For a long time now, one thing has been clear in the climate debate: The only certainty is uncertainty. This also becomes apparent when taking a closer look at the most essential data for climate action: Information about CO2 emissions. And this data has always been, and still is, riddled with uncertainty, especially when it comes to the biggest polluter, China, as Nico Beckert has found out.
This is surely one of the reasons why the People’s Republic often has problems with the term MRV in climate negotiations – “Measure, Report, Verify“, in other words, a transparent data basis. And many other countries also struggle to collect these numbers, which we will be reporting on in the coming weeks. That is when the “SBSTA” interim conference is scheduled in Bonn, where the decisions for the next COP28 in Dubai will be prepared. Climate.Table will be on the ground and report twice a week on events, negotiations and background information on the conference. We will start next Monday, the first day of the conference.
In this issue, we also take a look at how exactly the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) implements the gigantic IRA green investment package, the lofty plans for hydrogen in Africa and the planetary limits that have now been crossed.
The COP interim conference in Bonn, beginning on 5 June, will include a global stocktake on the progress of international climate policy. Emission data plays a central role here. However, data collection is not easy. Many developing countries have made little progress in data collection in recent years. And even China, the world’s largest CO2 emitter, faces significant challenges.
Chinese CO2 data is based on estimations and surrogate indicators such as energy consumption of production. However, the estimations for many energy-heavy sectors, such as metal processing or the chemical sector, are highly inaccurate and can vary significantly from facility to facility, according to experts from consulting agency Trivium China. “A lack of reliable industry-level emissions data will hamper officials ability to tailor policy to ensure the climate goals are met,” Cory Combs from Trivium China told Table.Media. The extent of the gap between estimated and actual emissions, however, remains unclear.
The confusion about China’s emissions is further increased because much of the data is not made available. Unlike traditional developed countries, there is “no regular reporting in place that would disclose the country’s total emissions,” explained energy expert Lauri Myllyvirta. The total CO2 emissions from the energy sector are only indirectly reported annually as a reduction in CO2 intensity relative to economic output, Myllyvirta clarified to Table.Media.
“There is no disaggregation by sectors,” Myllyvirta said. CO2 emissions from cement production and other industrial emissions are not disclosed. External analysts have to estimate the total CO2 data based on the published information. Moreover, China’s national greenhouse gas inventory is outdated. The last inventory was published in 2019 and was based on data from 2014. As a developing country (Annex II country), China is not required to report regularly to the UNFCCC.
The speculation about actual emissions could also lead to China reporting excessive CO2 emissions for 2022, explained Myllyvirta. To avoid energy crises like those experienced in the recent past, the government allowed for the expansion of domestic coal production. This led to an influx of lower-quality coal into the market. Power plants had to burn more of it to generate the same amount of energy. Thus, coal consumption increased, but not necessarily CO2 emissions. After all, emissions are not so much related to the quantity as they are to the quality of the coal.
If the quality decreases, so do emissions. However, coal mines incorrectly reported the decreasing quality or did not report it at all. As a result, authorities assumed a consistent quality despite increasing consumption and energy output, which resulted in rising emissions. According to official data, China’s emissions increased by 1.3 percent in 2022. However, the conflicting data on coal quality and other data points indicated a decrease in emissions of around 1 percent, according to expert Myllyvirta.
Combs also says, “The key driver of uncertainty in China’s emissions is its extensive use of coal” both for energy generation and industrial purposes, such as steel production. There are many “sources of data uncertainty”. Different types of coal of varying quality are used for various processes. China produces more steel than the rest of the world put together and has the most coal-fired power plants. The potential points for data issues accumulate “stack up at an order of magnitude that is second to none,” according to Combs.
China’s emissions trading system requires participating coal and gas power plants to submit annual emission reports, which are reviewed by local authorities. However, the necessary resources are lacking. “Many local governments have argued that they don’t have adequate resources to undertake the MRV process comprehensively, which often results in data falsification and the subsequent Emission reporting gap,” Seb Kennedy, an analyst at data provider Transition Zero, told Table.Media. Moreover, a significant portion of the data is reported by the companies themselves and not independently verified, Kennedy added.
