Justicia Shipena
The strategic environmental and social assessment (SESA) for green hydrogen production in the country’s central valley is set to begin in September.
The contracting for SESA is expected to be finalised this month.
“We are at the end of the procurement process. Hopefully this week we are going to open some financial envelopes and see what that looks like, and we hope to be contracting in August so that it can start in September,” said Eline van der Linden, head of impact and ESG at the Namibia Green Hydrogen Programme (NGH2P), during a press briefing on Friday.
The central valley includes areas such as Walvis Bay, Windhoek, and the Kunene region and is considered key to the country’s emerging green hydrogen sector.
This comes as a SESA is being conducted under the southern corridor development initiative (SCDI) to guide green energy production and industrialisation.
Van der Linden said Namibia should have conducted a SESA at the outset of its green hydrogen ambitions..
“SESA should have been done when we started dreaming about green hydrogen, but it was not done. So, we decided that irrespective of the fact that certain developments have moved forward, we are still going to do the SESA,” she said.
She added that the team has already completed preparatory work, including “an indemnification of stakeholders,” and that broader consultations will follow.
“We need to start understanding what those key issues are and that we are not getting to a data-driven SESA because if you just collect data without really knowing what we are going to be looking for, that will not be very productive,” Van der Linden said.
She noted that the assessment in the southern corridor will still provide meaningful input for planning and sustainable development in the hydrogen programme.
According to her, the SESA aims to balance energy development with environmental protection by assessing the combined impacts of different economic activities within the SCDI area.
Van der Linden said Namibia is using international finance operation standards for the assessment, as local legislation does not require a SESA. This alignment is also important for attracting global financing.
The assessment will also examine activities in mining, tourism, oil and gas, power generation, and mariculture.
Van der Linden said an organisation in the Netherlands that reviews SESAs and ISIAs offers pro bono services to targeted countries, including Namibia. She said the country will benefit from an independent panel that will review the final SESA process.
“The SESA is not just a study but a strong consultative process, and they will make sure that the consultation comes through in the final SESA,” she said.
The current SESA is being implemented by Environmental Resource Management (ERM) and guided by a multi-stakeholder steering committee chaired by the ministry of environment, forestry and tourism.
The process began in March and is scheduled to run for 12 months.
