s to the past.

Sheikh Kugonza Ashiraf is a Muslim leader along the Eacop route in Uganda

Kamili Stephano is a Catholic who is affected by the Eacop project in Tanzania

In a statement, Total said that tombs are identified by the families or the owners and the locations indicated in the projects.

They added that they are compensated according to values agreed with the Chief Valuer and the grave’s owner can either move the grave themselves or ask Eacop to move it on his behalf. Eacop will cover the costs in either case, they said.

Total added that religious services and rituals take places at the location of the original grave and the new burial location, which is chosen by the grave owner.

The moving of the grave takes places at a time desired by the owners and in the presence of a “competent government authority” like a doctor, they said.

“In all cases, the moving of a grave is carried out in compliance with all different religions or spiritual beliefs,” Total added.

The post Total is disrespecting graves in East Africa as it pursues pipeline appeared first on Climate Home News.

With vast sunbaked, windswept deserts and 2.5 million people, the southern African nation has plenty of renewable resources to go around. 

Meanwhile rich, densely populated Europe, South Korea and Japan are crying out for clean fuel to decarbonise hard-to-electrify sectors like fertilisers, steel and shipping. Their net zero plans depend on it. 

Keen to secure pole position in the global race for green hydrogen, last year the EU began reaching agreements with prospective producers. One of the most trumpeted deals was signed with Namibia on the sidelines of Cop27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. 

“We want to fight climate change. We want to have clean energy. And as I said, you have all the resources in abundance. So let us team up,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in the direction of her Namibian counterpart, hailing the partnership as a “big win-win situation for all of us”. 

Tapping into solar and wind energy for export is central to President Hage Geingob’s economic strategy. Namibia is seeking $20 billion of investment in green hydrogen – more than its entire GDP of $12 billion in 2022. Government authorities are negotiating funding options with the EU. 

As with any heavy industry, though, the hoped-for boom will come at a cost to local communities and ecosystems. The benefits to ordinary Namibians are less certain. 

Namibia is planning a series of projects to catapult the country into becoming a major green hydrogen exporter. (Credit: Fanis Kollias/Spoovio)

In a months-long investigation, Climate Home News and Oxpeckers visited the site of the flagship project, a $10 billion complex near the southern coastal town of Lüderitz, which is being developed by a Namibia-based company called Hyphen Hydrogen Energy.

The reporter on the ground found a community largely in the dark about the development and nervous about the impact on fishing and tourism. Experts shared frustration at the secretive tender process, scepticism about job prospects for Namibians and concerns for the area’s unique wildlife. 

The green hydrogen complex 

Perched between the Namib desert and the Atlantic Ocean, Lüderitz is named after a German colonist. It was the centre of a diamond rush in 20th century and of a colonial history that repressed indigenous Africans. Germany officially apologised in 2021 for colonial-era atrocities, recognising them as “genocide”. 

Today, its Art Nouveau architecture, fresh seafood and wildlife draws a modest number of tourists, who can visit ghost towns abandoned after the diamond rush. The town is surrounded by the Tsau//Khaeb National Park, home to seals, penguins, flamingoes and ostriches. The park and surrounding lands are off-limits to residents to prevent illegal diamond mining. 

Green hydrogen is set to to transform the character of this small enclave once again. 

Hyphen’s plans show an initial 5GW of wind turbines and solar panels to supply power, according to the project’s factsheet published by the Namibian government. In this arid region, a desalination plant is needed to supply fresh water. An electrolysis plant will split the water into hydrogen and oxygen, before the hydrogen gas is converted into liquid ammonia. A new deepwater port will accommodate tankers to ship the end product around the world. The company aims to produce 300,000 tons of ammonia a year, commissioning the first phase by 2026, Hyphen’s website says. 

To build all this, Hyphen expects to bring in 15,000 workers, roughly doubling Lüderitz’s population. Lüderitz Town Council is planning a new town in the desert to house the influx, immediately south of the historic Kolmanskuppe ghost town. 

An opaque tender process 

“We were a little surprised at the government’s choice of a partner,” said Phil Balhao, an opposition party member of the Lüderitz Town Council.  

Other bidders like South Africa’s Sasol and Australian Fortescue Future Industries had an “established track record” that “seemingly just got ignored”, he said. 

The tender process was overseen by the Namibia Investments Development & Promotions Board (NIDPB), which sits in the president’s office. In September 2020, the board appointed James Mnyupe as green hydrogen commissioner. It launched the first call for proposals in early 2021. 

In a televised speech, Mnyupe said the tender was exempt from public procurement rules. Instead, he cited tourism and conservation laws as the basis to hold a closed selection process. 

Graham Hopwood, director of the Institute of Public Policy Research, a public-interest think-tank based in Windhoek, was not impressed.

“With such a major and strategic project, there needs to be transparency and accountability from the outset. The fact that this project is mired in secrecy is raising red flags,” he said.

The Namibian government published a list of six bidders, who submitted nine bids between them. However, the content of the bids was not made public, nor the reasoning for Hyphen’s selection. 

Hyphen said this was standard practice, given the commercially sensitive data contained in the bids. They added the process was “competitive”. 

“It would be irresponsible and to the detriment to the development of the Hyphen project and Namibia’s broader green hydrogen industry for it to publish commercially sensitive agreements in the public domain that competitor projects/countries could use to compete against Namibia,” Hyphen said in a statement. 

The Namibian government said the tender was “conducted with the utmost transparency and fairness”. 

They said that the three-person bid evaluation committee did a “detailed and comprehensive evaluation” of the proposals, supported by independent experts from the US government’s national renewable energy laboratory and the EU’s technical assistance facility on sustainable energy.

Who is Hyphen? 

Hyphen is a joint venture between two companies – Enertrag and Nicholas Holdings Limited. 

Enertrag, owned by a 59-year-old East German nuclear physicist called Jörg Müller has a long track record of building renewables. It is pursuing green hydrogen projects across the world in Uruguay, Vietnam and South Africa. 

Nicholas Holdings Limited is a company registered in the British Virgin Islands, which owns its stake in Hyphen through a special purpose vehicle based in Mauritius. The ultimate owner of the company is a South African investor called Brian Myerson.

The CEO of Hyphen is South African businessman Marco Raffinetti. 

Myerson is a South African who spent decades as an investor in the UK, where he made headlines for battling the business establishment.

In 2010, Myerson was found by a panel of top UK lawyers to have behaved dishonestly in averting a takeover of Principle Capital, the investment firm he co-founded.

The Takeover Appeal Board found that Myerson and co-conspirators made a “deliberate attempt to circumvent” rules around taking over companies and then attempted to cover up their rule-breaking when the authorities began to investigate. He was banned from getting involved in mergers for three years. 

Dishing out the punishment, the panel said it was only the second time it had done so, which it said, “is some indication of the extreme nature of the sanction”. 

A spokesperson for Hyphen, Enertrag and Nicholas Holdings Limited described this incident as a “historic matter” over “an alleged technical infringement” which “remains contested”. It should not be used to draw conclusions about Myerson’s character, they argued. 

They added that the Takeover Appeal Board had no formal regulatory powers and UK financial regulators took no action in respect of the alleged breach of the rules. 

A spokesperson for the Namibian government said it these were “historical legal matters, that to best of our knowledge have since been resolved”. 

Myerson’s previous ventures on the African continent include a failed bid to scale up bioethanol production in Mozambique. Like today’s green hydrogen push, this was driven by EU demand: in 2007, the bloc set a to blend a percentage of biofuels into petrol. Investors piled into Mozambique, touting it as a “biofuels superpower”.

Myerson set up Principle Energy, based on the Isle of Man. It made bold promises to plant sugarcane over 20,000 hectares of land, build one of the top production facilities in the world and employ 1,600 people. Then the global bioethanol market collapsed and by 2013 the company closed, having planted just 136 hectares, according to a report by GRAIN. 

His involvement in Hyphen is likely to be of concern, said IPPR’s Hopwood, adding Hyphen’s leadership was “questionable”.

Use of tax havens

Myerson’s investment in Hyphen is structured through the British Virgin Islands and Mauritius. Both rank poorly in the Tax Justice Network’s financial secrecy and corporate tax haven indexes. 

Raffinetti said that Mauritius and the British Virgin Islands were “tax neutral jurisdictions with efficient financial markets”. A lot of infrastructure investment in Africa goes through Mauritius, he said, and investors are subject to tax in the countries where they are registered. 

Tax Justice Network analyst Bob Michel said that investment into Africa goes through Mauritius because of its tax rules. “Mauritius is a corporate tax haven,” he said.

“(Mauritius’) domestic tax regime combined with its vast tax treaty network allow third country investors to use it to siphon profits from operations in Africa with the least of taxes paid in the countries where the operations take place,” Michel said by email.

A spokesperson for the Namibian government said it was “aware of the jurisdictions through which certain Hyphen shareholders hold their equity in Hyphen”.  

The spokesperson added: “Should [the Namibian government] come across any conduct that is unbecoming of its laws and global best practice, rest assured [we] will take the necessary swift corrective action.”

Great expectations 

Raffinetti, Hyphen’s CEO, previously developed gas power and rooftop solar bids in South Africa. The Richard Bay gas project he co-led is facing legal challenge by environmental activists due to its climate impact.

Wearing glasses and a black turtleneck, Raffinetti joined a video call with Climate Home in late October. He warned interviewers the internet might cut out due to the power cuts his native South Africa is plagued with.

The interview was granted, through a PR agency, on condition Hyphen could vet the quotes used. Some of the more colloquial soundbites reporters transcribed came back replaced with cautious jargon, and an admonition to put everything in its full context. Hyphen separately responded in writing to detailed concerns raised by sources.

“There’s an enormous amount of expectation in Namibia around this project. So there’s a huge amount of media attention,” Raffinetti said in one approved quote. “As the first large-scale project in Namibia’s green industrialisation strategy, we have an enormous obligation to get it right.”

Biodiversity concerns 

Dr Jean-Paul Roux, a retired marine biologist working in the area for decades, pointed to where the Luderitz peninsula ends at Angra Point. It is the northernmost tip of the Karoo ecosystem, he explained, unique to southern Africa.

In the dry summer season, the desert landscape looks drab and lifeless. Winter rains bring a green explosion of rare plants such as the endemic Lithops optica, a tiny succulent that gets as old as 90 years. 

“Here you can find up to 1,000 different plant species in just one square kilometre, some so small no bulldozer operator will even notice them,” he said. He spots signs of hyenas and porcupines. 

This is the area earmarked for the deepwater port, desalination and ammonia plants. 

Roux said the development would have a massive impact on Shearwater Bay and the adjacent Sturmvogelbucht, a lagoon teeming with flamingos and a heavy-sided dolphin population that he has been studying for years and visits every day. 

“This is the only place along the southern African coast where you can watch them from your car,” he said as this smallest of all dolphin species approached to within a few meters of the beach. He fears that once developers start blasting rock for the port construction, dolphins will leave and never return. 

The Tsau//Khaeb National Park is classified by Namibia’s Ministry of Environment and Tourism as a biodiversity hotspot. (Credit: Fanis Kollias/Spoovio/Luderitz Marine Research)

Dr Antje Burke, a veteran botanist, is working as a consultant to Hyphen. She said at a conference of the Namibian Scientific Society in July that Hyphen was trying to avoid the most sensitive areas, but “one big problem” is that a species of parsley “overlaps almost completely with the concession area”. 

She added that “even more concerning” was the future development plans. “The Hyphen project is developing the service infrastructure really keeping the future developments in mind… That means the entire area will be developed.”

Burke indicated some adjustments that could mitigate the environmental impact.

“No green energy project can be implemented without some environmental impact and Hyphen’s objective is to minimise environmental impacts to the largest extent possible,” Hyphen CEO Marco Raffinetti said in an interview with Climate Home. 

The company has hired consultancy SLR to prepare an environmental and social impact report and lead a “comprehensive stakeholder engagement process”, Hyphen added in a written statement.

Consultants are currently gathering meteorological data and reporting a baseline of wildlife and plants in the area, SLR reports say. The formal environmental impact study is expected to start next year, the official documents add.

A group of Flamingoes at a lagoon within the Tsau//Khaeb National Park in Namibia, where green hydrogen developments are meant to ship the gas to the EU. (Photo: John Grobler)

Loss of access 

Aside from the northern end of the bay, the peninsula is the only publicly accessible area of the Lüderitz region. The rest is Sperrgebiet or “forbidden area” – a legacy of the diamond rush. 

Some of Hyphen’s infrastructure will reduce public access to the peninsula. Hyphen’s Raffinetti said this was “unavoidable” as it was “the only location feasible for a deepwater port”. 

The other access to the sea is the four-kilometre Agate Beach to the north of the enclave, downwind from the last few local fishing factories and an overflowing municipal sewage plant. 

Residents fear this would impact lobster fishing and rock angling. Crayfish fisheries, one of the area’s tourism attractions and an informal source of income would also be affected, locals said. 

“The people in the township’s poorest areas [have] got nowhere else to go. They are going to strip this bay [Agate beach] clean of everything,” said Gerd Kessler, a fourth-generation Buchter as locals call themselves, referring to a potential concentration of fisheries in the area.  

As owner of Five Roses Aquaculture and three smaller oyster-breeding operations, Kessler employs 100 people. 

Felsenkirche, a Lutheran church built in 1912 in Lüderitz. (Photo: SkyPixels/Wikimedia Commons)

A massive new seawall and harbour at Angra Point could have unpredictable impacts on currents in the bay, he cautioned. When the existing shallow port was expanded in the late 1960s by filling in the channel between the town and Shark Island, the sea quickly stripped away the town’s little beach inside Robert Harbour. 

