(Bloomberg) -- The European Union and other partners on the continent pledged €36.9 million ($40.9 million) in funding for Namibia’s transition to cleaner fuels including green-hydrogen projects the African nation plans to develop.
A €25 million commitment by the EU to support Namibia’s green industrialization leads the initiatives. That’s designed to help leverage public- and private-sector investments estimated to reach about €1 billion “across the hydrogen value chain, from production, to transportation and storage,” the country and European bloc said in a joint statement.
Funding Namibia’s green-hydrogen projects is a challenge for the nation that plans to become a hub of the developing technology. They include the $10 billion Hyphen project in which Germany’s Enertrag SE has invested. Compagnie Maritime Belge SA intends to raise $3.5 billion to build an ammonia plant that would connect to a new storage and export facility planned by the Port of Antwerp-Bruges.
The funding “will contribute to reinforcing our commercial relations in the green hydrogen and critical raw materials sectors, increase employment opportunities in Namibia and help both Namibia and the EU undergo their green transitions,” EU Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson said in the statement.
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