Africa-Press – Namibia. PRESIDENT Hage Geingob has announced the unlocking of over 5 700 square kilometres in the //Kharas region for the development of green hydro and ammonia asset projects.
The president announced this during the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), which is currently underway in Glasgow, Scotland. The development of the projects are part of an economy-wide ‘prosperity’ initiative which Geingob says is expected to double the region’s employment figures.
The initiative is expected to triple the installed renewable energy generation capacity of the entire country. “We are taking these bold steps to enhance our energy security, decarbonise our country, assist our regional and global peers to reduce their emissions, and build a more resilient economy,” Geingob said yesterday.
If realised, this would make Namibia the first carbon-neutral African nation. Geingob said Namibia supports the push of the United Nations’ secretary general to phase out coal-generation power stations.
He said the country would do this by significantly scaling up solar and wind energy to support domestic demand. “This is the single most important step to keeping the Paris Agreement’s 1,5 degree Celsius-target alive,” he said.
The president further called for the US$100 billion target for climate finance to be surpassed by the COP. He demanded a clear roadmap on how the committed amounts would be delivered.
“We urge an increased volume of grants, rather than loans, to make it possible for emerging economies carrying high debt burdens to kick-start transformative projects,” Geingob said.
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