Botswana vows to exploit coal resources
Vice President Slumber Tsogwane has reaffirmed Botswana’s commitment to reducing carbon emissions, but warned that the country will continue to exploit its coal resources to meet its energy needs.
When delivering a keynote address at a conference hosted by the Regional Energy Regulators Association (RERA) of southern Africa in Gaborone, Tsogwane explained that Botswana will fully exploit available resources to fuel economic development. “Southern Africa is endowed with abundant coal deposits which can be used to meet its energy security challenges using clean coal technologies. Therefore, we cannot let our economies collapse due to lack of energy when we have the resources to meet our needs,” said Tsogwane.
The RERA conference was held under the theme: “Regulators’ Role in Improving Energy Security and Reducing Carbon Intensity,” in recognition of the need for African economies to strike a balance between using energy to catalyze economic growth, while at the same time ensuring sustainable development by facilitating a transition to a clean and secure energy future.
According to Tshepang Monare, Marketing & Public Relations Manager at Botswana Energy Regulators Authority (BERA), the theme was meant to stimulate discussions and gauge progress made by developing economies to ensure sustainable and clean use of their ‘dirty’ sources of energy. “The world is grappling with reducing carbon emissions to achieve climate change targets. But developing countries are still far from becoming energy secure and they insist on exploiting their coal resources even in the face of increasing pressure to decarbonize,” said Monare.
African states have repeatedly complained that they suffer disproportionately from climate change even though they are responsible for only a fraction of global greenhouse gas emissions. Consistent with Tsogwane’s utterances at the conference, African leaders have repeatedly challenged the move to insist on decarbonization without paying due attention to the continent’s need for economic development. Locally, the Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) has embarked on a number of projects aimed at harnessing the country’s abundant solar energy. One of them entails the development, financing, construction, operation and maintenance of three solar power projects in Maun, Lobatse and Ghanzi.
When presenting the 2024/2025 budget speech, Minister of Finance Peggy Serame revealed that Botswana plans to increase the rate of transition from fossils to renewables from two percent to 30 percent by 2030. “To facilitate these developments, there is need to scale up climate financing which is a key enabler for green transition. Botswana has joined the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Change to support countries to strengthen institutional capacities and enhance international collaboration and collective climate action, including mobilizing climate finance,” said Serame.