Consulting firms responsible for data verification have advised companies to manipulate the data to avoid purchasing CO2 certificates. According to ETS expert Zhibin Chen from research and consulting company Adelphi, the Chinese Ministry of Ecology and Environment recognized the manipulation problem “in a timely manner and conducted a major data review, resulting in most of the data being corrected”. The government has issued new data collection guidelines. However, in a country as large as China, ensuring that every company and auditor can implement the same new standard is difficult, Chen explained. It takes time to identify and resolve the issues, according to the Adelphi expert.
Cory Combs from Trivium China said that without “accurate emissions data, there can be no accurate allocation of allowances” in emissions trading. At a certain point, “the carbon pricing mechanism could well be undermined“. The expansion of the emissions trading system to sectors such as steel, cement, and aluminum has been postponed due to the poor data situation in these sectors.
China is pursuing several measures to overcome data problems. The state:
According to Cory Combs from Trivium China, the Chinese Ministry of Ecology and Environment is focused on improving the “detail and accuracy of emission data”. However, many open questions remain about the possibility of achieving this in the near future, Combs concluded.
The current compromise in the US budget dispute also impacts the country’s climate policy: Environmentalists are outraged that the proposal includes the approval of the controversial Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) gas pipeline in West Virginia as well as faster planning processes for infrastructure projects. The White House, however, defends the deal because it leaves large parts of the IRA investment program untouched and, for instance, guarantees government spending for the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
This agency develops into the central instrument for the just climate transformation of the country. With a total of 40 billion dollars and a range of regulatory measures, the world’s largest environmental agency is advancing the Biden Administration’s most comprehensive global climate and investment plans. The agency’s Deputy Administrator, Janet McCabe, spoke with Table.Media about the details.
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is expected to pump about $370 billion into the green transformation of the United States over the next decade through tax breaks and depreciations. “The EPA has a very distinguishable role under the IRA,” says McCabe. “Primarily in setting up programs to fund activities.”
Overall, 27 billion dollars will flow into the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which the EPA uses as a central lever for climate investments (or “green bank”):
“This is very exciting,” says McCabe. Because such “green banks” have existed so far in the USA in states and municipalities, but not at the national level. In addition, the EPA supports the electrification of heavy trucks through subsidies, for example.
But the EPA programs also provide money if states draw up or renew their own climate plans. They can apply for programs “that are very difficult to fund because they are not included in the states’ budgets,” McCabe said. All but four US states (Iowa, Florida, Kentucky and South Dakota) have submitted such applications, the EPA Deputy Administrator said. “The President and Congress want the money to flow quickly.”
McCabe cannot say whether the refusal to take the climate money also has political reasons – all four states in question are governed by Republicans. According to McCabe, political decision-makers at the lower level are less ideological than practical-minded: “No one wants their community to be flooded all the time, no one wants forest fires, no one wants people stuck inside because it’s too hot outside.”
However, the past has already shown that despite Republican attacks against Biden’s climate policy and their counter-votes in Congress, significantly more IRA money flows to “red,” i.e. Republican-governed states than to “blue” Democrat states.
However, the EPA is using not only money, but also legislation and standards to work toward the Biden Administration’s climate goal. The agency wants to put the US on a path to net zero by 2050 and CO2-free electricity by 2035. To this end, the agency is currently working on the following measures:
According to the EPA Deputy Administrator, this approach is technology-based: Depending on technological progress, such as emissions technology, the conditions would be tightened. And especially when it comes to power plant regulations, the Biden Administration wants to avoid a failure like the one the Obama Administration suffered: The Obama Administration’s “Clean Power Plan,” which McCabe had already worked on at the EPA, failed at the US Supreme Court in 2016. Today, as the agency’s Deputy Administrator, McCabe sees her new power plant regulation on the safe side. She says lessons have been learned from the court defeat, and “we are now very confident that we are on solid legal ground.”
