The Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) organized a three-part dialogue series on Shared Learning on Just Transition in Africa, with support from the Africa Climate Foundation (ACF), in collaboration with the National Business Initiative, the Federation of Egyptian Industries (FEI), and the Nigeria Economic Summit on Road to CoP 27. The third dialogue series took place on 29^th September 2022 focusing on, “The Importance of Partnerships to Solve Pressing Climate and Just Transition Related Challenges in Africa”.

Welcome and Opening Remarks

Ms Reitumetse Molostone of the National Business Initiative (NBI) South Africa, during her welcome and opening remarks of the meeting, highlighted that the Previous dialogues have shown the importance of having business leadership on climate issues and that business is an important part of solutions to the challenges faced by the continent from a climate and economic perspective & this series of events is a stepping stone towards increase participation of business on the Road to COP27 on Climate action beyond the annual conference. The session was about supporting shared learnings on Just Transitions in Africa with the business community which highlighted some of these partnerships that are already underway by checking studies of business involvement in climate action, advocacy and sustainable development in South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria & Egypt. She further stated that the Key drivers of partnerships with businesses in Africa's diverse climate response include collective disputes faced such as Loss & damage, the need for Just Transition for low Carbon, Inclusive and competitive economies & Adapting to the physical damage of climate change. Therefore, encouraging partnerships between businesses and other stakeholders within and between countries increased the effectiveness and the scope of climate response initiatives.

Dialogue Agenda (Presenter Ms Geeta Morar)

Ms Geeta Morar from the National Business Initiative taking the members through the dialogue agenda, stated that the third series of conversations was hosted in collaboration with partner organizations from South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and Egypt. The third dialogue was detailed on how the partnerships look like and what was taking place in partner countries on Climate change and sustainable development. The third series dialogue was quite interactive and it covered: Focus on strong and credible partnerships between businesses for COP 27, Reflections on shared learning on Just Transition in Africa dialogues, Egypt, Kenya Nigeria and SA explore the importance of collective action through case studies as well as a brief overview for a Business study tour in Egypt. The specific case studies were presented by the counterpart Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.

Remarks and reflection towards the incident series and the study tour during COP27 and the importance of partnerships

Mr Sikhulekile Duma of the Anglo-American noted that as the globe and especially in the African continent, we are undergoing a number of transitions which have massive implications for our economy some of which we can predict, some of which we can't but regardless it's happening, of course, this one is Just Transition that we are currently speaking about today and implication for the environment but is also other transitions that are happening as well including the future work which has massive implications on how we educate people, massive implications on the jobs that are going to be available etc. And so, we cannot tackle such fundamental transitions in a way we look at the economy without partnerships or working with people. We cannot calculate the old way of working in silo. Regarding Anglo- America and South Africa specifically the Just Transition, the old way of the economy fossil fuel and some sense it is very true our other partners from other parts of the county like Nigeria fossils fuels build in some sense our economy and we are very dependent on fossil fuels without the political economy of those countries and etc.

When you talk about transitioning it is not just about, transitioning a sector, it's fundamentally transitioning a whole economy. South Africa as a mining company which has very deep roots in Southern Africa for over 100 years, experienced the challenges that are faced in this continent. The nature of mining is that it takes you to places that are quite ruled in many of the countries that we work in and we are faced as part of doing business with some of the social economic challenges which include: Unemployment, Poverty and High rates of gender-based violence.

From the onset, we have to make sure that we are putting the right intervention in place, but also, we have got the additional impact of climate change and we know that in Southern Africa and other parts of Africa, the average temperature is hitting at faster rates than other places in the world and that has massive impacts that we have seen such as droughts.

The old ways of how we used to do things were all of the pressure on social economic development or random mining site was put on a particular company and so in South Africa, we have what we call the Social Labour plans which a lot of mining companies puts their social economic developments in and if the ideas that will invest in local jobs creation, school, health interventions around the site. With that in mind, we then started to take a collaborative approach in that sense, we have got what we called our sustainable mining plan which we had since 2017 which is rarely an asset of a vision that we set for ourselves around ESG and so we have got a reply community which really speaks on the social aspects One of the targets was that, would like to create 5 jobs for every one job that we have in the site. we have operationalized it with our collaborative regional development strategy and South Africa specifically is the vehicle to do that, what is called impact catalyst.

Impact catalyst is a partnership between Anglo-American, Industrial Development Cooperation (IDC), Council for Scientific Industrial Research ( CSIR ) and also other private sector companies that bring together resources and also the provincial governments to see where necessary investment is actually possible for example working with the Limpopo government with helping to develop the Limpopo government developing plan to actually add inputs to those programs and projects that various private entities are doing within the province in their plan.

