By: Andrew Kathindi
President Hage Geingob says that Namibia has amplified its 2015 pledge to reduce its national emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) to 91% by 2030.
“We now aspire to reduce our emissions by 91% before the end of this decade. The estimated investment required to achieve this target is approximately USD 5.3 billion, 10% of which is unconditional,” said the President.
Geingob made these remarks during his delivery at the 26th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, also known as COP26 taking place in Glasglow, United Kingdom.
The Namibian government in 2015 submitted its ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) with a pledge to reduce the country’s national emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) by 89% by 2030.
Since then, the Parties have agreed to announce a new round
of enhanced NDCs.
Geingob argued that grants, rather than loans, should be offered to smaller nations to allow them to participate in projects that would positively impact climate change.
“In our support for scaling up climate finance, we call for the $100 billion targets for climate finance needs to be surpassed as a target, with a clear roadmap on how the committed amounts will be delivered. We urge for an increased volume of grants, rather than loans, to make it possible for emerging economies carrying high debt burdens to kickstart transformative projects.”
This comes as, on Tuesday 2 November, the US, UK, France, Germany and European Union announced that they would help fund South Africa’s transition away from coal in a deal worth US8.5 billion.
According to reports, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson stated that the initial $8.5 billion partnership would help South Africa decarbonize its coal intensive energy system.
Geingob said that part of Namibia’s objectives at COP26 would be to support the phasing out of coal in its region by significantly scaling up solar and wind energy to support domestic demand, “whilst working with our neighbours to responsibly phase out existing coal generation in the Southern African Power Pool and transform our region’s energy map. This is the single most important step to keeping the Paris Agreement’s 1.5C target alive.”
Geingob further called for the conclusion and adoption of Article 6 at COP26.
Article 6 is one of the most complex concepts of the Paris Agreement and has been left unresolved since it was agreed to in 2015.
Article 6 essentially deals with intending to move towards low carbon economies by creating a carbon market, where countries who struggle to achieve their carbon reduction targets could, in essence, buy emissions reductions from countries that have managed to overachieve their goals.
“This critical step would provide the bedrock of an international carbon market mechanism necessary to drive funds to the places where emissions can be cut most effectively, to mobilize large scale private investment for climate action and to drive crucial innovation. Article 6 cannot wait for another COP.”
Geingob said Namibia would announce how the government plans to unlock over 5,700 square kilometres in the //Karas region for the potential development of green hydrogen and ammonia assets, expected to double the region’s employment triple the installed renewable energy generation capacity for the entire country.