However, US environmentalists fear the EPA’s powers in this area will be curtailed further. In the case of the so-called “Chevron doctrine,” named after a legal dispute between the oil company Chevron and the EPA, it is suspected that the now highly conservative US Supreme Court could challenge this rule. So far, it compels federal courts to defer to a federal agency’s interpretation of an ambiguous or unclear statute.
McCabe said that her agency is recovering well from the four years under Trump. Although “several thousand employees were lost” under Trump’s EPA chiefs, many are returning. With 15,000 employees, the EPA currently has “more staff than at the end of the Obama era.”
Under Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, the Namibian government has paved the way for an ambitious energy project. Last week, the cabinet approved an agreement with Hyphen Hydrogen Energy. Among others, the South African subsidiary of the German company Enertrag is involved in the joint venture. The project envisages investments of ten billion euros in the construction of plants for the production of green hydrogen near the coastal city of Lüderitz.
The state of Namibia can participate in the project as an investor with up to 24 percent. To this end, the Dutch funding institution Invest International B.V. and the European Investment Bank are providing the Namibian government with 540 million euros on favorable terms, according to a presentation.
Construction is to be completed by 2030. By then, Namibia will produce more than two million tons of ammonia for global and local energy markets. The necessary water will be obtained from seawater desalination plants in the Atlantic, and the electricity to produce the hydrogen will be generated by wind and solar power plants. In addition, plants for converting the hydrogen into ammonia and a new port for shipping will be needed.
“The project is so extensively designed that it not only has the potential to supply the growing town of Lüderitz with fresh water, but also to make Namibia’s entire energy sector CO2-neutral in one fell swoop,” says Till Mansmann, the development policy spokesperson for the German Free Democratic Party (FDP).
This project is one of three to be realized in Africa with German participation: Besides Namibia, similar projects are also being developed in Angola and Mauritania.
Apart from the Germans, many other investors and project developers are active in Africa. Two similar projects are in the pipeline in Namibia alone. But investors are also active elsewhere. In many locations, the conditions are ideal: Water can be obtained from the Atlantic or the Indian Ocean and numerous sites offer plenty of potential for solar power.
“Pioneering African countries such as Mauritania are showing the way, proving that Africa can help the world with green hydrogen – ensuring for itself a future of industrial development, fast and clean growth for all,” says Thierry Lepercq, President of Hydeal, a project to bring hydrogen via pipelines from Spain to France and Germany.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) has named four promising sites in a study: Morocco, Mauritania, Southern Africa and Egypt – the EIB did not list Kenya, where Germany is also taking an interest. “Harnessing Africa’s solar energy to produce 50 million tons of green hydrogen a year by 2035 can help secure global energy supply, create jobs, decarbonize heavy industry, enhance global competitiveness and transform access to clean water and sustainable energy,” the study says.
One trillion euros of green hydrogen investment can provide the equivalent of more than one-third of Africa’s current energy consumption, boost GDP, secure access to clean water, and empower communities, write the authors of the EIB study.
An investment of one trillion euros could yield seven exajoules of energy annually. This is equivalent to around 1.9 million GWh. In 2021, consumption in Africa was 19.9 exajoules. According to the EIB, this would lead to a massive increase in GDP and create permanent and skilled jobs across Africa.
Green hydrogen would then become a huge trigger for growth on the African continent. These perspectives are still vague futures. Many questions remain unanswered. One sticking point, for example, could be the distribution of green hydrogen between the Global North and the Global South. Christian von Hiller
For weeks, Germany has been engaged in heated debates about the “heating transition” and the ban on fossil energy for heating buildings. However, the better buildings are insulated, the less energy is needed to keep the heat inside (or outside). So it’s interesting to take a look at other European countries: How quickly is energy lost in heated houses?
