Staff Reporter

The National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (Namcor) last week donated N$150 000 to the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism (MEFT) to facilitate Namibia’s participation at the COP27 gathering being held in Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt between 6 and 18 November. 

The handover was officiated by deputy minister Heather Sibungo and the ministry’s executive director, Teofilus Nghitila in Windhoek. Namibia’s pavilion and representation at COP27 was supported by various companies that include Bank Windhoek, Standard Bank, NIPDB, UNDP, Triple Capital, Cranmore and many others. It amounted to just over N$1.2 million in total pledges. 

Senior manager for Sustainable Energies at Namcor Frans Kalenga stated; “At Namcor, our key priority is to contribute to the expedited development of the synthetic fuels industry in Namibia, particularly with a key focus on Green Hydrogen as articulated by the government of Namibia. Taking all this into account, Namcor is eager to demonstrate its desire to decarbonise key operations by aligning its efforts with the desire of the Namibian contingent travelling to COP27 to achieve synchronicity with regards to the goal of reducing carbon emissions”. 

Sibungo said “Namibia urges the scaling-up of the levels of climate finance by providing concrete long- term targets for climate finance pathways and accounting methodologies; reaching towards a collective goal by developed countries to reach US$100 billion a year from 2025 and beyond, while striking a balance of the allocation between adaptation, mitigation and loss and damage through a significant increase of grant-based support for adaptation”. 

COP27 comprises the twenty-seventh session of the Conference of the Parties, the seventeenth session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 17), and the fourth session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA 4).