Kessler’s biggest concern was how Hyphen planned to dispose of the brine from their desalination plant. “You can’t just dump that anywhere, you have to make sure you use the currents to disperse it,” Kessler said. 

Questionable job prospects 

Hyphen expects to create 15,000 jobs in the construction phase and 3,000 to operate the finished complex. It is aiming for 90% of these jobs to go to Namibians, and 30% to youth. 

There is a huge skills gap, Namibian business groups warned. 

“We do not even have a category for petrochemical or petroleum engineers at the moment,” said Sophia Tekie, chairperson of the Engineering Council of Namibia (ECN). “If we have any, they are registered as [one of 40] chemical engineers.” 

“Although the ECN has 2,015 registered engineers in eight disciplines at present, about 30 to 40% of them were already retired and only did part-time consultancy work,” said her predecessor, Markus von Jeney. 

Local construction capacity did not look much better: according to Bärbel Kircher, director of the Construction Industry Federation (CIF), their membership had declined from 480 companies in 2015 to 240 member companies, operating at only 50% capacity, she said.  

“Currently, our local contractors are largely displaced by foreign contractors, excluding them from opportunities. This is often due to conditions set by external financiers,” said Kircher.  

In the past, the country has struggled to complete large projects due to corruption charges.  

Since 2013, the Namibian Ports Authority, the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia and the Ministry of Agriculture have borrowed over N$21 billion (about US$400 million each, mostly from the African Development Bank) for infrastructure projects, including the 3MW Neckartal dam.  

The Namibian High Court declared the dam was commissioned in 2008 under corrupted circumstances. The project was eventually completed at three times the original price in 2017. 

Namibian construction companies were not likely to benefit from the green hydrogen projects, the CiF said. “The current procurement methods and trends do not provide a promising outlook for the future,” said Kirchner. 

Hyphen said the company would implement “targeted training interventions at various levels” including “specialized Masters’ programs, internships and apprenticeships”. 

The Karoo ecosystem is unique to Southern Africa. The Tsau//Khaeb National Park is a biodiversity hotspot hosting a part of this ecosystem. (Photo: John Grobler)

European support 

Under the memorandum of understanding signed in Sharm el-Sheikh, the EU will provide technical expertise, trade incentives and, crucially, help to secure infrastructure finance. 

Moments after von der Leyen and Geingob inked their deal, the European Investment Bank promised loans of up to €500 million ($528m) for renewable hydrogen investments in Namibia. “Let’s bring flesh to the bone,” the bank’s chief Werner Hoyer told the audience. 

Shortly after the event, Hyphen announced that it had “signed a €35 million agreement with the European Investment Bank to finance the early development of our project”. This was somewhat premature. The bank had supplied a letter of intent, not a firm commitment of funding. 

Since the initial announcement, European institutions, Namibian government officials and private actors have been working out the details of the partnership. 

Hyphen is looking for €100 million to start work on the project.

“We have been very grateful to the EIB and the European Commission for making available the initial funding to share the early development risk,” said Raffinetti in late September, suggesting a firm commitment from the European backers. 

The Hyphen CEO went on to outline what the deal with the EIB should look like: a €10 million ($10.5 million) grant – “still to be finalised,” he added – and a €25 million ($26.4 million) “soft loan”, meaning it would come with favourable terms for the company.

An EIB spokesperson said no agreement has been signed yet. “We are in the process of completing our due diligence, after which the project will be presented to the EIB’s governing bodies for approval,” they said.

“Potential financial support at this early stage would be for site studies and feasibility studies. Any support for implementation will be conditional to the project complying with the Bank’s environmental and social (E&S), procurement, compliance and other standards,” they added.

Namibia’s president Hage Geingob, EIB president Werner Hoyer, Belgian prime minister Alexander de Croco and EU president Ursula von der Leyen announcing the EU green hydrogen partnership with Namibia at Cop27. (Photo: EIB)

On top of the cash injection, the EU’s international partnership division could provide a first-loss guarantee. If the project does not go to plan and the borrower cannot pay back its debt, the EU will pick up the tab – or at least part of it. 

Without the “bedrock” of public money it would be impossible to lure in commercial lenders and leave a huge funding gap, Raffinetti said. 

A European Commission spokesperson told Climate Home that “at present, there is not yet any financial assistance under the EU budget mobilised in favour of the Hyphen project”.

The Netherlands is also supporting the project. Dutch companies like the Port of Rotterdam and gas pipeline operator Gasunie see a business opportunity to offload the green ammonia from ships and pipe it to industry inland.

In June, green hydrogen commissioner Mnyupe told a national newspaper that the Dutch government had given Namibia a €40m grant to develop green hydrogen. He said the government would use €23m of this to buy a stake in Hyphen.

The Dutch said the money was not Namibia’s to spend. The €40m grant comes from Invest International, a public fund set up in 2019 to advance Dutch interests abroad and promote economic growth in the developing world. 

Invest International’s lead on hydrogen Bart De Smet told Climate Home that the €40m grant will be distributed by a fund manager independent of the Namibian government and won’t necessarily go to Hyphen. 

Who benefits? 

The big question for Namibians is whether the inevitable disturbance of a unique ecosystem and small-town culture will be worth it. 

The Namibian government is taking a 24% stake in Hyphen through its sovereign wealth fund. It is expected to raise further revenues through taxes, royalties, land rental and environmental levies on the project, Hyphen said. 

“The benefit for the country in terms of economic upliftment is enormous. Because Namibia is only 2.5 million people. So if you’re successful, your impact on each human being’s life can be enormous,” Raffinetti said. 

Patrick Neib, an unemployed resident of the Nautilus township behind Luderitz, could certainly use some upliftment. He moved to the area in 2015 in search of a better job that has yet to materialise. 

Like many residents, he found out about Hyphen from social media. Most of Hyphen’s public meetings took place in Keetmanshoop, the regional capital 350 km away. 

The secrecy and technical jargon used by Hyphen and its consultants made it impossible for the ordinary layman to understand or access any opportunities, Neib said.  

“There is just no public discussion about the benefits for ordinary people like me, or what price we are to pay for green hydrogen development,” he said. “My question is, who or what is really behind all of this?” 

This story was reported in collaboration with Oxpeckers Investigative Journalism Centre and was supported by a grant from Journalismfund Europe.

The post Shades of green hydrogen: EU demand set to transform Namibia appeared first on Climate Home News.

President Felix Tshisekedi, who is seeking re-election in December, has promised to shake off Congo’s reputation for opaque dealings as he pushes plans to develop dozens of oil and gas blocks – many of them in environmentally sensitive areas.

First to be auctioned were three methane blocks in Lake Kivu, sometimes dubbed a “killer lake” because of a risk of deadly eruption. The extraction project aims to supply gas for power generation, including to hundreds of thousands of people living on the lake’s shores.

The auction, which took place last year, was the first of its kind to be conducted in Congo under a law from 2015 that was designed to promote transparency in the oil and gas sector.

Rooftop solar panels offer fragile lifeline to besieged Gazans

Canada-based Alfajiri Energy Corporation was included in the auction although an evaluation report produced by a government-appointed commission in October 2022 found the company did not meet minimum financial requirements.

The report, along with two others, was obtained by Reuters in collaboration with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, a non-profit news organisation. Reuters also independently interviewed three sources directly involved in the auction.

Additionally, a technical report assessing the bid, dated 8 December 2022, appeared to have been altered in Alfajiri’s favour, according to the documents and the sources. The documents do not show why Alfajiri was included in the auction, who requested that the report be edited, or why.

No financial records

Hydrocarbons Minister Didier Budimbu denied any problems with the tender process in an emailed response to questions from Reuters.

Rich nations offer loans not grants for Vietnam’s coal transition

“The process was very transparent and it will remain so. I will make sure of it,” he said in an earlier text message exchange.

Tshisekedi’s office declined to comment, saying any questions about the auction should be directed to Budimbu.

In a written reply on 23 October, Alfajiri’s founder and chief executive Christian Hamuli called the process “rigorous, transparent and credible.”

Congo-born Hamuli registered Alfajiri Energy Corporation on January 10, 2022, three weeks after plans for the auction were first announced, using the address of his home in Calgary, Canada’s company registry shows.

The hydrocarbons ministry’s call for expressions of interest in the project spelt out a clear stipulation, only companies with three years of financial records would be considered suitable, a requirement that reflected a clause in Congo’s new oil and gas regulations.

Specifically, articles 66 and 67 of the regulations say offers will be rejected if they do not meet certain conditions including “the presentation of balance sheets and statements from the last three financial years.”

First hurdle

The first hurdle to clear was the pre-selection stage where a panel of government oil sector officials and technical experts evaluated the suitability of the companies competing for the three blocks.

Having only existed for a few months, Alfajiri failed to produce the required financial records, according to the eight-page, Oct. 22 report from the committee. It showed the three rival applicants for the Lwandjofu block met the requirement.

Joseph Nzau was a lawyer for the ministry when the regulations governing the sector were drafted. He said the financial history requirement was created after several companies that signed previous oil and gas contracts ended up lacking the means to execute projects.

“The rule is clear. A company applying for pre-selection must provide proof of its accounts and balance sheets for the past three years,” he said. He declined to comment on the merits of individual companies.

China objects to UN fund warnings on solar’s forced labour risks

In his response to Reuters, Minister Budimbu denied Alfajiri’s lack of financial records should have disqualified it in the pre-selection phase, saying this amounted to a misinterpretation of the law.

Budimbu was responsible for organising the auction to find suitable operators. He was also in charge of forming the panel that drew up the bid assessment reports and passing the panel’s conclusions to the council of ministers, which approved the winner based on the recommendations.

He said Alfajiri scored highly enough to make it through the pre-selection stage despite its lack of paperwork.

Alfajiri’s Hamuli did not directly address questions about the lack of required financial records in Alfajiri’s bid. Alfajiri has “highly qualified and experienced professionals with integrity capable of developing the project in a secure manner,” he said.

The ministry has not announced the size of the investment in the blocks, how the project will be financed, or production goals.

“Killer lake”

Lake Kivu lies in the Rift Valley on Congo’s eastern border with Rwanda. Dissolved at great pressure in water hundreds of meters down near the lake’s bed are large methane reserves and even greater quantities of carbon dioxide.

Lake Kivu is one of three lakes in Africa scientists say are at risk of limnic eruption.

Extracting methane from Lake Kivu, located in one of Africa’s most heavily populated areas, could provide power to some of the 80% of Congolese who have no access to electricity, and potentially reduce the risks from the lake, the Congolese government and experts say.

However, some scientists, including vulcanologist Dario Tedesco, say failure to properly reinject water and by-products could increase the chances of eruptions of carbon dioxide and poisonous hydrogen sulfide, pollute the lake bottom and alter its delicate chemical and physical balance.

Moving on

Despite its lack of financial history, Alfajiri advanced in the process, and its bid for the Lwandjofu block was assessed alongside those of US firm Winds Exploration and Production and Congolese-Lebanese firm Ray Group.

Alfajiri’s bid performed badly on several criteria at this stage, and a report from the panel dated Dec. 8, 2022 showed it received the lowest suitability score among the three bidders.

Of the three submissions, Alfajiri initially received the lowest score – a total of 30.7 points out of a possible 100 – on a scale that assessed how well the bids met financial and technical criteria including their proposed partnership terms with Congo, work plan, and the qualifications of key personnel.

Of that score, it received just two of a possible 30 points in the financial portion of the assessment and 28.7 out of 70 points in the technical portion.

Movement mourns ‘driving force for climate justice’ Saleemul Huq

Alfajiri failed to demonstrate it employed qualified staff, had not submitted a feasibility study or a timetable for the project and “had not taken account of public safety issues,” the report said.

Winds scored the highest of the three bidders, with 53.8 points, the report shows.

Score boosted

But then, an edited version of the report put Alfajiri in first place, the documents show.

The report’s second version – also dated 8 December and seen by Reuters – raised Alfajiri’s score to 55.75, putting it ahead of Winds.

In his response, Budimbu told Reuters the only version of the final report that mattered, and that he had received, was the one in which Alfajiri was awarded the highest score.

Although it gave a higher score, the final report added a number of concerns to the earlier version, including comments that Alfajiri had proposed insufficient financing for requisite state bonuses and social projects.

Saving the Three Basins means stopping fossil fuel expansion

Reuters was unable to establish the motive for the new scores in the second report.

Asked if he was aware about any irregular change to the results, Frank Ihekwoaba, chief executive of Winds said “we heard rumours” but had not wanted to escalate it to avoid souring relations with the government. He said the process seemed rigorous for Winds, which won another of the three blocks.

Ray Group did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

Hamuli did not directly respond to Reuters’ questions about the changes in the report that led to it winning the block.

Regarding Alfajiri’s suitability for the project, he said Alfajiri was a start-up that would use a better extraction method than competitors, without giving further details on this method.

“I am very proud and confident of our team’s ability to bring the project to fruition,” Hamuli said by text message in September.

The post DRC hands gas rights to Canadian start-up that failed criteria appeared first on Climate Home News.

State media agency Agence Gabonaise de Presse (AGP) reports that British-born former environment minister Lee White and three other officials of the old regime of Ali Bongo have been placed under house arrest.

