NABA with scenario session at COP26

COP26 in Glasgow has entered the second week. This is the largest climate conference throughout the year – being the world’s largest annual diplomatic conference on climate change, academic conference on climate change, gathering on environment and climate NGOs, and the largest business conference on climate change each year.  

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In Glasgow NABA invited four key stakeholders: Mr. Wale Shonibare - Africa Development Bank, Ms. Ayaan Adam - Africa Finance Corporation, Mr. Theo Acheampong - IHS Markit and Mr. Mike Hayes - KPMG to a conversation about the Energy Scenarios in Africa – ten years ahead. Our members DNV and Equinor also took part in the conversation.

Some of the highlights included:

Investments are necessary, impact of climate on physical infrastructure needs to be taken into account, education and data is essential, energy security - constrained optimization problem (core is energy security; environment comes second), mobilize local capital - “no country has ever developed from foreign investment”, not more debt but equity and partnerships, Africa will have similar development as Asia, Africa is not transitioning, it is still building. The affordability is essential, and cutting emissions needs to come from developed nations. It is not all about Africa’s transition but the West needs to do its part to decarbonize.

These are some of the highlights from the conversation. We will use the input from the session in a forthcoming note on Africa’s energy future.

In 2022 COP will take place in Egypt, and NABA will aim to contribute by facilitating action-oriented spaces like the one we did in Glasgow.

Follow interesting session at COP this week:

• African Development Bank

• Sustainable Energy for All

• COP26 Leaders’ Event: Africa Adaptation Acceleration Summit

Readings presented by our members:

• Leveraging clean energy to drive industrialisation in Sub-Saharan Africa: Imaginaries and Realities
  Written by Dr. Theo Acheampong, Senior Analyst Country Risk – Sub-Saharan Africa, IHS Markit

• Net-Zero Equity: Mobilizing Capital to Fight Climate Change
  A World Economic Forum paper where KPMG's Michael Hayes is a contributor

• Focus COP26: How can Africa attract more solar investments?
  Written by NABA Advisory Board member and CEO of Empower New Energy, Terje Osmundsen

• DNV Energy Transition Outlook