
Green hydrogen and electricity access
- 675 million The number of people without access to electricity, including
- 567 million in Sub-Saharan Africa.1
- 45% of Namibians do not have access to electricity. The majority of electricity is currently imported.4
- 2.6m hectares Land earmarked by Namibia for hydrogen in the Tsau/Khaeb National Park.5
Green hydrogen project - Namibia
- €535m Proposed loan from the European Investment Bank to the Namibian government to support the project. A deal with the EU will also develop mining in the country to supply Europe.3
- $10bn (Equivalent to its annual GDP) Total planned investment to develop green hydrogen in Namibia for export to Europe, as part of a deal involving the Namibian government and the partially German-owned Hyphen Hydrogen Energy.2
- 7GW of wind farms and solar plants are planned to generate an annual 2 million tonnes of ammonia, a transportable hydrogen derivative.

Carbon credits
- Millions The amount of credits approved by Verra, the world’s leading certifier, which were found to be near worthless.6
- $250bn The size the voluntary carbon credit market could grow to by 2050, according to a Morgan Stanley research paper.7
Carbon credit projects - The Amazon
- 36 out of 56 carbon credit projects analyzed in the Amazon were found to overlap with public lands.8
UAE deals
Blue Carbon, a company set up by a Dubai royal, inked deals earlier this year with four African governments to manage 24 million hectares of their forests for carbon credits – an area the size of the UK.9 A more recent deal with Kenya adds ‘millions’ more hectares.
- Liberia >1m hectares 1/10 of its land area
- Tanzania 8m hectares 8% of landmass
- Zambia 8m hectares 1/10 of landmass
- Zimbabwe 7.5m hectares 1/5 of landmass. 70% of revenues will go to the UAE.10

- World Health Organization, ‘Basic energy access lags amid renewable opportunities…’, June 2023, a.nin.tl/energy
- Sören Amelang, ‘Namibia launches 10 billion dollar-hydrogen project...’, Clean Energy Wire, a.nin.tl/hyphen
- European Commission, ‘COP27: European Union concludes a strategic partnership with Namibia…’, November 2022, a.nin.tl/EUNam
- USAID, ‘Namibia – Power Africa factsheet’, a.nin.tl/Nam
- Leigh Alston, ‘Namibia stakes its future...’, June 2022, a.nin.tl/NamHy
- Patrick Greenfield, ‘Carbon credit speculators...’, The Guardian, August 2023, a.nin.tl/Cred
- Morgan Stanley, ‘Where the carbon offset market is poised to surge’, April 2023, a.nin.tl/16
- Bryan Harris, ‘Scandal bares the problems of the Amazon carbon credit market’, Financial Times, October 2023, a.nin.tl/AmCred
- Fred Pearce, ‘In new scramble for Africa, an Arab Sheikh is taking the lead’, Yale Environment 360, August 2023, a.nin.tl/17
- Cyril Zenda, ‘Doubts grow over who’ll benefit…’, African Arguments, October 2023, a.nin.tl/18