AGP, which is controlled by the new regime, cites a public prosecutor in Gabon, who says they are accused of a series of crimes related to the auctioning off of forestry permits and the alleged setting up of an unusual bank account to collect hundreds of thousands of dollars from fines and wood sales.

Advocate for forest finance

White has been prominent in UN Climate talks, positioning himself as a defender of African interests and a leader in the defence of the forests of the Congo basin.

Under his leadership, international funds have poured into Gabon for rainforest protection, through the Central African Forest Initiative (Cafi) and a recent debt-for-nature swap.

White served under Ali Bongo, who has took over the country from his father in 2009 and won a series of heavily disputed elections.

The latest election was in August. Bongo was declared the winner despite allegations of electoral fraud. The Economist democracy index classed Gabon as an authoritarian regime.

On election day, White tweeted in support of the government’s move to shut down the internet “as a precaution following some provocative statements by opposition politicians”.

I am back in Libreville after the vote, waiting for the results to be announced. All is calm but the government has cut internet as a precaution following some provocative statements by opposition politicians. pic.twitter.com/LmwfOVnSik

— Prof. Lee White CBE (@LeeWhiteCBE) August 29, 2023

A few days later, the military seized power, arresting Bongo and his allies. On Wednesday, AGP reported that White was placed under house arrest.

The allegations

The new authorities also arrested former director of  the government’s forestry department Ghislain Moussavou, financial adviser Jean Guy Diouf and inspector of services Ghislain Aimé Boupo.

French newspaper Le Monde reports that the arrests relate to a complaint by the Gabonese union of water and forest professionals, known in French as Synapef.

Union spokesperson Maurice Steed Mve Akue told Le Monde that they complained to the police last May.

They did not receive a response but complained again after the coup as “the justice system now has more room to maneuver to do its work”.

They allege that the ministry fined forest operators and sold abandoned wood and that money, worth several hundred thousand dollars, was put into a separate account to the ministry’s regular account.

Exposed: carbon offsets linked to high forest loss still on sale

This money was used to finance “missions by the minister, associations, studies by foreign consultancy firms and communication actions”, the union alleges.

Akue told Le Monde “there is no traceability or justification for part of the expenses incurred”.

The union also raised concerns about two forestry permits awarded to a joint venture between the government and the Singaporean group Olam, which has been cutting down forests for palm oil in the country.

They claim that the permits were awarded outside of the right regulatory areas and without a call to tenders. Ali Bongo’s son was deputy head of this joint venture until he joined government in 2019.

The new regime

White has been replaced as minister by a solider called Colonel Maurice Ntossui Allogo. While he has little environmental experience, a ministry official told Le Monde “he receives, listens and takes notes”.

He is being advised by Tanguy Gahouma, a veteran climate diplomat who also represented the last government and chaired the African group in climate talks in 2020 and 2021.

Nicaise Moulombi is the head of the Croissance Santé Environnement campaign group. He told Le Monde he wanted a review of where international climate finance has ended up.

“We want to know where the conservation money has gone,” he said. In particular, he was concerned about the Cafi funds and about the debt-for-nature swap, organised by US campaign group The Nature Conservancy (TNC).

TNC said that a Conservation Trust Fund has been set up to manage money from the debt-for-nature swap.

It is an “independent, non-profit entity with public and private representation on its board of directors” and “will follow global best practices for governance”, a TNC spokesperson said.

In June 2021, Norway paid Gabon $17m through the Cafi forest protection scheme. Six months later, Gabonese park rangers threatened to strike, complaining their salaries were often paid several months late.

Cafi has been invited to comment.

This article was updated on 17 October to include The Nature Conservancy’s comment

The post Following coup, Gabon climate officials face corruption allegations appeared first on Climate Home News.

The document signed by heads of state at the inaugural Africa Climate Summit underscores a missing consensus between countries championing renewable energy and those arguing fossil fuels – and gas especially – are needed for economic development.

The leaders united behind an appeal for financial reforms, including new global taxes and debt relief, to fund climate action on the continent.

Old pledge

The eight-page declaration mentions fossil fuels only in calling on the global community to “uphold commitments to a fair and accelerated process of phasing down coal and abolishment of all fossil fuel subsidies”.

That is a reference to the key pledge the governments agreed upon at Cop26 in 2021. Since then, however, campaigners and a number of nations have been pushing for the extension of that commitment to all fossil fuels.

Draft UN plastics treaty threatens Big Oil’s plan B

An attempt to achieve that at last year’s Cop27 was backed by a broad coalition including India, the EU, US, UK, Chile and Colombia. But it ultimately flopped following opposition from oil-producing countries led by Saudi Arabia and Russia. Africa’s negotiating group did not take a public stance on the issue in Sharm el-Sheik.

The battle is likely to resurface at this year’s climate summit. Its hosts, the United Arab Emirates, have put the phase-down of fossil fuels on the agenda, with president-designate Sultan al-Jaber saying this is “essential” and “inevitable”.

Decarbonisation vs development

At the three-day gathering in Nairobi, talk of fossil fuels was notable for its absence. Kenya’s president William Ruto led calls for fast-tracking green growth, saying the continent has “untapped renewable energy potential”. Ninety percent of Kenya’s electricity is delivered by renewables.

Other African nations have significant fossil fuel interests. Nigeria and Angola are major oil producers, while Senegal and Mozambique have been expanding their gas industries. South Africa is implementing a clean energy transition plan, but it still relies on coal for the vast majority of its power generation.

UAE pitches itself as Africa’s carbon credits leader

Fossil fuels are at the heart of the tension between decarbonisation and development. Around 592 million people lack access to electricity across Africa and the continent’s historical contribution to the climate crisis is a fraction of that from rich nations.

To grow their economies African countries must be able to use gas power, alongside renewable energy, African Development Bank (AfDB) president Akinwumi Adesina said during a fiery speech on Monday.

“People think it is controversial, but for me, it is not,” he said. “We are going to use all the renewable energy sources we have, but they are variable resources. Africa needs stable grids to industrialise. Gas is a very critical part of the energy mix.”

The AfDB has supported the construction of gas infrastructure across Africa, including a controversial LNG terminal in Ghana.

Climate finance demands

With a clear focus on finance, the Nairobi Declaration is heavy on demands that polluters major polluters channel more money toward poorer countries bearing the brunt of the climate crisis.

African leaders urged the introduction of global taxes on financial transactions and carbon emissions to fund investment in climate actions. The declaration also advocates for reforms to the multilateral financial system, an increase in financing with favourable terms and debt pauses following climate disasters.

The heads of state have also repeated pleas that rich countries “honor the commitment” to provide $100 billion in annual climate finance – a target that has been missed repeatedly.

Lily Odarno, a director at the Clean Air Task Force, told Climate Home the summit had a “narrow focus on finance” and did not sufficiently explore broader trends facing Africans. “There are lots of targets without an actionable framework to achieving them, so we expect to see a lot more detail in Dubai.”

The post African leaders skirt over fossil fuels in climate summit declaration appeared first on Climate Home News.

The latest sign of that came on Monday when a coalition of major UAE energy and financial companies indicated its intention to buy $450 million of carbon credits generated in Africa by 2030.

It was one of the most highly-anticipated announcements at the first Africa Climate Summit taking place in Nairobi, Kenya, this week. Over 30 heads of state are joining nearly 25,000 delegates to drum up support for climate action on the continent.

But the summit organiser’s strong focus on instruments such as carbon credits to mobilise funds has attracted criticism from environmental groups.

Developing countries call for $100 billion loss and damage target

Thandile Chinyavanhu, Greenpeace Africa climate and energy campaigner, says “it is regrettable that the Africa Climate Summit is becoming a bazaar for carbon credit speculators and propagandists that serve to greenwash rather than reduce harmful emissions”.

“They are risky diversions from real climate and biodiversity action that requires ending fossil fuel expansion and industrial destruction of our ecosystems”, she added.

Carbon credits mega-deal

Powering Africa’s push for carbon credits is the African Carbon Markets Initiative (ACMI). Launched at Cop27, the group brings together nations including Kenya, Nigeria, Gabon and Western philantropies like the Rockefeller Foundation and Bezos Earth Fund.

Run by the American consultancy Mckinsey, the initiative aims to increase the number of carbon credits generated on the African continent from 16 million a year in 2020 to around 300 million by 2030.

Such large amounts of credits will be created only if there is enough interest from buyers, the initiative argues, so one of the initiative’s main task has been to secure early commitment from investors. Its biggest backer to date is based in the UAE.

During a panel event at the climate summit on Monday, ACMI announced a non-binding agreement to buy $450 of carbon credits from the UAE Carbon Alliance. Founded last June, this coalition includes the Mubadala sovereign wealth fund, renewable energy company Masdar and the UAE’s largest lender, First Abu Dhabi Bank.

What climate funders must learn from Kenya’s wind power troubles

The UAE Carbon Alliance wants to establish the Emirates as “a leading hub for high integrity, high quality carbon markets”, facilitating the trading of offsets between companies.

The ACMI’s head Paul Muthaura says the deal gives a clear indication there is an appetite for African carbon credits. “There is often a sentiment that African credits are not equivalent to those from other regions,” the CEO told Climate Home News. “Having advanced market signals from strong reputable entities reaffirms that there are high quality credits being generated on the African continent.”

US denies rigging loss and damage fund’s board in rich nations’ favour

Climate Asset Management – a joint venture of HSBC and a climate change investment firm called Pollination – also announced a $200 million commitment towards buying ACMI’s carbon credit projects.

Muthaura also added his organisation is in the process of negotiating a more extensive partnership with the UAE-based group for solutions not only in the voluntary carbon markets but also in the trading of offsets between countries.

Sheikh’s forest agreements

The Carbon Alliance is not the only Emirati organisation taking a keen interest in African carbon credits.

Blue Carbon, a company founded by Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum, a member of the royal family of Dubai, has signed memorandums of understanding with governments in Liberia, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe to manage huge swathes of their forests and produce carbon credits from conservation activities.

Blue Carbon hopes to sell those credits to governments that want to offset their carbon emissions as a mechanism to meet their climate pledges.

Cooking the books: cookstove offsets produce millions of fake emission cuts

In its latest climate plan, the UAE wrote that, while it primarily intends to rely on domestic efforts to hit its targets, it “reserves the right” to tap into offsets trading mechanism under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement to partially fulfill these commitments.

The agreements have attracted criticism from environmental organizations. A group of international NGOs called on the Liberian government and Blue Carbon to stop negotiations as, they claim, the deal could breach community land ownership and violate people’s rights to have a say in the development of their land.

Critics also say carbon credits allow for continued pollution by wealthier countries and corporations, that should instead provide direct compensation to those who contributed less to climate change.

The post UAE pitches itself as Africa’s carbon credits leader appeared first on Climate Home News.

They must embrace climate action that is conflict-sensitive. For an example of why, they just need to drive a few hours north to Lake Turkana.

That’s where Africa’s largest wind power plant is with 365 wind turbines spinning, providing nearly a fifth of Kenya’s electricity.

But it was built slower than it should have been because of conflict. Indigenous pastoralist groups regarded it as an illegal seizure of their land.

US denies rigging loss and damage fund’s board in rich nations’ favour

They felt excluded from decision making processes that disregarded their social relations and territoriality.

For investors, the failure to respect their rights caused lengthy and costly delays.

Buying the land for the project was controversial from the outset. These communally held lands were vital for the cattle grazing, herding and cultural heritage of pastoralist communities.

The land was held in trust on behalf of the community until, in 2009, the council transferred a 33-year renewable lease to private investors without the free, prior and informed consent of local communities. 

‘Carbon bomb’ in Argentina gets push from local government

Relocation payments were only made to one village and private landowners were not compensated. 

New infrastructure was seen as misaligned to community priorities and mostly responding to the needs of the investors.

In 2014, the communities brought a court case and, seven years after the case was filed, the process of land acquisition was declared illegal. 

In May 2023, the court refused the investors an extension to regularize the acquisition, opening the door to significant compensation for local communities.

It may replace plastic but eucalyptus paper packaging helped burn down my home

Prejudice against the communities of Kenya’s arid north has been woven through the project.

The land was often seen as a vast, unproductive and idle space that outside investors would make better use of. 

Illegitimate land acquisition and a lack of participatory and inclusive engagement between authorities, investor and communities have led to the cancellation of other wind farms in Kenya like Kinangop and Baharini.

Some lessons have been learned, with community liaison officers now facilitating engagement. 

EU nominates Wopke Hoekstra as top climate diplomat

But, as dignitaries and policy-makers gather in Nairobi for the summit, this case provides a clear reminder: we need a smarter, conflict-sensitive green energy transition.

These principles apply to climate finance more broadly, as a lack of conflict sensitivity can jeopardise projects and leave communities in an even more fragile situation. 

Conflict-affected areas are complex and volatile settings in which to make significant investments. 

As the effects of climate change become ever more severe it is thought of as a “conflict multiplier”, meaning that it can be expected to heighten existing tensions and cause outbreaks of violence. 

Developing countries call for $100 billion loss and damage target

Two thirds of the most climate-vulnerable countries are already considered to be at high risk from climate-related conflict. 

If not done sensitively, renewable energy and adaptation projects can fuel fragility and worsen conflict situations, paralysing the green transition efforts themselves.

Climate action therefore needs to be informed by the local context and ensure conflict sensitivity in its planning and implementation. 

Development finance institutions should develop clear indicators to show how climate projects affect conflict situations. 

The World Bank’s Financing Locally Led Climate Action (FLLoCA) project, for example, currently does not list conflict or insecurity as a threat to adaptation and mitigation initiatives.