The overview shows: Germany is doing comparatively well. Within five hours, the temperature in a building heated to 20 degrees with an outside temperature of 0 degrees drops by one degree. Only Norway performs a little better – but in most other countries, buildings lose warmth much faster due to thin walls, poorly insulated doors and windows, and roofs: In France by 2.5 degrees, in the United Kingdom by as much as 3 degrees in five hours. bpo
Energy has been on Bärbel Höhn’s mind for a long time. When the Green politician first entered the state parliament of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia in 1990, she focused on the use of waste to generate energy. Today, the 71-year-old serves as a voluntary energy representative for Africa in the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. In this capacity, she attempts to boost economic development in the Global South.
“Energy is really a driver, and therefore something very different from the other sustainability goals,” says Höhn. Access to affordable and clean energy is goal seven of the 17 SDGs. “With energy, I can better achieve two-thirds of the other goals.” This is already true of the first three SDGs: fighting poverty and hunger, and providing health care for all.
At the BMZ, Höhn is now in charge of the Green Citizen Energy project, which promotes decentralized energy generation in rural areas across nine African countries – including Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Benin, Ethiopia, Uganda, Zambia, Mozambique and Namibia. Small, decentralized projects often make more sense in rural areas than connecting to a national power grid, Höhn explains. In addition, the countries of the Global South often have the advantage that, unlike the developed countries, they have not yet used old technology. This means they can install modern equipment straight away.
The project aims to make productive use of energy, for example, to achieve better crop yields by cooling, drying, or further processing agricultural produce. Or by cooling pharmaceuticals, making them last longer. This not only creates more economic activity, says the energy representative for Africa.
The ministry uses a payment model: The electricity is cheap, but not free. On the one hand, this is intended to encourage operators to properly maintain the mostly solar-powered systems; on the other hand, entrepreneurship is to be promoted, thus creating jobs. For maintenance, and to protect people from low-quality equipment, the project provides education and measuring equipment. The small grids are financed by Clean Energy and Energy Inclusion for Africa, which Höhn founded with the German development bank KfW specifically for this purpose.
Höhn believes that development work and energy issues should be seen more closely related. 2015 was a pivotal year for her, she says. That’s when the United Nations Sustainability Summit and the Paris Climate Conference were held. “Just as I had to learn to deal with development cooperation as an energy expert, it’s also very important that development experts recognize the opportunities of energy,” Höhn says that promoting renewables in the countries of the Global South is essential for the future. But Germany, too, must see itself as a country that needs to develop further, she adds.
While studying mathematics and economics in Kiel in the 1970s, Höhn was already politically active, and committed to the environment and peace. But she started to get really involved after moving to Oberhausen in 1980, when her young son developed severe bronchitis only a few months later. Höhn became active in citizens’ initiatives against the incineration of toxic waste and for better kindergartens. At first without joining a political party, then as a member of the Green Party. As a member of the state parliament, she fought against the Garzweiler II open pit mine – she could not prevent it, but at least it will be the last of its kind in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Höhn first came into contact with development work in preparation for the state elections and coalition negotiations 1995: She took charge of the Eine-Welt-Arbeit for the Green Party. From 2000, she served as state minister for the environment, nature conservation and agriculture, and was the first German minister ever to be responsible for consumer protection. Cooperation with countries of the Global South as part of Eine-Welt-Arbeit was thus directly in her area of responsibility, for example with the coal country South Africa. In 2005, Bärbel Höhn moved to the German Bundestag. As MP, she worked with Christian Social Union (CSU) politician and later Development Minister Gerd Müller, who eventually appointed her to the BMZ.
Despite their differences, they got along well, says Höhn. When Müller took office at the BMZ, she scoffed, “Now you have to repair all the damage on this earth that you caused before with the export of pork.” Nevertheless, Müller appointed her to his ministry in 2017, together with Josef Göppel (CSU), as energy representatives for Africa. And her acting successor, Svenja Schulze (SPD), also seems to appreciate Höhn’s work – she now works under the new leadership in the same position. Arne Schütte
For a long time now, one thing has been clear in the climate debate: The only certainty is uncertainty. This also becomes apparent when taking a closer look at the most essential data for climate action: Information about CO2 emissions. And this data has always been, and still is, riddled with uncertainty, especially when it comes to the biggest polluter, China, as Nico Beckert has found out.
