Martin Endjala
Namibia is stepping up its readiness to ensure that the country develops strong alternative energy projects which will enable a smooth-sailing green economy that will be a global driver for green energy.
This comes after the Environmental Investment Fund of Namibia under the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism as the National Designated Authority (NDA) successfully secured funds from the Green Climate Change (GCF) to the value of USD300 000 for a Readiness Funding project titled Green, Resilient Recovery Rapid Readiness Support in Namibia.
This was confirmed yesterday by EIF Corporate Communications and Marketing Manager, Lot Ndamanomhata, who said that the project will run for seven months and since the Environmental Investment Fund of Namibia is accredited to the Green Climate Fund, will function as the delivery partner for this project. The Funds were secured on the 31st of December 2021.
In addition to providing Direct Access Entities such as the Investment Fund of Namibia with grant funding, the Green Climate Fund also provides readiness and preparatory support activities to enhance country ownership and to ensure access during the early stages of the GCF.
Ndamanomhata said, the support provided, is cross-cutting and ongoing and will strengthen the interaction between the country and the Green Climate Fund.
Where the readiness programme targets all developing countries but, however, prioritizes particularly vulnerable counties.
The readiness and preparatory support programme have five main activity areas. These are the Strengthening of the National Designed Authority and Focal Partners, Developing Strategic Frameworks, Preparing Entities for Accreditation, Developing Pipelines, and Sharing Information and Experiences.
These areas are centered around the National Designated Authority which is responsible for focal point oversight and being assisted by the Environmental Investment jointly as a delivery partner for this readiness-supported project.
During a one-day inception meeting held last week, the EIF Communications Manager said that it served as a platform for the introduction of the readiness project to the targeted stakeholders, project implementation modalities, familiarizing stakeholders with the project’s objectives, and intended activities and ensuring ownership and scope of the readiness programme.
The project objective is aimed at supporting the feasibility study on the three green valleys as identified in the Green Hydrogen Strategy where Namibia aspires to create an at-scale green fuels industry with a production target of 10- 12 Mega tons per annum (Mtpa) hydrogen equivalent by the year 2050.
To this end, it will develop three hydrogen valleys in the southern region of Kharas, the central coastal region including the port of Walvis Bay port, the central region, and the northern region of Kunene.
Namibia also aspires to establish an integrated, thriving green ecosystem across Southern Africa by creating synergies in shared infrastructure, manufacturing collaboration and power exports with, for example, South Africa, Botswana, Zambia and Angola.
According to the Green Hydrogen Strategy (2022), Namibia is rightly positioned to partake in reducing the anticipated global hydrogen demand-supply gap and lowering the cost of the net-zero transition.
The strategy maintains that many countries will not be able to meet their demand fully or cost-effectively through domestic production, instead, they will have to rely on energy partnerships with countries that have more abundant renewable resources to close supply gaps and lower costs.
Its natural endowments that Namibia enjoys give Namibians a comparable advantage and enable the country to make a tremendous contribution to the global transition to net zero while addressing its socioeconomic inequalities.
It is anticipated that the country will be able to form broadly shared prosperity for its people through Green Hydrogen production and exports in the long-term horizon.
To date, Namibia has been a recipient of six readiness-supported projects such as assisting the accredited entity, which EIF put in place required policies, and assisting the NDA to develop the green climate change country strategy to mention but a few.
The projects’ executing entity is the Office of the President through the Performance Delivery Unit with the support of the Ministry of Environment and the Investment Fund.
The National Planning Commission as well as the Ministry of Mines and Energy are the key stakeholders identified in the implementation of this project.
The two stakeholders were deemed essential to project implementation given their mandate of overseeing the energy and mining sectors as well as that spearheading national development.
It is expected that the stakeholders will also add value to the outcomes of the feasibility studies in the three valleys by partaking in the validation process as well as linking the recommendations to the country’s developmental priorities.