Kenyan president William Ruto courts logging controversy

Local participation should be a cornerstone of conflict-sensitive climate finance. Trust, engagement across existing fractures and community ownership of decisions are crucial to ensuring successful implementation. 

Locally-led, bottom-up approaches are the best ways to achieve sustainable, accountable and transparent processes that are tailored to the real needs of the community.

We have regularly seen local communities, and particularly indigenous communities, completely overlooked during the planning of green energy projects. 

Their “unproductive” land is too often seen as up for grabs. In Kenya, most major renewable energy installations have been accused of disregarding community land rights and livelihood systems.

By not considering how projects impact local communities and livelihoods, the green energy transition puts itself at risk.

These are international challenges needing international solutions. Governments and international institutions need to design and enforce regulations requiring rigorous conflict-sensitivity analysis, access to information and participatory management from the outset of climate action projects. Conflict sensitivity should become the norm in policy and practice. And now is the time to start.

Emmy Auma is the Kenya and Horn of Africa Country Director at International Alert.

The post What climate funders must learn from Kenya’s wind power troubles appeared first on Climate Home News.

Ruto has been hailed abroad as one of Africa’s green champions. In Kenya, his plans to lift a ban on logging are causing controversy.

Ruto’s government argues that lifting the ban will boost the economy while only affecting a small minority of the East African nation’s forests.

Some environmentalists support him, saying that lifting the ban on chopping down commercial forests will help protect more natural indigenous forests, which suck in more carbon and shelter more wildlife.

Others say lifting the ban contradicts Ruto’s tree-planting campaign and will make a devastating drought even worse.

A mature exotic tree plantation at Eastern Mau Forest in Nakuru County. (Photo: James Wakibia/SOPA Images/Sipa USA)

Ruto’s reassessment

Kenya has over two million hectares of forests, covering an area bigger than Israel. Of this, about a twentieth is commercial forest, where companies plant and cut down trees for timber.

In 2018, as deforestation reduced river water levels and threatened the supply of drinking water and hydro powered electricity, then-deputy president Ruto imposed a 90-day ban on logging “to allow reassessment and rationalisation of the entire forest sector”. 

This ban kept being extended until July this year when Ruto, now president, lifted it. He told reporters in the timber town of Nakuru that it was “foolish” to have mature trees rotting in forests while locals suffer due to lack of income from timber.

“This is why we have decided to open up the forest and harvest timber so that we can create jobs for our youth,” he said.

Job creator

Defending the ban at a press conference in Nairobi, Ruto’s environment minister Soipan Tuya told Climate Home that deforestation in many parts of the country has nothing to do with legal logging.

Data from Global Forest Watch suggests that forestry is a minor cause of deforestation, compared to the much larger role played by shifting agriculture. 

Nevertheless, their analysis suggests that forestry has caused the loss of trees in hundreds of hectares a year over the last decade.

Tuya said the ban had resulted in large economic and job losses in the timber industry and caused Kenya to spend scarce foreign currency importing timber. 

“We have a demand for timber products in this country. We have a market for wood, which is doing extremely poorly. We are doing a lot of importation and that has implications to the economy,” Tuya said.

Cooking the books: cookstove offsets produce millions of fake emission cuts

The industry association for Kenya’s forest industry claims that the industry provides about 4% of the country’s GDP and provides jobs directly to up to 50,000 people. 

A natural resources management expert at the Nature Kenya environmental society, Rudolf Makhanu, told Climate Home he had “no problem” with lifting the ban for plantations.

He said these forests provide wood and cushion natural forests from degradation. In fact, he said that a “prolonged ban [on logging in plantation forests] can create pressure on indigenous forest, which plays a vital role in carbon absorption”.

Legal challenge

Makhanu’s view is not shared by other environmentalists. Kennedy Waweru is a lawyer from the Law Society of Kenya, which is challenging the ban’s lifting in court. LSK argues the government did not adequately consult the public.

At a press conference, Waweru told reporters that lifting the ban on logging is a damaging move which puts the short-term economic gain of a small minority ahead of the long-term well-being of the nation’s environment and future generations.

Geoffrey Wandeto, an ecologist and chair of the Chehe forest association, said that the lifting of the ban “could only worsen” the drought in northern Kenya, which has pushed around five million Kenyans into severe hunger.

Forests are critical to the water cycle, as trees draw up moisture from the soil and release it into the air. When forests are cut down, the soil dries out and rainfall declines, threatening the supply of food, water and hydro-powered electricity.

The Kenyan high court has suspended the lifting of the ban, pending a final verdict.

The post Kenyan president William Ruto courts logging controversy appeared first on Climate Home News.

Chloé Farand’s eye-opening report from Ghana adds to this debate by showing how ruinously expensive it can be to import shipped gas.

The heavily-indebted nation is planning a 17-year agreement with Shell to ship gas in through a new UK and German-backed terminal.

Critics describe this deal as a rope hanging around Ghana’s neck and ask why the government hasn’t learned its lessons from a previous bad gas deal.

That “take or pay contract” was signed when Ghana was suffering power cuts in the mid-2010s. It has since pushed up electricity prices and left many Ghanaians now choosing between power and food.

It also caused an over-supply of gas which dampened enthusiasm for renewables and for capturing the gas which oil companies burn as a waste product.

And it’s not just Ghana whose economy has been damaged by dependence on fossil fuel imports. Just ask Sri Lankans. Or Europeans last winter.

This week’s news:

• Court says renewable firms can seize Spain’s property after subsidy cuts
• Gas lock-in: Debt-laden Ghana gambles on LNG imports
• UK government bets on ‘pragmatic’ climate inaction ahead of election
• Amazon governments set sights on narco-deforestation
• Deep-sea mining ban draws closer despite China’s opposition
• Brazil seeks European trade advantages in return for Amazon protection

…and comment:

• As Guyana shows, carbon offsets will not save the Amazon rainforest

Britain’s climate election

Brits like me have tended to look on smugly as the climate culture war dominates elections in places like the US, Australia and Brazil.

We’ve tended to have a relative cross-party consensus, at least rhetorically, between the main parties – helped by a legally-binding net zero target and the climate change committee.

But, after a surprise election victory in suburban London was credited to anti-air pollution measures, the Conservative government has decided it can save itself from electoral annihilation by making climate action an issue in next year’s election.

By cutting climate finance and backing oil and gas production and polluting vehicles, they’re seeking to contrast their “pragmatic” climate action with the opposition Labour Party’s scary, expensive, radical policies.

But pollsters told Climate Home that this could backfire as “British voters remain one of the most pro-climate in the Western world”.

The real risk is that it scares the Labour Party – whose current leader’s principles are notoriously flexible – into dropping their promise to stop issuing oil and gas licenses.

That would be a shame. Since the launch of the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance two and a half years ago, the handful of countries committing to stop pumping oil has not grown.

As a decent-sized oil and gas producer, the UK joining would be a huge boost to the agenda and with it the hopes of keeping global warming to 1.5C.

The post Ghana’s gas curse – Climate Weekly appeared first on Climate Home News.

In the past, his earnings have been sufficient to provide for his family. But Gakpo is now struggling to make ends meet. 

Once the poster child economy for West Africa, Ghana is suffering from its worst economic crisis in a generation. The debt-laden nation is gripped by soaring inflation and a depreciating currency that has pushed it to default on some of its debt payments. 

The energy sector has been a major contributor to the country’s financial woes. A lack of planning and unfavourable fossil fuel contracts have previously locked Ghana into paying for gas power far in excess of what it could use, pushing the sector into spiralling debt. 

Electricity tariffs have increased around 50% for small businesses and households since September alone. Gakpo says his electricity bill has doubled in a year. To cope, he is cutting back buying food for his family. 

John Gakpo milling corn flour in his workshop in Accra. (Photo: Emmanuel Ameyaw)

Yet opposition lawmakers, energy analysts and local NGOs have warned that Ghana’s plans to import liquified natural gas (LNG) under a 17-year agreement with oil giant Shell could make things worse. 

The agreement, they say, risks pushing electricity prices even higher, perpetuate a cycle of fossil-fuel related debt and leave little space for renewable energy. 

Until 2020, the UK, Germany and the African Development Bank indirectly channelled development funds for a new LNG terminal in the country.  

The project is part of a $245 billion expansion of gas infrastructure in Africa, according to Global Energy Monitor. But it is among the first to allow commercial LNG imports to a Sub-Saharan African nation. 

Threat of EU carbon tax prompts dubious “green aluminium” claims in Mozambique

A gamble for economic development  

Ghana is heavily relying on gas to meet its growing power needs. Gas generates half of its electricity, while less than 1% comes from solar. 

The government argues importing LNG will shore up Ghana’s energy security as electricity demand is projected to double between 2022 and the early 2030s. 

Proponents say gas power will need to meet virtually all of this added demand, arguing that domestic gas production is reaching capacity and imports from Nigeria are unreliable. 

LNG, they say, will help power the country’s industrial development, displace dirtier and more expensive heavy fuel oil and support the roll out of intermittent renewable energy. 

This is tied to the construction of a $400 million LNG terminal in the port of Tema. The project aims to turn Ghana into a hub for providing LNG to the West African market. 

But critics have denounced the LNG terminal as an example of how mismanaged gas and power investments are financially crippling the country and failing to deliver reliable and affordable energy. They have urged the government to suspend the project.  

Analysts agree that additional gas supplies could be needed in future. But under the deal, Ghana will have to pay charges for some of the LNG even if it unable to use it –– a type of gas contract known as “take-or-pay”. 

However, neither the contract nor the liabilities Ghana could incur have been made public.  

For many developing countries, take-or-pay obligations can become a form of public debt, explained Accra-based analyst Rushaiya Ibrahim-Tanko, of the Energy for Growth Hub. “That’s why we are asking for these contracts to be made transparent,” she said.  

Opponents say Ghana cannot afford such an opaque deal at a time when the country is receiving its 17th bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the lender of last resort. 

Denis Gyeyir, the Africa programme officer at the Natural Resource Governance Institute in Accra, likened the deal to a rope “hanging around our necks” that could leave cash-strapped Ghana to “suffocate” in more debt. 

Containers in the port of Tema in Accra, Ghana. (Photo: Jonathan Ernst / World Bank)

Energy sector crisis

Ghana is still unable to pay for all the power it consumes. Independent power producers have threatened to shut down their plants if the government doesn’t find a way to pay  $1.7billion in outstanding debt it owes.  

At the same time, the country isn’t using all its own resources. The government has allowed British oil company Tullow to flare gas from its TEN and Jubilee oil fields because it is unable to process the gas. 

Flaring is a wasteful practice that releases climate-heating carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere and is harmful to human health. 

Analysis of government data shows that between 2019 and 2022, Tullow flared or re-injected into its oil fields 325 billion cubic feet of gas – worth close to $400m, according to the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (Acep). 

Norway approves oil and gas fields despite Cop fossil phase-out push

In 2022 alone, Tullow flared or re-injected two and half times more gas than what Ghana could receive in LNG in the first year of the deal. 

“With the amount of gas that we are flaring we could meet a lot of demand for power generation if we are able to create new processing capacity," Charles Ofori, climate policy lead at Acep, told Climate Home. 

The company, which has committed to end routine flaring by 2025, says it is committed to agree a long-term gas sales deal with the Ghanaian government. 

The Tema project

Located in the eastern port of Tema, in Ghana’s industrial enclave, the LNG terminal will combine a purpose-built floating regasification unit and a former tanker converted to receive and store the liquid gas. 

The project developers say the terminal will have the capacity to process 1.7 million tons of LNG a year – or around 30% of Ghana’s electricity generating capacity. 

It is developed by a partnership between two leading Africa-focused private equity firms: London-based Helios Investment Partners and the Africa Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM). 

AIIM’s investments in the project included funding from the African Development Bank, and the UK and Germany’s development finance institutions. Both the UK and Germany defended their investments in AIIM, arguing the firm funded necessary infrastructure to meet growing energy demand in Africa. 

The Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund, which is backed by European donors, and the Development Bank of Southern Africa also contributed finance. 

World Bank adaptation funds slept through Pakistan’s record flooding

Keeping a low profile

First expected in 2020, the LNG terminal has been repeatedly delayed – something critics have described as “lucky”. Europe’s soaring demand for LNG to replace Russian gas pushed up prices and contributed to the delay. 

Commercial operations are now expected to begin in 2025 and LNG deliveries will be phased in to reach capacity towards the end of the decade.  Plans for Ghana to re-export the LNG to neighbouring countries remain elusive. 

The project partners are keeping a low profile about the plans. AIIM is the only partner to have responded to Climate Home’s questions. 

It said the project will ensure “a significant portion of the population in Ghana can benefit from cleaner and more economical energy sources” and help reduce the cost of power generation. 

But energy analysts are concerned the opposite may be true. Extracts of the contract obtained by Acep show the price of LNG is indexed on the price of crude oil – a common practice for long-term LNG contracts which exposes countries to volatile crude prices.   

Several analysis found LNG could be Ghana’s most expensive gas supply. 

“What Tema LNG will do is make the electricity much, much more expensive,” opposition lawmaker John Jinapor, former deputy minister of energy, told Climate Home. “It could result in huge financial debt. It’s really serious,” he said.   

A woman sets up her breakfast stand near a mobile money box on the side of the road in Accra, Ghana. (Photo: IMF Photo/Andrew Caballero-Reynolds)

Take-or-pay contracts: Ghana’s curse

Former minister Jinapor is familiar with the consequences of excessive gas contracts. 

