You’ll hear from us with concise and useful reporting on the continent’s green economy ahead of the Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi. We start high-level, then get into the nitty-gritty.

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⏳ Today’s reading time: 4 mins

1. 🚁 Heli view: The continent’s new direction

Climate is becoming a dominant issue for African governments. And they are showing a refreshingly clear vision - that’s an improvement on the past.

• 54 African countries signed the Paris Agreement in 2015

• They accepted a 27% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2040

• Africa was at the table. But it hardly drove the agenda

What’s different now: Global diplomatic dynamics have shifted, and they will even more so with the inaugural Africa Climate Summit in early September.

• At least 17 African heads of state, led by the African Union and the UN Secretary-General, will meet in Nairobi

• They’ll set out a joint position for COP 28, the global climate summit in Dubai from November 30th

The aim: Convince the world that Africa can do heavy lifting on climate for the rest of the planet. The fastest growing continent (by population and GDP) can be a game-changer for a low carbon future.

• But it can't work in isolation. That’s the message from African leaders.

The ask: Nothing short of a “new deal” globally to secure a common future:

• Climate action linked directly to better economic opportunities for Africa

• New for-profit funding mechanisms to drive climate action & investment

• Transform how Africa raises money on global capital markets

Reality check: Will Africa’s Green Growth agenda become the new normal? By mid-September we will know a lot better. Green Rising will have the details.

2. How to grow solar by 349% in 15 months

By clean-tech standards, solar is ancient. But South Africa has just demonstrated its continued relevance.

The news: Rooftop capacity in the southern African nation more than tripled in just over a year.

• From 983 MW in March 2022 to 4,412MW in June 2023

Trending: This is not a one-off… long-term data shows a consistent trajectory.

• Total renewable capacity from 1,300 MW in 2016 to 6,280 MW in 2022

• The photovoltaic (PV) market is projected to reach 9,240 MW by 2028

• Internet searches for solar panels surged by 140%, confirming interest

How they did it: Pride in South Africa’s solar boom is limited. Growing PV capacity is the result of failure elsewhere.

• Years of mismanagement - and worse - have left the grid in tatters

• Blackouts are so common some city households are dark for 16h a day

• By contrast, the capital expense of solar has become less prohibitive

The culprit: National power firm Eskom is going through a spectacular crisis.

• South Africans faced electricity cuts for 288 days last year

Upside: The convergence of regulatory reforms and diminishing costs in renewable energy has accelerated the expansion of the solar sector.

• Government aims to install 8,400 MW of solar by 2030, targeting 21% of total installed generation capacity by 2035

What’s next: At the Africa Climate Summit, vendor sign-up by solar companies has been brisk.

3. Q&A: Climate leaders with answers

Victoria Sabula is the CEO of the Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund and has a lifelong awareness of climate change. She grew up up in rural Western Kenya, where regular rainfall wasn’t a certainty. Here she answers our personal climate questions.

Q: What’s the best climate book you would recommend to others? A: “All We Can Save: Truth Courage and Solutions for the Climate Crisis”, a series of brilliant essays edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, an American marine biologist, and Katharine Wilkinson, a climate-change activist.

Q: Which African country has impressed the most for its green agenda? A: I would hope I’m not biassed, but I’d have to say Kenya, for its leadership, its enabling environment and its policies.

Q: What’s your earliest personal memory of the climate crisis? A: Famine. It was 1992 and I was about 11. We lost our entire harvest. My mum would wait until late afternoon to feed us, and that thin porridge would be our only meal of the day.

Q: What’s the most recent step you’ve taken to help the climate crisis? A: My husband and I have made our home entirely solar-powered.

4. Media monitoring

Don’t have time to read 100+ media sources every day? We’ve done the reading for you:

• Green financing: FSD's engagement on green bonds and sustainable financial instruments in west Africa resonates in Nigeria

• Africa Climate Summit: Excitement about the Nairobi event in early September is starting to show up online, including on usual staid outlets such as Reuters

• Climate innovation: The World Bank sets up a lab for the energy transition and includes a focus on Africa. The lab reports directly to the bank's president

• Not the usual suspects: African climate investments have tended to cluster - is that changing? Deals are announced in Eritrea, Burundi and South Sudan

• Colonialism and climate: The respected science publication Nature is looking at the "interaction between climate justice and postcolonial justice"

• BRICS summit: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa support a $170m water loan. And green goods may become "a game changer for India-Africa trade".

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