This is surely one of the reasons why the People’s Republic often has problems with the term MRV in climate negotiations – “Measure, Report, Verify“, in other words, a transparent data basis. And many other countries also struggle to collect these numbers, which we will be reporting on in the coming weeks. That is when the “SBSTA” interim conference is scheduled in Bonn, where the decisions for the next COP28 in Dubai will be prepared. Climate.Table will be on the ground and report twice a week on events, negotiations and background information on the conference. We will start next Monday, the first day of the conference.
In this issue, we also take a look at how exactly the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) implements the gigantic IRA green investment package, the lofty plans for hydrogen in Africa and the planetary limits that have now been crossed.
The COP interim conference in Bonn, beginning on 5 June, will include a global stocktake on the progress of international climate policy. Emission data plays a central role here. However, data collection is not easy. Many developing countries have made little progress in data collection in recent years. And even China, the world’s largest CO2 emitter, faces significant challenges.
Chinese CO2 data is based on estimations and surrogate indicators such as energy consumption of production. However, the estimations for many energy-heavy sectors, such as metal processing or the chemical sector, are highly inaccurate and can vary significantly from facility to facility, according to experts from consulting agency Trivium China. “A lack of reliable industry-level emissions data will hamper officials ability to tailor policy to ensure the climate goals are met,” Cory Combs from Trivium China told Table.Media. The extent of the gap between estimated and actual emissions, however, remains unclear.
The confusion about China’s emissions is further increased because much of the data is not made available. Unlike traditional developed countries, there is “no regular reporting in place that would disclose the country’s total emissions,” explained energy expert Lauri Myllyvirta. The total CO2 emissions from the energy sector are only indirectly reported annually as a reduction in CO2 intensity relative to economic output, Myllyvirta clarified to Table.Media.
“There is no disaggregation by sectors,” Myllyvirta said. CO2 emissions from cement production and other industrial emissions are not disclosed. External analysts have to estimate the total CO2 data based on the published information. Moreover, China’s national greenhouse gas inventory is outdated. The last inventory was published in 2019 and was based on data from 2014. As a developing country (Annex II country), China is not required to report regularly to the UNFCCC.
The speculation about actual emissions could also lead to China reporting excessive CO2 emissions for 2022, explained Myllyvirta. To avoid energy crises like those experienced in the recent past, the government allowed for the expansion of domestic coal production. This led to an influx of lower-quality coal into the market. Power plants had to burn more of it to generate the same amount of energy. Thus, coal consumption increased, but not necessarily CO2 emissions. After all, emissions are not so much related to the quantity as they are to the quality of the coal.
If the quality decreases, so do emissions. However, coal mines incorrectly reported the decreasing quality or did not report it at all. As a result, authorities assumed a consistent quality despite increasing consumption and energy output, which resulted in rising emissions. According to official data, China’s emissions increased by 1.3 percent in 2022. However, the conflicting data on coal quality and other data points indicated a decrease in emissions of around 1 percent, according to expert Myllyvirta.
Combs also says, “The key driver of uncertainty in China’s emissions is its extensive use of coal” both for energy generation and industrial purposes, such as steel production. There are many “sources of data uncertainty”. Different types of coal of varying quality are used for various processes. China produces more steel than the rest of the world put together and has the most coal-fired power plants. The potential points for data issues accumulate “stack up at an order of magnitude that is second to none,” according to Combs.
China’s emissions trading system requires participating coal and gas power plants to submit annual emission reports, which are reviewed by local authorities. However, the necessary resources are lacking. “Many local governments have argued that they don’t have adequate resources to undertake the MRV process comprehensively, which often results in data falsification and the subsequent Emission reporting gap,” Seb Kennedy, an analyst at data provider Transition Zero, told Table.Media. Moreover, a significant portion of the data is reported by the companies themselves and not independently verified, Kennedy added.