In response to a period of power shortages in 2012-2016, known as “dumsor” – literally “off -on” – his party, then in power, signed dozens of emergency “take-or-pay” power agreements with support from development finance institutions. 

From a severe undersupply crisis, Ghana soon experienced the opposite problem: it became contracted to purchase gas and power beyond what it could use.   

The IMF estimates that the take-or-pay contracts and inadequate power tariffs cost the country 2% of its GDP annually since 2019. At the end of 2020, a former energy official revealed excess power and unutilised gas were costing Ghana $1.2bn a year. 

Among the reasons for this bloating bill was an unfavourable “take-or-pay” agreement with oil company Eni to buy 90% of gas produced from its deepwater Sankofa field off Ghana’s western coast at a high price. It was backed by $1.2bn in World Bank Group guarantees and debt financing. 

But a lack of infrastructure meant Ghana was unable to use all the gas it purchased despite paying hundreds of millions of dollars annually for it. The deal was widely criticised for putting undue burden on the country’s finances. 

Revealed: How Shell cashed in on dubious carbon offsets from Chinese rice paddies

The World Bank argued the take-or-pay clause was necessary to make the project viable for private investors. A spokesperson told Climate Home the Sankofa development has been “key to providing energy security to Ghana”. 

While there are no formal discussion to restructure the deal, the World Bank is considering another $300m loan to help Ghana clear its power sector arrears. 

Tess Woolfenden, senior policy officer at Debt Justice, told Climate Home the proposed loan “exemplifies that Ghana is in a lose-lose situation with these take-or-pay contracts,” describing “a very toxic cycle” of fossil fuel investments that exacerbate debt. 

Omar Elmawi, of the ‘Don’t Gas Africa’ campaign, urged African countries to stay away from “expensive and inflexible take-or-pay gas contracts” and prioritise renewable energy. 

Impact on the energy transition

The fallout of Ghana’s energy sector debt has diverted investments away from sustainable development and left little room for the deployment of renewable energy.   

In its 2023 budget, the government has planned to spend three times more to offset the energy sector shortfalls than on investments in the agriculture, fisheries, roads, education, gender, social protection and health sectors combined. 

To address the power oversupply issue, the government suspended licences for grid-connected solar and wind projects. The six-year-old ban was only lifted in April. In 2019, Ghana postponed by 10 years a goal to achieve 10% of renewables in its energy mix by 2020. 

Dennis Asare, of the think tank Imani, told Climate Home the LNG deal will continue to incentivise the use of gas and “delay the energy transition”.   

“We have enormous renewable resources to meet our energy needs but the government is more focused on this LNG agreement,” he said, warning that lower-income households, like the miller Gakpo and his family, will “bear the brunt” of a deepening crisis.   

Emmanuel Ameyaw contributed with additional reporting.

The post Gas lock-in: Debt-laden Ghana gambles on LNG imports appeared first on Climate Home News.

But researchers doubt how green Mozambique’s aluminium really is and whether it will be able to stay green. If it can’t, analysts told Climate Home, the EU’s carbon border tax could have catastrophic ripple effects through one of the world’s poorest economies.

For years, policymakers in the European Union have worried that their heavy industries would flee abroad to escape taxes on carbon.

To try and avoid this, in 2021, the EU approved a tax on the carbon emissions that come from imports — called a carbon border adjustment mechanism.

US ‘still on the fence’ as nations debate global shipping emission tax

Although emerging economies like China shared “grave concern” about “trade barriers”, the EU claimed it was just a way of ensuring that the carbon emissions of products that end up in the EU are taxed the same whether they’re made in the EU or not.

The tax will come into force in 2026 and apply to particularly polluting products like electricity, fertilisers, cement, iron, steel and aluminium.

Green aluminium?

The aluminium sector is Mozambique’s biggest industry and the its largest industrial employer, a source of income to nearly 3,000 people and an indirect boost to many more. But as EU rules approach the sector, some companies have rushed to green claims.

One strategic asset is a large smelting facility on the outskirts of the country’s capital Maputo, where the aluminium is processed. The smelter is owned by a company called Mozal, which is now owned by Australia’s South32, a company that spun out of BHP Biliton in 2015.

South32’s CEO Graham Kerr told the Melbourne Mining Club recently that European carmakers are choosing to pay more for Mozal’s aluminium because it is produced with hydropower electricity not the fossil fuels of some of its rivals. 

A view of Cahora Bassa dam in 2010 (Reuters/Goran Tomasevic)

Nearly two-thirds of the emissions of the product’s emissions are from the smelting, where alumiumium is extracted from alumina at a very high heat. Producing that heat requires a lot of electricity.

Unfinished paperwork is kneecapping solar’s potential in China

According to a 2022 Mozal report, “electricity supplied to Mozal Aluminium is generated by Hidroelectrica de Cahora Bassa (HCB), a hydro-electric power generator situated on the Zambezi River”.

But, it adds, “the electricity is supplied via Eskom’s South African grid” through the cables of Motraco, a joint venture between the utilities of South Africa, Mozambique And Eswatini.

HCB is in the north-west of Mozambique while Mozal’s smelter is in the far south, near the South African border.

About 90% of South Africa’s electricity is produced using coal and transmission lines like those providing electricity to Mozal’s aluminium smelter don’t distinguish between electrons produced by water and those produced by coal.

South32 adds in its sustainability report that Eskom provides “back-up energy” to Mozal, to make up for periods when HCB is not sending as much electricity. 

A South32 spokesperson said the smelter was “largely powered by hydropower”.

Concern for poorer countries

Although poverty campaigners like Oxfam called for the world’s poorest countries to be exempt from the tax, the EU made no allowances for Least Developed Countries (LDCs).

Of these countries, economic modelling from the African Climate Foundation and London School of Economics suggests that the south-east African nation of Mozambique is likely to be one of the worst hit.

They predict Mozambique’s wages will fall 0.12% as a result of the tax. That would be a small fall but one that workers in the world’s sixth poorest country can ill afford.

Dimas Sinoia, researcher at Mozambican think Centre for Development and Democracy (CDD) told Climate Home that CDD tried unsuccessfully to interview workers at Mozal about the measure. “Until the start of the year, it seems that Mozal employees had no knowledge of [the tax],” he said. 

Public banks agree to check investments against countries’ climate plans

Mozambique produces 570,000 tonnes of aluminium a year. Over 90% of this is exported, much of it to Europe. From 2026, the carbon emissions from making this aluminium will be taxed at the European Union’s border. 

Sinoia worries that a reduction in exports will hurt job prospects for Mozambicans along the industry chain and that the cash-strapped and indebted Mozambican state will get less revenue through industrial taxes.

Sinoia said the tax is “an inequitable measure as it does not consider the adaptive capacity of the affected countries” and, while it will cut emissions, it “will have a high cost in reducing social well-being and poverty”.

Future uncertain

Not only are the green credentials of Mozal’s current supply questionable, but its future power arrangements remain uncertain. Its contract with Eskom is set to expire in 2026.

According to its spokesperson, South32 is in talks to extend the supply, but no final deal has been reached.

With neighbouring South Africa desperate for electricity, particularly from green sources, there will be competition for HCB’s hydropower.

In the meantime, a new gas industry is quickly brewing in Mozambique. French company Total is planning to build a gas power plant in the same industrial park Mozal operates out of.

What does “unabated” fossil fuels mean?

A switch from hydro to gas power could cost Mozal its green credentials – and leave its exports to Europe facing high taxes.

A potential alternative source of renewable energy for Mozal could be the planned hydro plant Mphanda Nkuwa, on the Zambezi river downstream of HCB.

But there are doubts over whether construction of the dam will move forward as it is set to displace over a thousand people and climate change will dry up the river, making it harder to produce hydropower. Even if the plant is built, it will not be until 2031. 

Faten Aggad, an advisor at the African Climate Foundation, described the EU’s approach as “cold turkey” as it imposes “new norms in a context of poor renewable infrastructure investments coupled with weak emission accounting systems”.

This approach, she said, “risks promoting greenwashing rather than reducing carbon leakage”.

“The truth is that no country in Africa today will have the required renewable infrastructure ready for its industry to bypass the [carbon border tax] by [when it takes effect in] 2026”, she said.

A spokesperson for South32 said the company has “closely monitored” the tax and is assessing it “to evaluate the potential level of imapct and changes that may be required to our business processes, for example, our reporting system”. They added that Mozal has been provisionally certified by the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative.

This article was updated on 5 July 2023 to include more South32 comments.

The post Threat of EU carbon tax prompts dubious “green aluminium” claims in Mozambique appeared first on Climate Home News.

What does a just energy transition mean for the world’s least developed countries where energy access, especially in rural areas, is a priority for national development?

Last week, a Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) between Senegal, France, Germany, and the EU was announced at the Summit for a New Global Financial Pact in Paris.

This means Senegal’s government has committed to reaching 40% of renewable energy in the electricity mix, in exchange for €2.5 billion ($2.7bn) from France, Germany, the UK, Canada and the EU.

As the director of the Senegalese think-tank ENDA Energie, my colleagues and I worked to ensure that this deal would not hinder Senegal’s national development goals and that energy access remains a priority of our country.

US ‘still on the fence’ as nations debate global shipping emission tax

First, let us address the elephant in the room – Senegal has been gearing up to become a major gas producer to help develop its economy.

It has been said that revenues from gas will help with the country’s investment in transport, electrification, health, and education. Other arguments for gas have asked whether Global North countries financing renewables in Senegal are merely dictating what we need to do, stopping us from being a prosperous country.

These arguments can be convincing but they are misleading. First, climate and development goals can be achieved together and second, we are changing the way international cooperation works. Our experience with JETP Senegal has given national actors the agency to actively participate in crafting an international deal with the Global North.

International cooperation between the Global North and the Global South is usually done with barely any inputs from the beneficiary countries. This must change if we want to see success in the implementation of such projects.

Public banks agree to check investments against countries’ climate plans

This is why we ensured that JETP Senegal is shaped by national actors. We led a process in Senegal that gathered a broad range of local stakeholders – from government, research, civil society, and the private sector – where we worked on a realistic vision for our country.

After a series of discussions we came to a consensus that 40% of renewable energy in the electricity mix is an ambitious yet achievable target, especially provided with international support.

This bottom-up approach has given us lessons on how international cooperation must be conducted. First, having a domestically inclusive and nationally-led process empowers countries like Senegal to achieve their vision for national development.

Instead of being treated merely as beneficiaries where climate targets are dictated to us, an inclusive process gives us the agency to decide, based on scientific data and the realities of our country, what can be realistically achieved without compromising on other national development goals. As a result, the JETP-Senegal has remained in line with our vision of universal energy access in the country.

Additionally, this bottom-up process creates buy-in into the vision from national stakeholders and given broader support, can help facilitate its implementation.

Given that the vision of the JETP was supported by different groups nationally through multi-actor dialogue, it ensures that the priorities remain the same over time, even through changes in government leadership. This is opposed to traditional top-down approaches that risk national and climate goals are abandoned as national leadership changes.

Unfinished paperwork is kneecapping solar’s potential in China

Second, aligning climate and development goals is crucial for developing and least developed countries. Exclusively focusing on climate targets is a lost opportunity for national development, especially when there is enough evidence to show that both can be achieved simultaneously.

Further, a narrow focus on climate targets is unlikely to garner support from domestic actors for the energy transition, especially in lower- and middle-income countries.

In Senegal, a country where 30% of households lack access to electricity (as of 2018), universal electricity access has been an important development goal. In this case, JETP aligns the target of 40% renewable energy with very ambitious targets for reaching universal electricity access by 2025

Third, we learned that while the focus on energy transformations is important to achieve national development, it is only one part of the solution. A clean, affordable and reliable supply of energy is a key driver of transformations in other sectors, including agriculture, industry and transport.

However, during the process of identifying Senegalese vision, we have also identified the need to transform agriculture, industry, and urban systems. JETPs are therefore not a one-stop solution and must be complemented by financial cooperation that will enable a low-greenhouse gas and resilient transformation of the whole economy. This is particularly so given that other sectors than energy experience even greater challenges in accessing adequate amounts of finance.

Our experience in leading the national process to achieve the best deal on energy transition in Senegal has been an opportunity to show how international cooperation should be conducted. Contrary to some arguments that the Senegalese have no say in international agreements like JETP, we were able to create an international agreement that was shaped by national actors. We are not just passive subjects, we will lead the way in shaping the future of our country.

Secou Sarr is the director of ENDA Energie

The post Senegal shows African countries are not passive beneficiaries of climate finance appeared first on Climate Home News.

At the New Global Financing Pact Summit in Paris, Senegal’s president Macky Sall said the money would help his country get 40% of its electricity capacity from renewables by 2030, up from about 30% now.

Sall said the deal will help “increase our resilience” and “secure our energy system” while French president Emmauel Macron said it would boost economic development and access to electricity.

The governments who have said they will contribute funds are France, Germany, the UK, Canada and the European Union. The USA and Japan, which have backed similar deals, are not involved in this one.

Carbon credits touted as saviour of coal-to-clean energy deals

The deal is known as a Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP). Similar multi-billion deals have been struck over the last two years with South Africa, Indonesia and Vietnam.

Unlike these bigger nations, Senegal is a tiny emitter and does not dig up or use much coal. It relies on fossil fuel imports from abroad and has one of the highest electricity prices in Africa.

Whereas negotiations with these countries have focused on closing coal plants and rolling out renewables, the deal Senegal will just focus on rolling out renewables.

