Battle against climate change most acute in Africa

The African Development Bank (AfDB) is spearheading the African fight to limit climate change impacts, which have been strongly highlighted at global climate change talks. It has also just approved major solar-farm funding in Kenya and South Africa. The AfDB is at the Katowice Climate Change Conference (also known as COP24) to ensure that the voice of Africa is heard loud and clear in global climate negotiations. Amadou Hott, the bank's vice-president for power, energy, climate change and green growth, will lead a delegation of climate change experts in various fields (water and sanitation, transport, urbanisation and sustainable cities), able to shed light on the diversity and complexity of the issues raised by climate change. The bank said: “The degree of urgency is especially acute in the case of Africa, one of the regions of the world most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, as evidenced again by the terrible drought in east Africa in 2017 and the drought endured by South Africa in 2018. “In the ten-year period from 1995 to 2015, the African continent has suffered 136 episodes of drought, 77 of which have been in east Africa alone. “Drought, flood, rising sea levels, extreme weather events that threaten people's food security, ‘climate migrants’ – the list goes on, and the bill for climate change proves a high one for the African continent, despite it contributing less than 4% of world greenhouse gas emissions.” Of the ten countries in the world considered most threatened by climate change, seven are in Africa: Central African Republic, Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and South Sudan. And climate change is even responsible for shaving off 1.4 points of GDP in Africa every year. Meanwhile, the AfDB has approved a senior loan of ZAR3bn to the 100 MW Redstone Concentrated Solar Power Project, which is expected to boost South Africa’s energy mix and hasten the transition to renewable energy. Located in the Humansrus Solar Park, Northern Cape Province of South Africa, the solar power project is expected to generate 466 GWh/year. The project will also improve South Africa’s power supply and access to energy, as well as making the energy mix greener, which is currently dominated by coal at 82%. The AfDB has also approved an $18.17m senior loan to the 40 MWac (50MWp) Kopere Solar Power Project owned by Voltalia, an international player in the renewable energy sector. The bank is also in the process of securing an $11.6m concessional loan from the Climate Investment Fund’s Scaling-up Renewable Energy Program. The Kopere project, which falls under Kenya’s Renewable Energy Feed-in-Tariff (FiT) policy, encompasses the design, construction and operation of a 40 MWac (50MWp) solar PV power project in Nandi County. The project also involves the construction of a 33/132 kV substation, and a 1.8 km T-line to evacuate the electricity to the national grid. Mr Hott said: “This project could potentially be Kenya’s first utility-scale solar PV project under the FiT policy. We are confident that the provision of long-term and concessional financing to support the project with terms that are unavailable from commercial sources will have an important demonstration effect in attracting more investors to engage with Kenya’s vast solar opportunities.”

Battle against climate change most acute in Africa

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