Anglo-Americans create employment in agriculture, so a number of agriculture programs in partnership with the provincial government that we are supporting like the CSIR coming on board as well making sure when we speak of climate change and the vulnerability that private sectors face and it is a resilient sector, in that sense. But also making sure that climate change has other impacts outside of livelihoods. We need to show that we are deploying partnerships with the university of Pretoria, Clinical associates through our community oriented at Primary Cape program in Limpopo specifically by sending the Clinical Associates in various forms to check on health outcomes and support people, especially through Covid=-19, testing them in home and so what we found over the last couple of years we have been able to support about 3million people working in partnerships with amazing people in the university of Pretoria.

Anglo-American committed in the last year to about 3.5 MG of power to our renewable regional energy ecosystem and it is exciting because we were working with (EDF) renewable energy company that brings in the expertise and we are in the process of getting partnerships making sure that this power project is actually driving localization impacts and initiatives within the country and the serving that 5-1 target.

It is our intention as much as possible to create power for our own operations but make sure we are also tackling the issue of energy insecurity especially for local communities to really find ways with government and other parties that define technically how is actually possible and lastly, there is also a piece of work that we are doing about hydrogen value which we call the department of science innovation, how to develop the hydrogen value and infrastructure that allows heavy-duty vehicles to use hydrogen to transport logistics and any other things from the interior to the port. Make sure that there is available infrastructure and we think it is a big opportunity to make sure that we can create jobs, so any of the impacts that various transitions spoke to at the beginning will have, we are able to actually make sure we are able to mitigate with green sustainable jobs which will really support our country transition into the future and these cannot be possible without partnerships, partnerships are the way we really want to go about, especially a lot of the emissions that is required, requires lower and frankly policies that might not yet exist.

The old way of doing things as an industry was you advocate for policies that benefit the industry in one way or another, regulations etc. We are really moving to a place where our working with various social partners, civil societies for example government, that we say what are the policies that are going to move society forward, how do we actually find middle grounds to actually ensure that we all able to contribute to the just transition in the best way possible. A primary example is knowing that civil society and business in the past were not the best of friends but the Just Transition really allows us an opportunity to start having some of the tough conversations because we can't do this alone and so in some of the engagements we have had with civil society around the Just Transition are our role within playing a responsible in making sure that either way we are able to respond to the climate change.

One of the things that civil society represents is it will be interesting to work in policy advocacy because, we as a mining company or as a business sector have access to curtained rooms, and conversations that civil society might not have and vice versa. When actually taking us on the study tour, we know that COP27 is really focusing on how we go about financing the Just Transition, We know as individual bases and also as members of these individual countries that one of the things that have always been unequal and perhaps unfair is how difficult it is for us to actually access finance and not necessary about finance for renewable energy projects for example but the finances that enable us to make sure that the transition is just and is fair. That investment in livelihoods, adaptation, and mitigation especially at the community level.

There is a wide financial gap in that regard, and so we have had a recent partnership with the International Monetary Fund for a 100 Million Rands Sustainability loan for 10 years that exclusively fund some of our sustainability projects, specifically the livelihoods projects. The question for us going into Egypt is how do we make that we play our role as responsible cooperating citizens to be a facilitator of some of the finance whether is from international institutions such as IMF or any other private institution to make sure access to finance for communities to actually own their own Just Transition is enabled because we can have all the wills and ideas on the ground but if the accessible and practical implications are not having the finance due to hindrance we are going to further ourselves further behind especially in this Just Transition.

Presenter Miss Noha Elbalky -Federation of Egyptian Embassy:  Noha Elbalky Renewable Energy Sector in Egypt

Miss Noha Elbalky shared insights about the renewable energy sector in Egypt. She gave about: Energy in Egypt, Renewable Energy Plan until 2022, Renewable Energy Activities in FEI/ECO and the Local Manufacture Network. Electricity in Egypt is divided into thermal power and renewable energy. Renewable energy is about 20%, among the 20%, 12% is from wind, 6% from hydro and 2% from solar PV.

The continuous increase in electricity prices is the main driving force behind efforts to effectively use various sources of renewable energy. By the end of 2035, Egypt planned to be consuming approximately 65% of renewable energy. Egypt adopted a feed-in Tariff scheme for both solar and wind energy as a part of a larger supporting scheme for renewable energy. Based on this scheme the government of Egypt will not subsidize the purchased energy from renewable energy producers, the cost will be passed through to consumers.