Meeting the target will be a challenge, as the government aims to provide electricity to all its citizens by 2025. About a fifth of Senegal’s 16 million people do not have access to electricity. These are mainly poorer people in rural and island areas. Economic development is likely to bring more electricity use.

According to a joint statement between the Senegalese and wealthy governments, the money will be a mixture of grants, loans on better than market terms, investment guarantees, export credits and technical assistance.

A precise breakdown of these different categories was not made available. Neither was the breakdown of how much each governments is contributing.

The chair’s summary of the Paris talks at which the deal was announced said that it includes private investors as well as multilateral development banks and government funding.

Wealthy governnments have sought to hide these details in previous deals and contributors have later said their share was just the “amount they are willing to consider”.

A spokesperson for Canadian environment minister Steven Guilbeault told Climate Home that “Canada will work with partners and development banks to secure the agreed mobilisation of resources, and we recognize that additional funding might be needed during and beyond the JETP period [of three to five years]”.

The share of grants as opposed to loans and the terms of those loans has been a source of contention in previous deals, with the recipient countries pushing for grants so as to not add to their debt burden.

A source of contention with Senegal has been the role of gas. Most big Western countries have promised to stop funding fossil fuels abroad whereas Sall has publicly slammed them for that stance, telling a Chinese-organised conference that it comes at a “fatal cost” to developing countries.

In the joint statement, which does not mention any fossil fuels by name, Sall said Senegal would be “securing our energy system thanks to all our natural resources in line with the Paris Agreement”.

Ahead of elections, Argentina’s leaders wrap fossil fuels in the flag

The statement added that Senegal “with the effective support of” the rich countries would study “the most cost-effective low-carbon and climate resilient pathway” for energy.

A statement from Germany’s development ministry BMZ said Senegal wants to promote gas production but that would not be financed by this deal.

The money will be spent on renewable energy and the infrastructure to enable it, like electricity storage and measures to improve the stability of the electric grid.

A working group of Senegalese and rich country representatives will meet regularly to discuss the partnership, a technical secretariat will be set up within four months and an investment plan will be drawn up within a year.

This article was updated on 22 June to include the spokesperson for Steven Guillbeault’s comments. And to correct the headline which originally put the figure as $2.5bn not $2.7bn and €2.5bn. The article was updated again on 26 June to clarify that the share of renewable energies in installed capacity in Senegal’s electricity mix is around 30% – the article previously used a different measurement to say 10%. And the detail that private investors are included was added, following the release of the chair’s summary.

The post Rich nations pledge $2.7 billion for Senegal’s renewable rollout appeared first on Climate Home News.

The United Nations asked for $7 billion to help mop up the climate disaster but it got just $2.4 billion – much of which was a re-announcement of old commitments. Oxfam called it “dismally inadequate”.

Coincidentally, the next day, Pakistan’s climate minister Sherry Rehman told a press briefing that pledges made at a similar event for Pakistan’s flood victims “have still not been realised”.

“UN flash appeals are no longer capitalised as they used to be”, she said, calling for the climate victims fund she had fought for at Cop27 to be set up as fast as possible.

This week’s news: 

• Japan joins anti-plastic coalition ahead of Paris treaty talks, leaving US isolated
• Governments fall short in UN’s East Africa drought appeal
• UN advises against offsets for carbon removal technologies
• World Bank body delays vote on controversial loan to Brazilian dairy firm
• UK sued over plan to import more polluting Australian beef
• Restrictions on energy firm’s borrowing complicates South Africa’s energy transition
• Verra boss steps down after criticism of its carbon credits
• Lula set to improve Brazil’s climate target
• G7 calls on all countries to reach net zero by 2050
• Rich nations “understanding” of South African delay to coal plant closures

…and a job opportunity

• Apply to be our Audience Engagement Editor

From the impacts of climate disaster to their cause. The oil and gas industry is looking for a plastic life-raft to save its about-to-start-sinking business.

Next week, we will be reporting from Paris as talks on setting up a new plastics treaty get underway.

The oil and gas industry suffered a blow today, as Japan announced it was joining the “high-ambition coalition against plastic pollution”, which wants to reduce plastic production and not just promote recycling.

That leaves the US as the lone G7 member outside of the coalition. Their negotiators are in regular contact with the American Chemistry Council, whose board includes Total and Shell.

They told us that reductions in plastic production are the “wrong approach”. So far, the US government seems to be with them on that. Will that change in Paris next week?

The post Drought victims let down – Climate Weekly appeared first on Climate Home News.

The UN warned against a “catastrophe” in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, which it described as the epicentre of the world’s worst climate emergencies.

Donor countries have pledged a total of $2.4 billion for 2023, but only $0.8 billion in new financial support was announced at this week’s event. The US will provide nearly two-thirds of the money, followed at some distance by the European Commission, Germany and the UK.

The money raised at a pledging conference this week will help humanitarian agencies provide food, water, healthcare and protection services to over 30 million people across the three countries.

Tinebeb Berhane, country director for ActionAid in Ethiopia, told Climate Home News she was “extremely disappointed” and “saddened” with the outcome. “The pledges do not even touch the surface of the level of support needed on the ground”, she added.

Oxfam has called the commitments “dismally inadequate”.

The shortcomings of UN pledging events like this one will put the spotlight on the implementation of the landmark loss and damage deal struck at Cop27. Governments agreed to create a fund for vulnerable communities hit by climate impacts.

Climate-induced drought

The Horn of Africa has been suffering its worst drought in 40 years since October 2020. Five consecutive seasons of rainfall below normal levels have led to crops failing and farm animals dying.

A group of scientists estimated that human-driven climate change has made these events “much stronger” and “about 100 times more likely”.

World Bank body delays vote on controversial loan to Brazilian dairy firm

The World Weather Attribution group said the drought was made much more severe because of the low rainfall and increased evaporation caused by higher temperatures in the world.

Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia combined now contribute less than 0.5% of the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change despite having 2.5% of the world’s population.

“People in the Horn of Africa are paying an unconscionable price for a climate crisis they did nothing to cause,” UN chief Antonio Guterres told the pledging event in New York.

The crisis has been made worse by conflicts and rising global commodity prices as a result of the war in Ukraine. More than 32 million people are facing acute food insecurity and 2.7 million people have been displaced.

UN advises against offsets for carbon removal technologies

The United States made the top pledge – an additional $524 million on previous announcements, taking its total for 2023 to some $1.4 billion. The European Commission committed $185 million, Germany $163 million, Britain $120 million and the Netherlands $92 million.

“This is a global problem that requires all of us,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the event.

‘Moral failure’

Andrew Mitchell, the UK minister for development, said “the clear and present threat remains, and we must act now to prevent further suffering”. But aid groups have criticised the pledge made by the UK, branding it a “moral failure”.

A group of organisations led by the International Rescue Committee has called on donors “to take immediate steps to break the cycle of short-term, inadequate funding” in the Horn of Africa.

ActionAid’s Berhane hopes the limited funding promised will be delivered swiftly. “Time is a big factor for these life-saving humanitarian interventions,” she said.

The Eastern African drought is only one of the many climate-induced crises in which financial aid has been slow-moving.

Echoes of Pakistan

Devastating floods struck Pakistan last year, causing $10 billion in estimated damage. After a UN appeal, wealthy countries pledged a sum roughly sixty times smaller in support. But even those funds were slow to arrive.

UK sued over plan to import more polluting Australian beef

Subsequently, at a pledging event last January, a group of 40 countries, multilateral banks and private donors committed more than $8.5 billion towards Pakistan’s recovery.

But Pakistan’s climate minister Sherry Rehman said yesterday that “pledges made at international conferences solely for Pakistan have still not been realised”.

“UN flash appeals are no longer capitalised as they used to be,” she said, as “at least half of the UN flash appeals go unfunded”. She called for the loss and damage fund to be set up as soon as possible.

The post Governments fall short in UN’s East Africa drought appeal appeared first on Climate Home News.

Joanne Yawitch leads the South African unit implementing its plan to switch from coal to clean energy, reporting to the office of president Cyril Ramaphosa.

She told South African website Oxpeckers that “a number of international financiers were making the assumption that it would be possible to finance Eskom’s energy transition plans”.

But in March, the South African treasury, which falls under the finance ministry, told Eskom that, in return for help in reducing its huge debts, it was no longer allowed to invest in any new electricity generation.

Lula set to improve Brazil’s climate target

Yawitch said that her team was now working with the treasury “to look at the way funds could flow under these circumstances”.

The group of wealthy nations working on the partnership had also been talking to the treasury, she said.

The loans, which were on better terms than South Africa could normally get, were provided directly to the treasury and will underpin government reforms in support of the transition from coal to clean energy.

Short-term delays

South Africa has suffered an increasing number of planned power cuts caused by run-down coal power plants.

To combat these cuts, the government is considering prolonging the life of some of these plants.

Asked whether it is the right decision to delay the decommissioning of some of Eskom’s coal-fired power plants, she said: “The [group of rich nations funding the coal to clean transition] and its ambassadors live in South Africa, and they understand what we’re going through as a country.”

“Given the energy crisis,” she said, “I think they understand the need to keep every megawatt that we can on stream at the moment.”

Verra boss steps down after criticism of its carbon credits

A spokesperson for the German development ministry BMZ told Climate Home this week that the rich nations had an ““understanding for the current emergency and sees the need for short-term measures”.

Yawitch pointed out that no final decisions had been taken in this regard and that a treasury study would be released in July, informing decisions coal power station closures.

The post Restrictions on energy firm’s borrowing complicates South Africa’s energy transition appeared first on Climate Home News.

But they warned the South African government should not row back from a clear commitment to cutting long-term emissions.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa told Parliament last week the timetable to shift away from coal “must be relooked at” while the country struggles with crippling daily blackouts.

The US, UK, EU, Germany and France are contributing funds for a landmark plan, known as a Just Energy Transition Partnership (JetP) to clean up South Africa’s coal-reliant electricity system.

Local business group tries to keep South Africa’s coal plants alive

A spokesperson for the German development ministry told Climate Home the group of rich countries behind the JetP show “understanding for the current emergency and sees the need for short-term measures” in South Africa.

But they also warned against backsliding on the coal to clean energy transition: “A clear commitment by the South African government to long-term emission reduction strategies is and remains an important component of our cooperation”.

Uncertain plans

The programme hinges on the ability to replace most of its 14 existing coal power plants with solar and wind power.

South Africa’s coal plants often produce less electricity than the country needs and state-owned energy firm Eskom respond by implementing planned power cuts, which it calls load shedding.

These can last up to 10 hours and have significantly worsened over the last year, angering citizens and businesses and damaging Ramaphosa’s popularity ahead of elections next year.

Ageing and unreliable coal-fired power plants frequently breaking down and Eskom’s dire financial situation have been blamed for the crisis.

Now the government is considering delaying the closure of further coal power plants to help ease electricity cuts.

“Our own pace”

Rampaphosa told the National Assembly last week that “we will transition to cleaner energy but at our own pace and own time”.

“We have got to do it, taking into account the needs of our people and the requirements of energy security”, he added.

Alongside the closure and repurposing of coal-fired power plants, the partnership is also meant to cover an expansion of social protection and retraining for workers who lose their jobs.

Vietnamese anti-coal campaigner freed early from prison

But an investigation by Climate Home News and Oxpeckers found coal-reliant communities have scarce details on how funds for re-skilling will be invested.

The uncertain prospects are fuelling hostility to the programme in coal heartlands. A proposal from a business group to keep coal power plants alive is gaining support from local politicians and some residents, Climate Home News has found.

Debt concerns

The type of financing offered has been another continuing sticking point in the rich nations partnership with South Africa.

Grants make up only 3% of the package. The rest is loans, raising concerns South Africa’s debt burden.

Just over half of the funding is earmarked as concessional loans, with better-borrowing terms than South Africa can access on the open market.

US backs Indonesian oil refinery despite pledge to end fossil fuel finance

Like South Africa, Germany has kept coal plants open for longer than it wanted because of a short-term crisis.

After Russia invaded Ukraine, Germany and the rest of Europe sought to drastically reduce their reliance on Russian gas.

To ensure that the supply of electricity met demand over the winter of 2022, Germany temporarily re-opened two coal power plants. Overall though, the crisis has sped up Europe’s transition away from fossil fuels to renewables.

The post Rich nations “understanding” of South African delay to coal plant closures appeared first on Climate Home News.

The proposals of the local business association have gained support from local politicians and at least one executive in the state-run power company that currently operates the coal mines and come as South Africa’s electricity minister argues that coal plant closures should be delayed.

While local communities have expressed concerns about the economic impact of the closure of coal power plants, there has also been local criticism of the coal industry itself particularly its role in causing air pollution and damaging peoples’ health.

The closures are part of South Africa’s Just Energy Transition Partnership (JetP), an effort to reduce the electricity sector’s greenhouse gas emissions, which made up 45% of the country’s total emissions in 2017. Largely because of its reliance on coal, South Africa’s emissions are ten times higher than the sub-Saharan African average.

Just transition?

As well as helping cut the country's carbon emissions, the JetP is meant to help communities adapt to the new energy and industrial landscape.

Ronesa Mtshweni has been a part of the coal value chain all her life. She was raised by a coal mine worker father and worked herself in a coal mine for seven years.

But she is now fighting against coal mining because of the pain she has seen it cause and the problems local communities are left to deal with.