Consulting firms responsible for data verification have advised companies to manipulate the data to avoid purchasing CO2 certificates. According to ETS expert Zhibin Chen from research and consulting company Adelphi, the Chinese Ministry of Ecology and Environment recognized the manipulation problem “in a timely manner and conducted a major data review, resulting in most of the data being corrected”. The government has issued new data collection guidelines. However, in a country as large as China, ensuring that every company and auditor can implement the same new standard is difficult, Chen explained. It takes time to identify and resolve the issues, according to the Adelphi expert.
Cory Combs from Trivium China said that without “accurate emissions data, there can be no accurate allocation of allowances” in emissions trading. At a certain point, “the carbon pricing mechanism could well be undermined“. The expansion of the emissions trading system to sectors such as steel, cement, and aluminum has been postponed due to the poor data situation in these sectors.
China is pursuing several measures to overcome data problems. The state:
According to Cory Combs from Trivium China, the Chinese Ministry of Ecology and Environment is focused on improving the “detail and accuracy of emission data”. However, many open questions remain about the possibility of achieving this in the near future, Combs concluded.
The current compromise in the US budget dispute also impacts the country’s climate policy: Environmentalists are outraged that the proposal includes the approval of the controversial Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) gas pipeline in West Virginia as well as faster planning processes for infrastructure projects. The White House, however, defends the deal because it leaves large parts of the IRA investment program untouched and, for instance, guarantees government spending for the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
This agency develops into the central instrument for the just climate transformation of the country. With a total of 40 billion dollars and a range of regulatory measures, the world’s largest environmental agency is advancing the Biden Administration’s most comprehensive global climate and investment plans. The agency’s Deputy Administrator, Janet McCabe, spoke with Table.Media about the details.
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is expected to pump about $370 billion into the green transformation of the United States over the next decade through tax breaks and depreciations. “The EPA has a very distinguishable role under the IRA,” says McCabe. “Primarily in setting up programs to fund activities.”
Overall, 27 billion dollars will flow into the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which the EPA uses as a central lever for climate investments (or “green bank”):
“This is very exciting,” says McCabe. Because such “green banks” have existed so far in the USA in states and municipalities, but not at the national level. In addition, the EPA supports the electrification of heavy trucks through subsidies, for example.
But the EPA programs also provide money if states draw up or renew their own climate plans. They can apply for programs “that are very difficult to fund because they are not included in the states’ budgets,” McCabe said. All but four US states (Iowa, Florida, Kentucky and South Dakota) have submitted such applications, the EPA Deputy Administrator said. “The President and Congress want the money to flow quickly.”
McCabe cannot say whether the refusal to take the climate money also has political reasons – all four states in question are governed by Republicans. According to McCabe, political decision-makers at the lower level are less ideological than practical-minded: “No one wants their community to be flooded all the time, no one wants forest fires, no one wants people stuck inside because it’s too hot outside.”
However, the past has already shown that despite Republican attacks against Biden’s climate policy and their counter-votes in Congress, significantly more IRA money flows to “red,” i.e. Republican-governed states than to “blue” Democrat states.
However, the EPA is using not only money, but also legislation and standards to work toward the Biden Administration’s climate goal. The agency wants to put the US on a path to net zero by 2050 and CO2-free electricity by 2035. To this end, the agency is currently working on the following measures:
According to the EPA Deputy Administrator, this approach is technology-based: Depending on technological progress, such as emissions technology, the conditions would be tightened. And especially when it comes to power plant regulations, the Biden Administration wants to avoid a failure like the one the Obama Administration suffered: The Obama Administration’s “Clean Power Plan,” which McCabe had already worked on at the EPA, failed at the US Supreme Court in 2016. Today, as the agency’s Deputy Administrator, McCabe sees her new power plant regulation on the safe side. She says lessons have been learned from the court defeat, and “we are now very confident that we are on solid legal ground.”
