The impact of climate change is now broadly recognised, with experts calling it an equity crisis, as it disproportionately affects people living in developing countries and exacerbates existing socio-economic inequalities.
Efforts to decarbonise the energy sector requires an integrated vision for sustainability, always ensuring that access to energy is not compromised and that resources are used as efficiently as possible in any proposed strategies.
The resilience of the energy sector needs to be improved to protect power generation from the impact of climate change.
Zimbabwe must decarbonise at a pace and scale that is affordable to the economy and society.
Decarbonisation is the term used for removal or reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) output into the atmosphere.
Decarbonisation is achieved by switching to usage of low carbon energy sources.
Zimbabwe intends to build resilience mechanisms against climate change while at the same time ensuring sustainable development in recognition of its climate change vulnerability and national circumstances, in line with the demands of the Paris Agreement of reducing emissions by 2030.
The consistency of Government policies in reducing emissions by 1278GgCO2 by 2030 can be seen as unmatched. Government policies and environmental projects spearheaded by President Mnangagwa intend to reduce carbon emissions.
There is strategic coherence between policy objectives, aimed at building resilient and low-carbon human settlement, and objectives of international policies such as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Paris Agreement and SENDAI Framework.
The compulsory blending of petrol and ethanol and the introduction of electric cars in the transportation sector demonstrated commendable efforts by the Government in embracing renewable energy to reduce carbon emissions.
The Government aims to have policy consistency in terms of the decarbonisation roadmap.
The Government is working at establishing a National Climate Financing mechanism for cleaner technologies and practices to reduce emissions by 2030.
It is also responsible for policy formulation and ensuring that the policy is implemented by the organisations responsible for doing so.
As part of its policy formulation role, the Government formulated the National Energy Policy (NEP) in 2012 and then the National Renewable Energy Policy (NREP) in 2019.
The NREP took into account other policy measures and commitments of the Government to the international community on the need to reduce greenhouse gases.
The NREP was based on the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) interventions that the Government committed itself to and submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The NDCs recognised the energy sector as a major greenhouse gas contributor, hence the need to develop a policy that ensures that the energy sector reduces its greenhouse gas emissions by focusing on renewable energy.
The NREP set the target of achieving an installed renewable capacity of 1 100MW, or 16.5 percent of the overall electricity supply in Zimbabwe, whichever is greater, by 2025.
By 2030, the target is that the installed renewable energy capacity should be 2 100MW or 26.5 percent of the overall electricity supply. These targets exclude the large hydropower stations of more than 30MW.
As indicated above, the NREP includes small hydropower stations of less than 30MW in the definition of renewables. Accordingly, any hydropower project that is more than 30MW will not be considered in determining whether the targets have been met.
Most of the generation capacity to achieve these targets will therefore be anticipated to come from the IPPs. There is nothing, however, that stops Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) from establishing its own renewable energy plants.
The NREP also aims to have installed 250 000 solar geysers by the year 2030 in new and old buildings, to increase the use of institutional and domestic biogas digesters.
This is also meant to deploy the use of solar mini-grids, off-grid solar solutions and solar water pumping solutions, and generally to increase the use of renewable technologies.
The policy aims to increase the electricity penetration rates in both rural and urban areas.
The Government has also undertaken to increase the purchase of renewable energy-generated electricity by State-owned utilities to encourage further investments.
Investment incentives are also promised to investors in renewable energy to profitability and attract more funding.
The major hydropower station at Kariba, which is owned by ZPC, supplies over 50 percent of the total power generated in Zimbabwe. Its output is, however, affected by weather patterns.
A poor rain season has the potential to reduce the power generated from the hydropower stations. Independent Power Producers (IPPs) occupy the remainder of the renewable energy market.
The combined output from the independent power producers IPPs is, at present, only 130MW.
There are other companies that produce power mainly for their own consumption. These include Caledonia Mining (17.5MW), Nottingham Estate (1.5MW), Hippo Valley Estates (33MW) (bagasse), Triangle Estates (45MW) (bagasse) and Border Timbers (wood waste).
There is also a trend for most mining companies to default to solar energy sources by constructing their own off-grid solar plants.
This has been necessitated by the need to bridge the gap between their power needs and the supply from the utilities.
The energy transition from fossil-based fuels driven by the need to reduce carbon emissions is central to the Government's commitment to policy changes in the energy sector towards renewables.
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The Government's NDCs submitted to the UNFCCC recognise the commitment to the decarbonisation of the energy sector.
The Government's commitment as set out in the NREP is to encourage investments in renewable energy, provide incentives to the investors in the sector, encourage the public utility to support the initiatives by procuring power from renewables, give priority dispatch from renewable energy generators and support off-grid renewable projects in rural areas.
Government has encouraged the use of solar technologies and removed import duties on solar products.
Investments in generation plants are long-term decisions and require policies that guarantee to the investors that their investments are secure and that the utilities will honour their obligations, and if that fails, the Government will step in.
The President's mantra "Zimbabwe is open for business" is ensuring that there is more investment in the country's energy sector and also see to it that Zimbabwe has one of the most decarbonised energy sectors in the world.
In February 2023, the Government announced the introduction of Government Implementation Agreements for IPPs.
This is meant to ensure that IPPs are guaranteed economic tariffs, guaranteed availability of foreign currency and guarantees on the investment.