Ronesa Mtshweni from Womandla Community Development. (Photo: Ashraf Hendricks)

Mtshweni lives in Carolina, Mpumalanga, about half an hour's drive from Hendrina power station, one of the country’s biggest and oldest coal plants. It is one of nine coal-fired power stations scheduled to be shut by 2035, most of which are in Mpumalanga province.

But Mtshweni, founder of non-profit organisation Womandla Community Development, said that the planned closure of Hendrina had sparked concerns on the ground.

“People are in fear because they benefited from that power station, they benefited from the nearby mines and now that the power station is closing down, they just don't know what's going to happen to them, what's going to happen to their livelihoods,” she said.

Coal communities fear South Africa’s clean energy transition

One proposal is that the plants are shut down and replaced with a combination of either solar or wind farms or colleges teaching clean energy skills.

Another is that the coal plants are privatised and kept open or converted - either fully or partially - to run on other energy sources.

That's the proposal of the Middelburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI), a coalition of businesses based in the Mpumalanga coal mining and farming belt.

Keeping the lights on

Anna-Marth Ott, chief executive of the MCCI, said it is important for the regional business community to ensure the economy it operates in remains strong and that their businesses run profitably.

“People look at this region and it’s as if they are gleeful that the towns are going to be ghost towns and we’re going to suffer and it's going to be the worst economic impact for us,” Ott said. “I’ve got very bad news for you – if it happens here, it will impact everybody. A large portion of the income generated through Sandton [a wealthy part of South Africa's biggest city Johannesburg] is generated here.”

Anna Marth Ott, CEO of the Mpumalanga Chamber of Commerce (Photo credit: Dianah Chiyangwa)

Ott said MCCI raised the private take-over concept in February 2020 with André de Ruyter, the former chief executive of Eskom, a state-owned company that produces and distributes most of South Africa's electricity.

That meeting was to discuss how business could get involved in the repurposing of Komati, which in October 2022 was the first coal plant in the country to be closed down.

The Komati power station, pictured in 2018. (Photo credit: Ruth Sacco/Greenpeace)

Ott said that they wanted Komati because its not as big as Hendrina and it is close to a gas pipeline, making it easier to convert it from coal to gas. "We thought we could turn it into an energy generation university as well,” she added.

After these plans failed to materialise, the chamber turned its attention to the next in line in the country’s coal power plant closure plans, Hendrina, which is set to shut between the end of 2023 and 2025.

Coal no problem

Ott said that if the coal industry is "responsible" and addresses local environmental impacts then "there is no problem in using coal".

She claimed that there cannot be a total shift away from coal to renewables due to a requirement for baseload power.

The idea is that coal provides a minimum constant level of electricity to manage the inherent variability of solar and wind farms, which produce less electricity when the sun and wind are weak.

But there are ways to lessen the effects of this variability through interconnecting electricity grids, storing electricity in batteries for when it is needed most and by managing electricity demand at peak times. There are also zero-carbon sources of more reliable baseload power like nuclear energy and hydropower.

On average, two-thirds of South Australia's grid electricity is from solar and wind. In South Africa, its currently less than a tenth.

Cop28 moots oil and gas initiative despite greenwash accusations

Ott said that the manufacturing sector in particular "cannot operate on solar power" as it requires a "massive amount" of electricity and a minimum level of baseload power.

She does not completely oppose green energy though, as she said that South African manufacturers of certain products will need to reduce their carbon intensity to lessen the carbon border taxes they pay when exporting to the European Union.

Repurposing Hendrina would involve using the power station's different units in various ways, she said. “We may try hydro [power] in one, hydrogen in another and a new coal-burning system in the other. The idea is to find the most optimal green solution for energy usage in the area.”

But hydropower relies on building a dam on a river, which Hendrina does not have nearby and according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), gas turbines can not currently run completely on hydrogen and are not expected to do so until at least 2030. Hydrogen can be produced using either renewables or fossil fuels so is not necessarily green.

Mining boost

Making Hendrina run on coal again might also extend the life of Mpumalanga's coal mines.

Ott said Steve Tshwete municipality alone has about 120 coal mines. She said most of this is exported so coal mining will continue "unless things drastically change in the rest of the world".

The IEA predicts that global coal use will stay at its current level until 2025 when it will begin to fall from 2025 as major coal users like China and India seek to meet their net zero targets.

The road to Carolina. (Photo: Dianah Chiyangwa)

Thomas Mnguni, a resident of Mpumalanga and campaigner at non-profit environmental justice organisation groundWork, is concerned about the MCCI’s plans to privatise energy production.

“We do not want to see our energy system in private hands,” he said. “For me it’s very critical to make sure that we get our government to begin to construct renewable energy plants that will be owned by the state and the public, not the private sector."

Mnguni did not see MCCI’s plans to refurbish Hendrina, which would include the installation of scrubbers to remove sulphur emissions to comply with air quality regulations, as financially feasible. The government estimates that refurbishing three power stations including Hendrina would cost $2.6 billion.

He said: “What I fear is that we will see increased levels of pollution that will have a negative impact on people’s health and nobody will be held accountable. We've seen how our government has failed in terms of air quality governance, how the health department is absent when it comes to making sure that air pollution does not affect people’s health."

He called for the government to build renewable plants "that will be owned by the state and the public not the private sector".

Eskom backing

Outgoing Eskom chief operating officer Jan Obeholzer last month expressed support for turning Hendrina into a gas power station. Oberholzer reportedly said independent operators would be invited by Eskom to table their plans for the plant in a public process.

Details around how the Hendrina take-over would work are not yet clear and no agreements have been concluded, Ott said.

However, she accepted it would be not be a cheap job. “It’s more expensive sometimes to repurpose, but on the other hand, if the basic infrastructure is there, why not use it? Or do you want to have [nothing but] gravestones in our region?”

Germany promises €2bn to global Green Climate Fund

In recent weeks, Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, South Africa’s newly appointed electricity minister, has indicated that plans to shut coal plants are likely to be delayed to stave off ongoing planned power cuts, as the supply of electricity is not consistently enough to meet demand.

Ramokgopa has also expressed interest in public-private partnerships to fund solutions for the energy crisis.

Questions sent to Eskom about decommissioning plans at Hendrina power station remained unanswered at the time of publication.

Local government support

Local government officials said they supported the MCCI approach, particularly if it means reduced prices for electricity consumers.

“Eskom was built in the past from small independent power producers, so the Chamber of Commerce could be successful in taking over the power station and definitely we as a municipality will support that,” said Ntokozo Gubevu, director of electrical engineering services at Steve Tshwete municipality. “The decommissioning and repurposing of the power plant will bring benefits in terms of power purchases.”

Currently, the municipality buys electricity from Eskom and sells it on to consumers at the Eskom rate, which is constantly rising, Gubevu said. “At the municipality we are looking forward to having more [independent power producers] generating more electricity for the municipality because we believe our ratepayers will get relief from the current high electricity tariffs.”

But Gubevu said that, although closing down Hendrina power station will not have an immediate impact on the municipal electricity supply, it will directly affect the community of Hendrina and neighbouring communities that are currently receiving services such as water directly from Eskom.

“There is a [water] pipeline going from the plant all the way to our Hendrina residential area as well as KwaZamokuhle location, so those areas will be affected by decommissioning the station and we’ll have to look at alternative ways to get the water supply to those areas.”

Verra’s revamped forest offset programme comes under fire

Gaylor Montmasson-Claire, an economist at the Trade & Industrial Policy Strategies think tank, said this might be one of the most pressing challenges from the closure of Hendrina.

An easy solution would be to transfer the provision of water and sanitation services to the affected areas back to the municipality. “But that still raises some questions about whether the municipality will have the resources to maintain and operate those services,” he said.

On the ground

Back in Carolina, Mtshweni said talks on the JetP have not been transparent, and there is little to no real awareness about it or how people can adapt to the changes it will bring.

“As an individual, as a community member, what I understand is a just transition is that – the word ‘just’ means that we're all going to benefit from it. Is it true we all are going to benefit from it? Especially looking at the fact that our area is surrounded by so many mines.”

“We have an issue of water pollution in our area, and of sound [pollution] as well. There are so many trucks moving in and out, and there are so many issues related to blasting.”

Pressure builds on Council of Europe to put right to healthy environment in law

New mines are being proposed, she said, “but the mines that were done before have not been rehabilitated and none of those programmes are putting back into the community. There's no skills development that has been done, as promised.

“I know that in Middelburg they are pushing the just transition — there are already youth programmes being developed. But what's happening to Carolina? What's happening to the other towns?” she asked.

This investigation by Climate Home News and Oxpeckers Investigative Environmental Journalism was produced with the support of the Pulitzer Center, and is part of a series on South Africa's Renewables Revolution.

The post Local business group tries to keep South Africa’s coal plants alive appeared first on Climate Home News.

The EU bloc sees hydrogen made with renewable energy – known as “green hydrogen” – as a cost-effective way to reduce emissions, especially in industries that are difficult to decarbonise such as aviation and heavy land transport.

While the European industry is in its infancy, hopes of achieving short-term goals largely rest on production overseas. Countries, especially in Northern and Sub-saharan Africa, have been attracted by the sector’s opportunity for investments and new jobs, analysts told Climate Home News.

But experts warned the enthusiasm hides significant risks. Incentives built into the EU regulations mean the massive scale-up of green hydrogen exports could take up most renewable electricity in developing nations, at the expense of local populations.

G7 may ignore climate warnings and call for new gas investments

This would be a problem for countries like Namibia – one of the EU’s key hydrogen partners – where just over half of the population has access to electricity.

For Godrje Rustomjee, an analyst at the African Climate Foundation, countries need to find the right trade-off between domestic needs and export potential.

Otherwise, he says, the risk is that green hydrogen may turn into “another neo-colonial project”.

“There is a real possibility that foreign countries come in with direct investment, but all the benefits and added value end up being extracted and sent across to Europe”.

Marta Lovisolo, a hydrogen analyst at Bellona, says the risk developing countries will divert resources toward production for exports is “extremely high”.

“Green hydrogen is something Europe desperately wants and developing countries could potentially mass-produce for a lucrative market,” she says. “As it happened with fossil fuels, countries seem ready to stake everything on becoming exporters without being given the necessary safeguards.”

Very glad to meet President @hagegeingob

Namibia is a trusted partner of the EU. We stand by your side in the fight against the pandemic.
#GlobalGateway can support Green Hydrogen plans and sustainable raw minerals value chains.

Let’s develop a full-fledged partnership. pic.twitter.com/uU4HdYnIIO

— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) February 18, 2022

Betting big on hydrogen

Despite being a nearly non-existing energy source today, green hydrogen has become a cornerstone of Europe’s decarbonisation plans.

Green hydrogen is mostly produced through electrolysis, a process that separates water into hydrogen and oxygen, using electricity generated from renewable sources.

The bloc has set a target of reaching annual domestic production of 10 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen by 2030 and importing the same amount. It is a tall order, considering that last year worldwide green hydrogen production capacity was 109 kilo tonnes – a fraction of what the EU wants to achieve.

Currently, most hydrogen is created using fossil fuels. Around three-quarters is derived from methane gas and a quarter from coal. Green hydrogen is more expensive to produce and accounts for less than 1% of total global production.

To fuel its ambition the EU is pouring billions of euros into the sector. Alongside investments in the build-up of domestic capacity, funds are being committed towards partnerships with future exporting nations.

The EU has signed agreements with a series of countries including Egypt, Kazakhstan, Morocco and Namibia. The partnerships are billed as a win-win situation.

Uncertainty on renewable retraining frightens South Africa’s coal communities

Rules exemption

The Commission has also recently set out the rules on renewable hydrogen. Among various provisions, it includes a criteria for developing renewable electricity called 'additionality'.

In the future, hydrogen producers will have to make sure that only new renewable electricity generation capacity is used for green hydrogen production. This is to ensure hydrogen production does not take away existing renewable energy from the grid, potentially increasing reliance on fossil fuels elsewhere.

Additionality can be achieved either by directly connecting a solar or wind farm to a hydrogen production facility or through purchase agreements with clean power generators.

But European lawmakers have included a phase-in clause to speed up the industry with the hope of meeting its 2030 goals. Any green hydrogen installation that starts production before 2028 will be exempted from the additionality rules for the following ten years, until 2038.

That means the projects developed before that date will be able to use already installed capacity, for instance taking clean energy directly from the grid.

Analysts say the rules have set off a race between exporting nations to meet the 2028 deadline. Namibia, for example, hopes to begin exporting green hydrogen in 2026, although analysts believe this will be very difficult to achieve.

Over the rainbow: The role of hydrogen in a clean energy system, explained

Risk of 'cannibalisation'

Maria Pastukhova, a senior policy advisor at E3G, says the rules allow hydrogen projects to “cannibalise” the existing local infrastructure for the purpose of export production.

“For many countries, especially in Africa, this energy is needed at home, where grids need to be decarbonised or local citizens don’t have access to electricity,” she added.

Only 56% of Namibians had access to electricity in 2022. The nation imported 60-70% of its electricity demand, most of it coming from fossil fuel sources.

The Southern African nation, in particular, is racing to become Africa’s first green hydrogen exporting hub, but faces a context of high unemployment and one of the most unequal economies in the world, according to the World Bank.

Namibia's pitch

Namibia’s President Hage Geingob sees green hydrogen as an “engine of growth” that will make the country an industrialised economy and create a large number of jobs.

“Because of our national green hydrogen efforts, Namibia remains well-positioned to become a major supplier of clean and green energy to the world,” he said at Cop27.