However, US environmentalists fear the EPA’s powers in this area will be curtailed further. In the case of the so-called “Chevron doctrine,” named after a legal dispute between the oil company Chevron and the EPA, it is suspected that the now highly conservative US Supreme Court could challenge this rule. So far, it compels federal courts to defer to a federal agency’s interpretation of an ambiguous or unclear statute.
McCabe said that her agency is recovering well from the four years under Trump. Although “several thousand employees were lost” under Trump’s EPA chiefs, many are returning. With 15,000 employees, the EPA currently has “more staff than at the end of the Obama era.”
Under Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, the Namibian government has paved the way for an ambitious energy project. Last week, the cabinet approved an agreement with Hyphen Hydrogen Energy. Among others, the South African subsidiary of the German company Enertrag is involved in the joint venture. The project envisages investments of ten billion euros in the construction of plants for the production of green hydrogen near the coastal city of Lüderitz.
The state of Namibia can participate in the project as an investor with up to 24 percent. To this end, the Dutch funding institution Invest International B.V. and the European Investment Bank are providing the Namibian government with 540 million euros on favorable terms, according to a presentation.
Construction is to be completed by 2030. By then, Namibia will produce more than two million tons of ammonia for global and local energy markets. The necessary water will be obtained from seawater desalination plants in the Atlantic, and the electricity to produce the hydrogen will be generated by wind and solar power plants. In addition, plants for converting the hydrogen into ammonia and a new port for shipping will be needed.
“The project is so extensively designed that it not only has the potential to supply the growing town of Lüderitz with fresh water, but also to make Namibia’s entire energy sector CO2-neutral in one fell swoop,” says Till Mansmann, the development policy spokesperson for the German Free Democratic Party (FDP).
This project is one of three to be realized in Africa with German participation: Besides Namibia, similar projects are also being developed in Angola and Mauritania.
Apart from the Germans, many other investors and project developers are active in Africa. Two similar projects are in the pipeline in Namibia alone. But investors are also active elsewhere. In many locations, the conditions are ideal: Water can be obtained from the Atlantic or the Indian Ocean and numerous sites offer plenty of potential for solar power.
“Pioneering African countries such as Mauritania are showing the way, proving that Africa can help the world with green hydrogen – ensuring for itself a future of industrial development, fast and clean growth for all,” says Thierry Lepercq, President of Hydeal, a project to bring hydrogen via pipelines from Spain to France and Germany.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) has named four promising sites in a study: Morocco, Mauritania, Southern Africa and Egypt – the EIB did not list Kenya, where Germany is also taking an interest. “Harnessing Africa’s solar energy to produce 50 million tons of green hydrogen a year by 2035 can help secure global energy supply, create jobs, decarbonize heavy industry, enhance global competitiveness and transform access to clean water and sustainable energy,” the study says.
One trillion euros of green hydrogen investment can provide the equivalent of more than one-third of Africa’s current energy consumption, boost GDP, secure access to clean water, and empower communities, write the authors of the EIB study.
An investment of one trillion euros could yield seven exajoules of energy annually. This is equivalent to around 1.9 million GWh. In 2021, consumption in Africa was 19.9 exajoules. According to the EIB, this would lead to a massive increase in GDP and create permanent and skilled jobs across Africa.
Green hydrogen would then become a huge trigger for growth on the African continent. These perspectives are still vague futures. Many questions remain unanswered. One sticking point, for example, could be the distribution of green hydrogen between the Global North and the Global South. Christian von Hiller
For weeks, Germany has been engaged in heated debates about the “heating transition” and the ban on fossil energy for heating buildings. However, the better buildings are insulated, the less energy is needed to keep the heat inside (or outside). So it’s interesting to take a look at other European countries: How quickly is energy lost in heated houses?
