上个月在COP26上, stakeholders from across the renewable energy value chain came together to discuss how to drive South Africa’s energy transition by unlocking corporate procurement of renewable power.
Companies in South Africa are the largest consumers of electricity and therefore play a critical role in unlocking the widespread systemic change needed to achieve a carbon-neutral future.
More than 50 companies with operations in South Africa have already committed to procure 100% renewable power by 2050 or sooner through the RE100 initiative, 在国家电网脱碳计划之前. RAiSE (Renewables Ambition in South African Electricity) is a hub launched by the 正规博彩十大网站(WBCSD), National Business Initiative (NBI) and RE100 (led by the 气候 Group in collaboration with CDP) in March this year, brings together many of these companies with stakeholders from across the renewable energy value chain to help unlock corporate procurement of renewable power.
Last month RAiSE stakeholders came together to hold a hybrid event at COP26, 来自NBI创始人的演讲嘉宾, RE100和WBCSD, 以及美国国务院, 亚马逊, 3M和C40城市. The event highlighted the key opportunity areas to act on now to drive the growth of renewables in South Africa, the role that companies and 城市 want to play in this transition and explored ideas for how 城市, business and utilities can work together to meet emissions reduction targets and achieve electricity security through renewable electricity generation.
事件紧随其后 宣布新的合作关系 南非两国政府之间, 法国, 德国, 英国, 欧盟和美国, 这将调动8美元.5bn in funding for South Africa to implement a just transition away from coal and towards renewables.
本次活动的主要收获:
- Businesses and governments alike are recognizing the urgency: we need to act quickly to progress the energy transition in line with the objectives of the Paris Agreement
- 了解当地情况: the South African market has unique characteristics that corporates must take time to understand in order to identify the best pathways to renewable electricity procurement
- 社区是解决方案的核心南非必须将经验教训应用到国内市场, particularly the importance of the just transition and bringing communities along
- Collaboration is critical to drive development of the sector as a whole: multi-stakeholder initiatives such as RAiSE are critical in bringing together government, 城市, 私营部门和公民社会, 这些都不能单独解决转型问题
- 需要分享知识和教训: a renewable power revolution is currently underway across the globe and there is an opportunity for corporates and 城市 to learn from one another in South Africa, with further learnings that can be extracted from other countries
- Timeliness of investment and a supportive regulatory framework: both are crucial to unlock corporate procurement of renewable power and we have seen encouraging announcements recently, 包括国际联盟的8美元.5bn investment and the recent increase of the licensing threshold for renewable energy installations from 1MW to 100MW.
Next steps for unlocking corporate procurement of renewable power in South Africa
RAiSE will continue to build on the current momentum by bringing together energy value chain stakeholders to deliver on the following priority objectives in 2022:
- Raise awareness and build ambition around corporate procurement of renewable electricity in South Africa
- Develop capacity of companies and enable them to procure renewable electricity
- Inform and facilitate policy change that enables a favorable market allowing companies to source renewable electricity at a fair price.
We look forward to factoring the key outcomes of the discussion at this event into our plans and will be sharing more information on how we will be doing so in the new year.
加入我们! To engage in RAiSE and its upcoming activities, please reach out to:
- Bhavna Deonarain at bhavnad@nbi.org.za,
- 麦蒂·皮卡 mpickup@theclimategroup.org, or
- 露西·亨特 Hunt@WBCSD.org.
