OMAI’s approach to tackle climate change is primarily driven by two themes, the transition to a cleaner, sustainable energy mix and the reduction of our carbon footprint. Ultimately, we aim to provide more renewable energy than our carbon footprint.
Through the infrastructure fund manager, African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM), we directly contribute to climate action and UN SDG 7 through the Energy theme. Specifically, our investments provide access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services (target 7.1) and substantially increase the share of renewable energy in the energy mix (target 7.2). AIIM has invested in and manages 32 large scale renewables facilities with a total installed capacity of 2.32 gigawatts (GW). In 2020 alone, AIIM managed facilities produced 3,521 gigawatt hours (GWh) of renewable energy, equivalent to powering 1,071,901 middle-income homes with clean energy. Many of these facilities have been invested in through the highly successful Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement (REIPPP) programme in South Africa, providing 29% of installed renewable energy capacity in South Africa. For a detailed breakdown of our tracked progress please see the ESG performance under the Energy theme.
Lesedi and Letsatsi are two examples of the 32 renewable energy facilities achieving these outcomes. The two 69 megawatt (MW) solar photovoltaic plants have produced an average of 295,000 megawatt hours (MWhr) of renewable energy every year, resulting in annual emissions offset of about 297,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e). Read the case study .
AIIM’s investments into the off-grid power sector is also contributing to transitioning the energy mix. Our investments into two portfolio companies focused on solar home systems (BBOXX and DC Go) and two companies concentrating on providing reliable solar or hybrid solar/diesel power to small and medium-sized businesses (Orionis and Starsight Energy) have to date installed 20,733 active solar-home-systems and 64 MW of capacity, offsetting 10,759 tCO2 equivalent. Read the case study .
Through the implementation of the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) framework, OMAI has sought to understand the carbon footprint of its portfolios and opportunities of reducing this footprint. Although SDG 13 targets are pointed at country level action, OMAI is working on increasing the portfolio’s resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards (target 13.1), integrating climate change measures into policies, strategies and planning (target 13.2) and providing internal training on climate change mitigation, resilience and adaptation (target 13.3). From a coverage of c. 70% of investments in the three fund managers, the carbon footprint for 2020 was 242,297 tCO2 equivalent. This carbon footprint is already accounted for with the resulting more than 3.7 million tCO2 equivalent offset generated by renewable energy investments. For a detailed breakdown of our tracked progress please see the ESG performance under the Carbon theme .
Starsight Energy is an example of driving carbon efficiency and reductions. In 2020 Starsight Energy’s systems produced 13.2 GWh (5.3 GWh non-renewable and 7.9 GWh renewable) of power, the equivalent of powering c. 20,000 households, with most of the power being produced from renewable energy. The carbon emissions savings for 2020 were 3,268 tCO2 equivalent. Read the case study .