In 2020, Egypt created a Net Metering system in order to give energy owners credit for the power that they add to the grid. Independent Power Producer (IPP) is also a new regulation in 2018 which supported somehow renewable energy. Renewable Energy Activities under the Federation of Egyptian Industries includes; Awareness: Workshops with different industrial sectors promoting the use of solar water heater and PV in industries, raising awareness &realization of greater opportunities of the benefits of their use in industry, feed in tariff regulations, Technology Transfer: Organizing Egyptian companies to attend ECOMONDO fair in Italy November 2014, Nov 2015 and planning for Nov 2016. Conference and brokerage day Mediterranean Solar Forum, Barcelona Spain. Local Manufacturer Network- With the idea of having a network of different local manufacturers to develop and encourage the Egyptian solar energy application in order to compete with international products, increase the number of local manufacturers and decrease the current production cost. Creating First Renewable Energy Cluster in Egypt-The cluster will include activities that will lead to the development of a business-driven cluster based on the "triple helix model of collaboration between the private sector, universities and the public sector etc.

Ms Noha highlighted the Projects in the implementation phase-Laipore Factory, Mamimba Cosmetics, Biomass, Under Public Private Partnerships (Benban Station). Challenges during Projects in the implementation phase-at first phase, not aggressions policies, electricity prices were low attracting many people. Opportunities during Projects in the implementation phase included- the government raising electricity prices forcing people to shift to electricity, Renewable energy creates jobs as the Mamimba project has created over 8K new jobs. She concluded that Technical and financial support to implement Renewable Energy projects in different industrial sectors.

Presenter Mr Ebenezer Amadi, Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA)

Mr Amadi acknowledges the four pillars of a sustainable economy namely: Sustainable inclusive business, Circular economy, People power and Discerning business values. The government of Kenya estimates the cost of adaptation to be $ 43.93billion between 2020-2030 and the mitigation cost is estimated to be $17.73billion. KEPSA contributes to shaping policies and legislation in Kenya through - the Climate Change Act, NO. 11 0f 2016, National Climate Change Act Plan (NCCAP) 2018-2022, National Sustainable Waste Management Act NO.92 OF 2022, Private Sector Strategy for Climate Change Solutions in Kenya (2022-2030).

The Green Climate Fund through the Kenya Designated Authority (National Treasury and Planning) in collaboration with the food and Agriculture  Organization of the United Nations (UN) and the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) implemented a Readiness Support Project on "Enhancing Capacity for Planning and Effective Implementation of Climate Change Adaptation in Kenya." The project's outcome on the private sector is to strengthen and institutionalize the private sector to participate and invest in climate change adaptation through the Climate Business Information Network Kenya (CBIN-K)

KEPSA led the development of the private sector engagement strategy to integrate climate change adaptation and mitigation into private sector investments, policies and programmes. KEPSA in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, and the National Environment Trust Fund (NETFUND) participated in the 2 billion (KES) Tree Planting Initiative. The private sector and the government of Kenya are committed to Reducing GHG emissions by at least 5% per person annually consistent with Kenya's ambition to abate 32% by 2030, Ensuring sustainability reporting and developing sustainability strategies for companies including Net Zero Strategies, Developing green financial products and services and Intergrade gender equality considerations with the climate change planning processes

Creating Opportunities and alleviating poverty through sustainable trade (COAST)- KEPSA collaborated with 3 private sector companies in raising awareness on the separation of waste at source, Training 204 women and youth on the waste-to-value concept, therefore contributing to best practices in waste management.

Ms Dolapo Kukoyi Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG)

Ms Dolapo shared the insights of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) which provides a platform for advocacy through its various initiatives, roundtables, Communities of practice and policy commissions. One of NESG’s commissions is the sustainability policy commission which comprises three thematic groups namely: Climate Change NDNDCs/Green Economy whose ultimate goal for Nigeria's exports is to ensure a Just Transition in Nigeria's national response to Net Zero, The Circular Economy and The National Response .in the switch to Net zero

NESG has tackled various activity in regard to Climate Change Mitigation Relevance since 2019 which includes and are not limited to Plastics Policy Review Workshop, A workshop on "Domestic Gas Utilization and Commercialization: Implementing the NDC Sectoral Action Plan for Energy.", Developing a brief policy on the Nigerian electricity and alternative electricity power supply sector and First draft of renewable energy position paper was developed.

 In order to fill the vacuum in the effective enforcement of environmental law and standards to safeguard Nigeria, the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Urgency (NESREA) was formed by the Nigerian government. Food and Beverage Recycling Alliance (FBRA) engaged with various stakeholders to create an ecosystem that drives collective sustainable action towards managing post-consumer plastics

Among the Climate Finance Contains faced in Nigeria as propelled by NESG are Lank of bankable projects, the inability of developers to meet collateral requirements, currency volatility affecting offshore financing as requires certainty with respect to convertibility and repatriation of their investment, and inability leverage to technology.

Conclusion 

The third dialogue session concluded with the host thanking everyone for their attention, as well as the speakers and guest speakers, for contributing to the important insights. The session was very insightful and helpful, and it was a great opening session in terms of what is going on in Africa's transition to a more sustainable future, investment opportunities, and what businesses and governments are doing to adapt to climate change.