South Africa’s public sector and private sector are united in highlighting the industrial growth that mitigating climate change brings with it. The green hydrogen summit not only had South Africa’s public and private sectors singing from the same hymn sheet, but they did so with their counterparts from across the world.
There can never be too much renewable energy generation that our sun and wind deliver with such generosity, and with this ingredient comes a huge spread of more opportunities. Not the least of these is the need for energy storage, with excess production turned into green hydrogen. The hydrogen can then be stored for a day, a month, a year or even more and turned back into electricity when needed to drive trucks, trains, trams, buses, boats and bakkies – or be used as is to create more economic growth by greening steel, cement and hard-to-abate materials. In fact, environmental sustainability and economic prosperity are joined at the hip.
As visiting German Vice Chancellor and Minister of Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck reiterated so forcefully in Johannesburg last week, they belong together. South Africa must seize this opportunity with the same intensity that it is being seized across Europe, the US, Japan, China, South America, Australia and in so many other countries seeking energy sovereignty and energy independence.