The overview shows: Germany is doing comparatively well. Within five hours, the temperature in a building heated to 20 degrees with an outside temperature of 0 degrees drops by one degree. Only Norway performs a little better – but in most other countries, buildings lose warmth much faster due to thin walls, poorly insulated doors and windows, and roofs: In France by 2.5 degrees, in the United Kingdom by as much as 3 degrees in five hours. bpo
Energy has been on Bärbel Höhn’s mind for a long time. When the Green politician first entered the state parliament of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia in 1990, she focused on the use of waste to generate energy. Today, the 71-year-old serves as a voluntary energy representative for Africa in the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. In this capacity, she attempts to boost economic development in the Global South.
“Energy is really a driver, and therefore something very different from the other sustainability goals,” says Höhn. Access to affordable and clean energy is goal seven of the 17 SDGs. “With energy, I can better achieve two-thirds of the other goals.” This is already true of the first three SDGs: fighting poverty and hunger, and providing health care for all.
At the BMZ, Höhn is now in charge of the Green Citizen Energy project, which promotes decentralized energy generation in rural areas across nine African countries – including Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Benin, Ethiopia, Uganda, Zambia, Mozambique and Namibia. Small, decentralized projects often make more sense in rural areas than connecting to a national power grid, Höhn explains. In addition, the countries of the Global South often have the advantage that, unlike the developed countries, they have not yet used old technology. This means they can install modern equipment straight away.
The project aims to make productive use of energy, for example, to achieve better crop yields by cooling, drying, or further processing agricultural produce. Or by cooling pharmaceuticals, making them last longer. This not only creates more economic activity, says the energy representative for Africa.
The ministry uses a payment model: The electricity is cheap, but not free. On the one hand, this is intended to encourage operators to properly maintain the mostly solar-powered systems; on the other hand, entrepreneurship is to be promoted, thus creating jobs. For maintenance, and to protect people from low-quality equipment, the project provides education and measuring equipment. The small grids are financed by Clean Energy and Energy Inclusion for Africa, which Höhn founded with the German development bank KfW specifically for this purpose.
Höhn believes that development work and energy issues should be seen more closely related. 2015 was a pivotal year for her, she says. That’s when the United Nations Sustainability Summit and the Paris Climate Conference were held. “Just as I had to learn to deal with development cooperation as an energy expert, it’s also very important that development experts recognize the opportunities of energy,” Höhn says that promoting renewables in the countries of the Global South is essential for the future. But Germany, too, must see itself as a country that needs to develop further, she adds.
While studying mathematics and economics in Kiel in the 1970s, Höhn was already politically active, and committed to the environment and peace. But she started to get really involved after moving to Oberhausen in 1980, when her young son developed severe bronchitis only a few months later. Höhn became active in citizens’ initiatives against the incineration of toxic waste and for better kindergartens. At first without joining a political party, then as a member of the Green Party. As a member of the state parliament, she fought against the Garzweiler II open pit mine – she could not prevent it, but at least it will be the last of its kind in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Höhn first came into contact with development work in preparation for the state elections and coalition negotiations 1995: She took charge of the Eine-Welt-Arbeit for the Green Party. From 2000, she served as state minister for the environment, nature conservation and agriculture, and was the first German minister ever to be responsible for consumer protection. Cooperation with countries of the Global South as part of Eine-Welt-Arbeit was thus directly in her area of responsibility, for example with the coal country South Africa. In 2005, Bärbel Höhn moved to the German Bundestag. As MP, she worked with Christian Social Union (CSU) politician and later Development Minister Gerd Müller, who eventually appointed her to the BMZ.
Despite their differences, they got along well, says Höhn. When Müller took office at the BMZ, she scoffed, “Now you have to repair all the damage on this earth that you caused before with the export of pork.” Nevertheless, Müller appointed her to his ministry in 2017, together with Josef Göppel (CSU), as energy representatives for Africa. And her acting successor, Svenja Schulze (SPD), also seems to appreciate Höhn’s work – she now works under the new leadership in the same position. Arne Schütte