In 2021 the Namibian government began pitching its proposition to European leaders, luring them in with the promise to supply up to three million tonnes of renewable hydrogen every year.

Namibia's Tsau Khaeb National Park has been earmarked for green hydrogen projects. Photo: Olga Ernst and Hp Baumeler

Germany was first to respond to the calls and quickly partnered with its former colony. A German private joint venture is now working with the Namibian government to develop a $9.4 billion green hydrogen project. The huge infrastructure is expected to take up 4,000km2 of land (roughly four times the city of Berlin) within the Tsau Khaeb National Park.

Its goal is to begin hydrogen production by the end of 2026.

Money for hydrogen

Following Berlin’s lead, the European Commission signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Namibia on renewable hydrogen, something they have also done in at least other three developing countries

The agreement aims to facilitate “the production and export of renewable hydrogen”, while offering Namibia the “possibility to achieve its own energy security and decarbonisation objectives”.

At the same time the European Investment Bank pledged to give Namibia a loan of up to 500 million euros to finance renewable hydrogen and renewable energy investments. The EIB President said “the development of a green hydrogen economy will bring Namibia and Europe closer together - as partners”.

A similar memorandum of understanding was signed on the sidelines of Cop27 between the European Union and Egypt. The partnership is aimed at "contributing to the EU future plans to import renewable hydrogen", while accelerating "the Egyptian energy sector's transition and decarbonisation".

The agreement does not yet contain any binding commitment but it expects to encourage investment in infrastructure and easier access to financing options.

Upon unveiling the deal, the European Commission Vice-President said Egypt is "ideally placed" to transport green hydrogen to Europe. He added that Egypt is blessed with "unlimited potential for solar and wind energy", which goes beyond local electricity needs and, therefore, can also be used for green hydrogen.

Despite this potential, the country's energy sector is still hugely dominated by fossil fuels, with only about 6% of the supply coming from renewables.

Migrant workers face risks building Europe’s new gas supplies in the UAE

Bellona’s Marta Lovisolo says the agreements are “full of nice words, but do not have any legal safeguards” to prevent European interests come first.

She adds developing countries are particularly attracted as the European Union has signalled it would subsidise the big premiums needed for green hydrogen.

More money to come

Brussels is working on a subsidy scheme to bring down the prices of hydrogen for buyers. Green premiums would cover the cost gap between renewable hydrogen produced overseas and the fossil fuels it would replace.

The money pot is expected to be large. The green premium to achieve the 2030 targets for hydrogen could come up to €115 billion in total.

For the African Climate Foundation's Godrje Rustomjee the financial incentives are just too good for developing countries to ignore. "On one hand they could use renewables only for domestic consumption but this could come at extreme cost," he says, "on the other, the nature of these export deals has the potential of doubling a country's economy".

The key, he says, it's striking the right compromise and securing safeguards in the deals with rich importing countries.

He believes these should include safeguards for local electricity provision and incentives, such as the localisation of manufacturing in the country.

The post Green hydrogen rush risks energy ‘cannibalisation’ in Africa, analysts say appeared first on Climate Home News.

Representatives of countries from an array of different regions, including Africa, Asia, Latin America and small island states, pushed to be singled out as particularly vulnerable.

Tanzania and Timor-Leste asked that the world’s poorest countries, known as least developed countries (LDCs), be added to a list of impacted communities, according to a report of the meeting by think-tank IISD.

Africa and small island developing states (Sids) were nearly cut out of one section on vulnerabilities, the IISD report says, and replaced by a reference to “developing and least developed countries”.

UN tells governments to ‘fast forward’ net zero targets

But there was a strong push from many delegates to retain them, particularly as most of those regions’ representatives had already left the talks to approve the report, as they had to catch flights home from Switzerland.

Mexico and Chile wanted to add Latin America to the list of regions that are particularly vulnerable while India wanted Asia included, according to IISD’s report.

The final document lists Africa, Sids, LDCs, Central and South America, Asia and the Arctic as particularly vulnerable.

The benefits of vulnerability

What makes some communities more vulnerable than others is not just physical factors like sea level rise but also social factors like poverty, governance, building standards and infrastructure.

This makes naming specific parts of the world as vulnerable a politically sensitive topic.

The inclusion of the Arctic as one of the most climate vulnerable places in the world, for example, was significant because it came just days after the US approved the hugely controversial Willow oil drilling project on Alaska’s north slope.

There are various reasons for wanting to be named as vulnerable, including global recognition and better access to climate finance.

Last year’s Cop27 climate talks agreed that a new fund for climate victims should be targeted at countries who are “particularly vulnerable” to climate change.

Loss and damage committee ready to start talks following Asian nominations

Samoan ambassador Fatumanava-o-Upolu III Dr. Pa’olelei Luteru, who chairs the alliance of small island states (Aosis), said making specific note of the risks to these islands was “imperative in the context of climate justice”.

“The fact is that we are already facing devastating losses and damages of great magnitude, and funds we should be investing into sustainable development initiatives must be diverted to help us cope with climate change impacts,” he said.

IPCC highlights rich nations’ failure to help developing world adapt to climate change

But recognising growing impacts also gives states the responsibility of acting on them.

Jörn Birkmann researches climate vulnerability at the University of Stuttgart in Germany and was coordinating lead author of one of the underlying IPCC reports.

He told Climate Home: “It seems like governments fear that if their country is not mentioned, they could receive less support (e.g. global adaptation funds),”

He added: “Or vice versa; if they are mentioned it might lead to a stigmatisation or might raise questions about the role of governance.”

Measuring vulnerability

Birkmann said studies on human vulnerability all point to the same global hotspots, particularly Africa.

But even though many governments acknowledge this, there are significant tensions when measuring and mapping human vulnerability.

“It is still difficult in [a summary for policymakers report] to name specific global regions that are more vulnerable than others,” he said.

“The synthesis report is mentioning some regions, but it seems to be much easier for governments to agree on general sentences, rather than pointing to areas or countries where such deficits are evident.”

Green Climate Fund credibility hangs over response to violence in Nicaragua project

Although it misses a lot of nuance about who is vulnerable, Birkmann welcomes the fact that the report recognises global hotspots, “since the success of adaptation and resilience building also depends on the starting point communities and countries have”.

He believes adaptation strategies should not just focus on physical phenomena and climatic hazards such as storms, but also on structures and interventions that reduce human vulnerability, such as poverty reduction, education or fighting corruption – the latter being “a very controversial topic in the political arena”.

Furthermore, when new financial mechanisms for loss and damage agreed at Cop27 are being put into practice, he said it would be helpful to define adaptation goals, not just those on emission reduction.

“These goals should also take into account the very different starting points of regions/countries/communities to build resilience,” he said.” The level of human vulnerability might be such a benchmark of the different starting points.”

The post Nations fight to be called climate vulnerable in IPCC report appeared first on Climate Home News.

Cutting emissions and the impact of rising global temperatures did not seem to be a priority for Nigerian voters in February, despite last year’s killer floods.

But the issue was not wholly absent. On the campaign trail, Tinubu took a tough line on wealthy nations’ responsibility for the climate crisis and the need for them to finance emissions reductions in developing countries.

Meeting with voters in northern Nigeria in October, Tinubu said that, unless developed countries deliver climate finance to Nigeria, “we are not going to comply with your climate change”.

He described climate change as “a question of how do you prevent a church rat from eating a poisoned holy communion”.

In this metaphor, Nigeria is the rat and the developed countries are those that are poisoning it.

Vanuatu gathers support for UN climate justice statement

Developed countries, which are disproportionately responsible for climate change, have failed to deliver the level of climate finance they promised. But developing countries like Nigeria face the worst of its impacts.

Nigerian climate expert professor Chukwumerije Okereke told Climate Home that Tinubu failed to understand that “if the West fails to pay up, Nigeria and other African countries will still be the ones that suffer the worst impacts of climate change”.

Manifesto pledges

In common with other presidential candidates, Tinubu gave out mixed messages about his approach to the energy transition.

He has promised to revive an abandoned coal mining project in Enugu state, increase oil production by tackling vandalism and theft of oil infrastructure, and increase gas production by finishing gas pipelines.

On the other hand, he said Nigeria should “diversify [its] economy away from oil and gas dependence” for economic reasons, particularly as “Western nations are gradually turning away from fossil fuel use”.

“Our history shows that the oil and gas sector is not the answer to our nation’s economic problems,” he wrote in his election manifesto. “However, it remains an important industry, vital to both our short-term economic survival and longer-term prosperity and buoyancy”.

IMF warns against ‘protectionism’ in rich world’s green subsidies

He pledged to crack down on the practice of buring gas as a by-product of oil production, which is known as flaring.

“Nigeria still flares too much gas causing continued environmental and public health harm,” he wrote.

Tinubu said Nigeria should prioritise using its gas for electricity production domestically while, at the same time, export more gas to the European Union as it seeks alternative buyers to Russia due to the war in Ukraine.

Nigeria’s solar power should also be developed, he said, and electricity should be rolled out to rural areas. Nearly half of Nigerians do not currently have electricity.

Tinubu’s manifesto emphasises the importance of adapting to the “key challenge” of climate change, promising to develop irrigation to tackle the effects of drought.

The post Finance key climate issue for new Nigerian president appeared first on Climate Home News.

A group of French and Ugandan campaigners argued in court that Total did not do enough to stop environmental and human rights problems in its East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (Eacop) and the associated Tilenga oilfield.

They asked the court to order the company’s vigilance plan, meant to address issues like environmental risks and community displacement, to be rewritten.

But judges decided they did not have the power to conduct the in-depth examination neccessary and said the campaigners’ legal case had changed too much since they first filed.

South Africa tried to weaken corruption safeguards in coal phase out deal, says CEO

A Total spokesperson defended its plan and highlighted the judgment’s ruling that it was “sufficiently detailed to not be considered as summary”.

But campaigners pointed out that judges did not rule on the details at the heart of the case. They denied their case had significantly changed and said they were considering an appeal.

Dickens Kamugisha, director of the Africa Institute for Energy Governance (Afiego), described the decision as a “huge disappointment for the associations and communities affected in Uganda and Tanzania who had placed their hopes in French justice”. 

The judgment, published earlier today, was the first test of France’s novel corporate duty of vigilance law.

This requires all large businesses headquartered in France and international corporations with a significant presence there to set out clear measures to prevent human rights violations and environmental damage – even among their subsidiaries. 

Huge pipeline

In 2021, Total signed an agreement with Uganda and Tanzania to start building the $3.5 billion, 1,443-kilometre pipeline alongside the state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation and Uganda National Oil Company. It will transport crude oil from the Tilenga oilfields being developed in north-western Uganda to a Tanzanian port on the Indian Ocean. 

The project has proved hugely controversial for its contribution to climate change and the impacts on people living along its path.  

Research by the US-based Climate Accountability Institute concluded it would emit 379 million tonnes of carbon over its 25-year lifespan – much more than laid out in the project’s environmental impact statements, which only account for the pipeline’s direct construction and operation. 

In a resolution last year, the European Parliament expressed “grave concern” about alleged human rights violations in Uganda and Tanzania, linked to the project. And Ugandan protestors concerned about its impact on the local environment, displacement of communities and the lack of benefits accruing to Uganda have accused police of brutality towards them. 

US backs Ajay Banga to lead World Bank in climate fight

Campaigners have put huge pressure on financial institutions and insurers not to support Eacop for environmental and human rights reasons, and many have publicly distanced themselves from the project.  

But with both the Ugandan and Tanzanian governments have given formal construction approval in the last few months, work on the pipeline is now expected to progress. 

Uganda’s president Yoweri Museveni has accused Western critics of the project of hypocrisy because only a handful of nations have committed to ending their own fossil fuel production.

Other Eacop lawsuits are still pending. One was filed by Afiego in Uganda against the country’s environmental and petroleum authorities for approving Tilenga’s environmental and social impact assessment. And another brought by civil society organisations from Uganda and Tanzania is at the East African Court of Justice, although this has been bogged down by jurisdictional arguments.   

Duty of vigilance? 

Although the lawsuit against Eacop was unsuccessful, several other environmental lawsuits have been filed under the same French law. 

In 2020, a coalition of NGOs and local authorities filed a separate case against Total, claiming it is legally required to identify the risks resulting from its contribution to global warming and to take the necessary measures to reduce its emissions. The case was joined two years later by Paris, New York, the city of Poitiers and Amnesty International France. They recently asked the courts to order the multinational to take provisional measures such as the suspension of new oil and gas projects pending the court’s ruling. 

A coalition of Brazilian and Colombian indigenous peoples’ organisations and international NGOs have also sued supermarket chain Casino under the duty of vigilance law, accusing it not having taken the necessary measures to exclude beef linked to illegal deforestation, land grabbing and violations of indigenous peoples’ rights from its supply chain in Brazil and Colombia. 

Two months ago, food corporation Danone was sued by ClientEarth, Surfrider Foundation Europe and Zero Waste France, who accused it of not doing enough to reduce its plastic footprint and so failing to live up to its duties under the law. 

And in the last week alone, two duty of vigilance claims were filed against French bank BNP Paribas. Oxfam France, Friends of the Earth France and Notre Affaire à Tous are suing it for supporting companies that aggressively develop new oil and gas fields and infrastructure, while Notre Affaire à Tous and Brazilian NGO Comissão Pastoral da Terra have taken aim at its provision of financial services to companies they allege contribute to deforestation of the Amazon rainforest.  

The post Total escapes court censure over East African oil pipeline appeared first on Climate Home News.