Namibia is to host the inaugural Global African Hydrogen Summit (GAh2S) in Windhoek from 3-5 September 2024, it was announced at COP28 in Dubai, which concluded on Tuesday.
The announcement was made as an element of Namibia’s COP28 programme by the Namibia Investment Promotion and Development Board and the Environmental Investment Fund of Namibia.
It will be themed: ‘From Ambition to Action: Fuelling Africa's Green Industrial Revolution’, and the three-day summit is expected to convene heads of state, government agencies, industry business leaders, project developers, investors, thought leaders and technologists from across Africa and around the globe to drive critical investments and financing into bankable green energy projects.
Project and investment showcases are to span the hydrogen, renewables, power, infrastructure, transportation and mobility sectors.
The launch was officiated by mines and energy minister, Tom Alweendo, who emphasised that the urgency to transition to clean and sustainable energy sources had never been more apparent. He added that this had become a global imperative that demanded collaborative efforts and innovative solutions, and Namibia was poised to play a pivotal role in this global transition agenda.
“The Global African Hydrogen Summit will be the first platform of its kind to be leveraged by African governments, investors, financiers, scholars and the public to unlock additional opportunities for our continent and its partners. It will also provide a platform for the global players in the hydrogen value chain to showcase their projects, plans and technologies to the African continent,” said Alweendo.
GAh2S will focus on the global role that Africa expects to play in the hydrogen market and will facilitate collaboration and advance dialogue across policy, investment and the emerging hydrogen value chain. The continent has the potential to harmonise its own industrialisation to become a global powerhouse of green manufactured products, whilst applying a localised multiplier effect, stimulating in-continent value including employment creation, ancillary industries, light manufacturing and natural resource refining – uplifting economies across Africa, whilst sustainably bringing an end to energy poverty.
Clean hydrogen can cover a significant portion of the global energy transition needs, especially in hard-to-abate sectors and industries such as steel manufacturing and aviation. Several African countries – most notably Egypt, Kenya, Mauritania, Morocco, Namibia and South Africa – are actively pursuing clean hydrogen production. These countries formed the collective Africa Green Hydrogen Alliance in May 2023 to collaborate on capacity creation, financing, certification, and regulatory and policy agendas of green hydrogen development in Africa. A McKinsey & Company report projects that by 2050, the annual investment required will be more than double to US$160 billion, with the focus of investment likely shifting to an expected 43% of capital expenditure spent on hydrogen.
