Cape Town - The opening of Africa’s Green Economy Summit (Ages) kicked off in Cape Town as a partner event to Saturday’s Cape Town E-Prix where stakeholders gathered to propel the shift towards a green economy on the continent by reducing the carbon footprint and introducing environmentally aware and recognised practices.
With the escalating crises of load shedding, transport and more facing the continent, mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said Africa needed a new foundation and platform to spur growth and industrialisation. “This new platform is the green economy,” he said.
Hill-Lewis announced the final phase in the City’s three-phase procurement for load shedding protection, with the goal of protecting residents from the first four stages of Eskom’s load shedding.
“The third phase of procurement will be launched in March. This will take the form of a dispatchable-energy tender, expected to yield around 500 megawatts for Cape Town’s grid. This tender will focus on both renewable energy and dispatchable technologies, such as battery storage and gas to power,” Hill-Lewis said.
Premier Alan Winde said: “Now more than ever we need urgency in harnessing the potential of green energy and a green economy to end load shedding. Renewables must become a part of our energy mix.”
Iain Banner, chairperson of e-Movement, the organising company of the Formula E World Championship (Cape Town E-Prix), added that this was the first of many summits to come and that Ages would become to the green economy of Africa what the mining indaba was to the mining sector.
Banner launched Go Green Africa, a collaborative initiative to accelerate the just transition towards a cleaner and greener society.
“No one government, organisation or individual will ever solve the problems of climate change impacts and environmental damage. Go Green is about collaboration as organisations to create solutions and hold organisations to account. We want to do this in a just and inclusive way.”