The African Development Bank has launched a $500m initiative to assist African nations to shutter coal-fired power plants in favour of renewable energy.
Speaking at the UN climate action summit, the bank’s president Akinwumi Adesina told delegates the bank’s $500m "green baseload scheme" will help African countries transition from coal and fossil fuel to renewable energy. It will be rolled out in 2020 and is expected to yield $5bn of investment.
"Coal is the past, and renewable energy is the future," Adesina said. "For us at the African Development Bank, we’re getting out of coal."
The bank has an investment portfolio worth $52bn and is a financier of developmental projects across Africa. Its announcement comes amid mounting pressure for countries to move away from fossil fuels towards green energy in a bid to deal with carbon emissions that are stoking climate change.
In SA, Eskom’s fleet of coal-fired power stations account for the bulk of the country’s carbon emissions. But new coal independent power producers Thabametsi and Khanyisa are struggling to reach financial closure as a number of banks have refused to finance them.
Adesina said the bank’s efforts to help Africa move away from fossil fuel include the development of the "largest solar zone in the world" in the arid Sahel belt. He outlined plans for $20bn of investments in solar and clean energy that would provide the region’s 250-million people with 10,000MW of electricity.
The meeting is part of the run-up to the global climate talks in 2020, which is the next deadline for countries to make emissions reduction pledges.
President Cyril Ramaphosa is not attending the event, but in a statement issued by the presidency he said SA recognised the urgency with which it must reduce its dependence on fossil fuels and move towards a carbon-neutral future.
However, he said it was SA’s and Africa’s view that the climate crisis cannot be solved outside a development context.
"SA’s national development plan 2030 identifies poverty, inequality and unemployment as our most serious national development challenges. Overcoming these triple challenges fundamentally informs our approach to addressing climate change."
Ramaphosa said it was imperative that the transition does not deepen inequality.
"We must ensure that we leave no-one behind. At the same time, we must create new opportunities for all in our economy," he said.
Meeting climate change commitments will be challenging for SA and requires partners in developed countries to do their fair share and fulfil obligations to assist developing countries through technology and skills transfer, financing and other means, he said.
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