Experts urge govt to leverage mining for climate financing
The Pula Group, a US-based company with mining operations in Africa, has urged stakeholders to use its mineral resources to finance its transition to cleaner energy sources.
The organisation’s president Mary Stith said this on Wednesday at the Bingu International Convention Centre in Lilongwe, venue for the inaugural Malawi Mining Investment Forum.
In her presentation titled ‘Mining Malawi Resource for the Green Energy Revolution’, Stith said Malawi, alongside many African countries, has the resources to power the transition to cleaner technologies.
Said Stith: “We know there can be no green transition without involving the mining sector. Malawi has unique mineral resources such as uranium, which is essential for nuclear energy. We should strive to process and add value to these resources for local energy use.”
The remarks come when several stakeholders expressed concern that the current model of financing, which is based on credit to developing countries, would worsen their debt positions.
In a blog post published on the International Monetary Fund website, Michael Olabisi, an assistant professor at Michigan State University’s Department of Community Sustainability, observed that most developing countries in Africa would face challenges financing climate adaptation activities.
The blog reads: “Debt may not always work as a means to deploy relatively recent technologies at scale, often in settings where such technologies are untested.”
He, thus, urged governments to pressure corporations to invest in a green transition through any combination of approaches: regulation, taxes matched with direct public investments, or cap and trade.
Meanwhile, Minister of Transport and Public Works Jacob Hara announced at the forum that government is considering a proposal to introduce new levies and toll fees to generate revenue for local development initiatives, including on climate change.
He said: “If the government builds roads and charges a toll, it creates room for the government to attract investment and create a pathway for them to generate a return on their investment.”
This echoes a campaign promise made by Vice-President Saulos Chilima in the run-up to the 2020 court-sanctioned presidential election.
The proposal comes after the World Bank observed in its ‘The Development, Climate and Nature Crisis: Solutions to End Poverty on a Livable Planet” that there are opportunities to improve road safety and accessibility and reduce emissions in Malawi’s transport sector.
