Friday, 21 October

Dear <<First Name>>

Last week, I talked about mini-grids and how a new report by World Bank Group’s ESMAP had ranked Camco-managed REPP as one of the most active investors in the sector. Today, I wanted to give some human context to those investments through the story of Matankiso Mpopo from Lesotho. 
 
Matankiso is one of approximately 190 domestic and commercial customers of a mini-grid in Ha Makebe village, north-east of Maseru, which was completed last year by developer OnePower under Lesotho’s inaugural mini-grid concession. The REPP-supported pilot project has since paved the way for an additional 10 mini-grids currently under construction and financed with LSL 150 million from REPP and the EU-funded EDFI ElectriFI. 

Before the installation, most Ha Makebe villagers had to rely on diesel, kerosene or firewood for their energy needs, or simply go without. Speaking to Camco’s Regional Manager for Southern Africa, Rafikh Ismail, during a site visit this week, Matankiso said being connected to the mini-grids had been life changing. 

Matankiso lives with her husband and three children, but he is often working away at a mine in South Africa. Since getting the connection, Matankiso bought a fridge-freezer and started supplying local people with frozen meats, which she buys in a nearby town and resells at a profit. This has enabled her to start up a home-based business also selling sweets and airtime via her internet connection. Enjoying the proceeds from her business, she has since invested in a TV for family entertainment and now has her sights on an electric stove. 

“Life’s better”, she told Rafikh. 

Cheers 

Geoff Sinclair

Managing Director, Camco 

West Africa

Burkina Faso: Clean energy access is key to delivering quality health services, says IRENA (IRENA)
- The International Renewable Energy Agency’s new report on the country assesses the opportunities for integrating renewable energy and energy-efficient appliances to strengthen its healthcare sector. 

Nigeria/ Morocco: Two Memoranda of Understanding have been signed to advance gas pipeline project (North Africa Post)
- Once completed, the project will provide gas to all West African countries and will also provide a new alternative export route to Europe. 

East Africa

Uganda: Equatorial Power and GIZ join forces to solarise rural clinics (Afrik 21)
- The electricity provider is teaming up with the German development agency to provide solar energy to over 27 health centres in the West Nile region of Uganda.  

Southern Africa

South Africa: Interest in wind project is growing in country’s C&I sector (ESI Africa)
- Op-ed exploring how wind energy could offer the sector security and predictability of supply at competitive costs.  

South Africa: Country’s EV dream threatens USD8.5 billion in climate aid (Bloomberg)
- South Africa wants to spend billions fostering its electric vehicle industry, complicating efforts to finalise its climate aid package before next month’s COP27 conference.

South Africa: Country to unveil climate investment plan at COP27 (Bloomberg)
- A one of the world’s largest polluters, South Africa is set announce details on how it intends to cut emissions at the climate conference in Egypt next month.  

South Africa: Green hydrogen research to support clean energy transition (ESI Africa)
- Sasol has announced two partnerships to push its green hydrogen research and development in the country. 

Africa - other

Carbon: Time for action on Africa’s carbon market opportunity (The Africa Report)
- Op-ed exploring how, as the world struggles to address the climate crisis, carbon credits and associated products have the potential to strengthen African economies and advance the global fight against climate change. 

Clean energy: Development Finance Corporation invests in fund to increase energy access (CleanTecnica)
- In a bid to boost initiatives to increase energy access, DFC has announced a participation of up to USD40 million in the Energy Entrepreneurs Growth Fund, in a mix of junior and senior notes.

DRC: USAID grants USD15 million to expand energy access (ESI Africa)
- USAID has awarded a grant to Baobab+, a distributor of solar home systems in Western Africa and Madagascar, to help tackle the country’s very low electrification rates. 

ESG: Africa’s biggest bank arranges ESG loan for Grit Real Estate Income Group (Grit) (Bloomberg)
- Grit is raising USD306 million in a sustainability linked debt deal arranged by Standard bank and other South African lenders. 

Egypt: TAQA Arabia powers up solar plant in Sharm El-Sheikh (Renewables Now)
- The 20MW solar farm is one of the largest of its kind in the Red Sea resort town and is expected to generate more than 42GWh of renewable energy annually.  

Green finance: The Green Climate Fund is releasing EUR220 million to finance energy efficiency (Afrik21)
- The funding will support the implementation of the Program for Energy Efficiency in Buildings (PEEB), a multilateral initiative that aims to support the design and construction of sustainable buildings in eleven countries, including Morocco, Tunisia, Nigeria and Djibouti.

Pacific

Climate: Small island states to propose response fund for climate victims (Pina) 
- At next month’s COP27 summit, The Alliance of Small Island States will present a proposal for a loss and damage response fund to help climate victims recover from snowballing impacts. 

Cook Islands: Country partners with Australia (Pina) 
- Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown has announced his hopes for financial support to tackle climate change following the signing of a new partnership deal with Australia. 

Rest of the world

Climate change: Global CO2 emissions to grow less than 1% this year thanks to renewables (Reuters) 
- According to the IEA, emissions are on course to increase by nearly 300 million tonnes, which is a far smaller rise than their jump of nearly 2 billion tonnes in 2021.. 

Climate change: Keeping climate change under control requires six times more ambition (Bloomberg) 
- Op-ed exploring how new promises by countries to reduce their carbon footprints will cut emissions by 7% from 2019 levels, falling far short of the required 43% reduction.  

Climate finance: MDBs committed USD51 billion in climate finance to developing countries in 2021, claims report (AfDB) 
- According to the recently published Joint Report on Multilateral Development Banks’s Climate Finance, the amount committed surpassed the annual expectations of USD50 billion set in 2019 at the UN Secretary General’s Climate Action Summit in New York.  

Green finance: Rich nations use ‘dishonest’ climate finance claims, says Oxfam (Bloomberg) 
- Op-ed exploring how, according to Oxfam International, contributions to poor countries are overstated and loans are making up a significant portion of climate finance.

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