KEETMANSHOOP - Justice Minister, Yvonne Dausab said government has at least nine pieces of legislation that need to be reviewed and reformed to ensure that Namibia’s laws speak to the production of renewable energy and green hydrogen.
Dausab who was speaking in Keetmanshoop on Monday during the launch of the social economic development framework for the green hydrogen project, said some of the legislation to be looked into are the Electricity Act, the Draft Gas Bill, Environmental Management Act, Petroleum Act, the water legislation in various formation, value added tax and customs and excise.
Dausab said government has two options, one being that it looks at the nine pieces of legislation and insert some portions that specifically relate to renewable energy and green hydrogen provision.
“The second option which is what we’re proposing is that we could specifically look for a synthetic fuels act that will be fit for purpose, that will define the standard and norms and that will comply with domestic needs first and also relate and comply with our international obligation as well,” she said.
Director general of the National Planning Commission, Obeth Kandjoze said government still has a lot to do in terms of providing education and health services to the inhabitants of Lüderitz when the green hydrogen, gas and oil projects kick off as a large influx of people is expected.
“Government has an obligation to provide roads, schools, a hospital to the people and in terms of the timeframe that we are talking about, it may exceed our capacity and it’s not only about the services but also infrastructure development. Even the town of Lüderitz needs to be expanded and the port needs to be developed because no big vessels can dock at the current port, these are additional investments to be done, we have a lot to do and if we are not careful, we will be caught with our pants down,” he said.
Environment, Forestry and Tourism Minister, Pohamba Shifeta responding to questions by those at the meeting in regard to the environmental impact assessment of the green hydrogen project said: “We are busy training our scientists in green hydrogen, we are aware that this massive project has to be monitored throughout the development process. During the process, you will see that scientists and the environmental commissioner will be involved as part of the technical team, to a point that the commissioner may have to tell us that we must pull back the project because of the significant environmental damage.”
He added: “The ministry has a framework that guides us that ensures that no significant damage is done to the environment, however, we cannot sit with resources and not use it because we are then violating the constitution - we cannot just protect and promote the environment, we need to use it, we have to balance.”
-Nampa