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Story of the week
Recent Power for All report indicates that the decentralised renewable energy sector is a major source of stable employment, with an estimated 374,000 jobs across Africa alone.
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West Africa
G5 Sahel: Region faces worsening poverty crisis without climate adaptation (ESI Africa)
- The Country Climate and Development Report for the G5 Sahel region estimates that up to 13.5 million people could fall into poverty due to climate-change related shocks by 2050 unless urgency measures are taken.
Nigeria: Public and private sector players commit to Clean Energy Demand Initiative (ESI Africa)
- The agreement will allow the US government to assist the country in developing technologies for cleaner fuel sources, including gas, wind and solar energy.
Nigeria: Northern Corridor Project to improve grid network quality (Construction Review)
- The project, which will receive a EUR25 million cash injection from the French Development Agency, aims to strengthen low-carbon economic growth.
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East Africa
Malawi: LONGi partners with A.P. Moller-Maersk (PV Magazine)
- The two companies have joined forces to boost low-carbon business in Africa and held a joint ceremony in Shanghai to mark a donation project for Malawi; supplying and shipping 12 x 301kW high-efficiency modules to power hospitals, clinics, schools and villages.
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Southern Africa
Namibia: Generation and export licenses issued for 125MW solar plant (CleanTechnica)
- The Namibian Electricity Control Board has issued the first-of-their-kind licenses to Schonau Solar Energy for the solar PV plant being developed by Emesco, which will export power into the South African Power Pool’s electricity markets.
South Africa: Country to collaborate with US on climate change and energy action (ESI Africa)
- Presidents Cyril Ramaphosa and Joe Biden met last week to discuss how the countries might work together on climate and energy-related issues.
South Africa: Africa’s largest corporate solar PPA reaches financial close (Engineering News)
- SOLA and African Rainbow Energy have met the milestone on two 100MW solar projects less than six months after the PPAs were signed.
South Africa: Cape Town issues 7MW solar tender (TechCentral)
- The city has republished a tender to build a grid-tied solar plant next year as it moves to mitigate the impact of loadshedding.
South Africa: Eskom launches three procurement programmes (IT-Online)
- As part of broad measures to address loadshedding, the national utility has launched programmes which will focus on generators capable of supplying over 1MW to the grid.
South Africa: Redefine issues green building bond to decarbonise commercial real estate (Afrik21)
- The real estate investment company has successfully completed an USD84.8 million green bond, supported by the International Finance Corporation.
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Africa - other
C&I: Africa’s solar market is booming (ESI Africa)
- Renewable energy service provider Starsight Energy and South African firm SolarAfrica Energy are merging, subject to standard regulatory approval, to address the C&I sector’s energy needs across South, East and West Africa.
Emissions: The US announces grant to reduce emissions (AfDB)
- The US government has announced a USD5 million grant to support the AfDB in tackling methane emissions across Africa.
Green finance: AfDB launches toolkits for SMEs to tap into investment opportunities (AfDB)
The resources cover climate risk screening, business carbon footprints, mainstreaming climate growth and more, and are provided through the bank’s Private Sector Investment Initiative for NDCs.
Green finance: Power Up campaign calls for investment to tackle the climate crisis (Zawya)
- The new campaign is calling on wealthy nations to increase adaptation funding and to ensure a significant share of funding supports access to green, affordable energy for people facing climate catastrophe.
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Pacific
Climate change: Vulnerable countries demand global tax for loss and damage (PINA)
- According to leaked documents, the world’s most vulnerable countries are preparing to demand urgent finance from the richest economies for the irrevocable losses they are suffering from the climate crisis.
Preservation: Pacific atoll nations launch plan to preserve their sovereignty and heritage (PINA)
- The Rising Nations Initiative was announced this week and is a global partnership to protect countries as they disappear under rising seas, triggered by climate change.
Fiji: The climate crisis is a health crisis, says Bainimarama (PINA)
- Whilst delivering his statement at the Sustainable Surgical Systems and Planetary Heath event, the Prime Minister spoke on how Fijians know from experience that the climate emergency is a health crisis and that “climate resilience sits at the centre of our health policy”.
Marshall Islands: We must tame “climate change monster”, says Amata Kabua (RNZ)
- The President has urged world leaders to drastically increase renewable energy and bemoaned the global “addiction to fossil fuels”.
Vanuatu: Country calls for treaty to end fossil fuel era (PINA)
- Vanuatu has called other nations to join them in establishing the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, a proposed international mechanism that aims to stop the expansion of new fossil fuel projects.
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Rest of the world
Climate change: Climate is a security policy issue (ESI Africa)
- Op-ed exploring how the fight for natural resources is a common trigger for conflict in many places and that developing countries need support in adapting to the challenges and problems created by climate change.
Climate change: Financing is critical to ease the impact of climate change on the vulnerable (ESI Africa)
- At a ministerial meeting on climate development, leaders called for urgent financing for the countries which bear the severest brunt of climate change.
Climate change: International “collaboration gap” threatens climate progress (IEA)
- Newly released Breakthrough Agenda Report delivers a progress report on actions needed to deliver on the clean technology commitments made by government representing two-thirds of the global economy and warns that greater international cooperation is needed.
Employment: Decentralised renewable energy is creating hundreds of thousands of jobs (Rockerfeller)
- The recently published Power for All Distributed Renewable Energy Job Report shows that the sector is a major source for stable employment and that the demand for skilled workers in the off-grid energy sector has resumed its upward trajectory following the pandemic.
Fossil fuels: “Polluters must pay”, says UN secretary general (The Guardian)
- António Guterres has said that countries should impose windfall taxes on fossil fuel companies and divert money to vulnerable nations.
Renewables: 12 myths about hydropower (ESI Africa)
- Op-ed using evidence to debunk the most common misconceptions about the clean energy source.
Renewables: LONGi achieves world record for p-type solar cell efficiency (PV Magazine)
- The Chinese PV module maker has announced the achievement of a power conversion efficiency of 26.12% for a gallium-dopes, p-type heterojunction solar cell based on an M6 wafer.
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