Tag: energy supply

Amidst the rising cost of living, interest rate and fuel price hikes, and load shedding, the elephant in the room remains persistently high rates of unemployment. Much fanfare tends to surround any announcement of a small decline in the quarterly unemployment rate as it did at the end of November 2022 when Statistics South Africa revealed that the official unemployment figure had decreased by one percentage point between the second and third quarters of 2022 from 33.9% to 32.9%.

South Africa’s energy shortage is having a profound impact on its cities. Economic growth and jobs continue to be affected at a time when cities urgently need to recover from the COVID-19 crisis to retain their competitiveness and attractiveness.

The agricultural sector across sub-Saharan Africa is critical to local and regional economies as a developmental base for food security and employment. Within it, there remains an invisible force driving productivity in the region and across the world.

People are worrying about a global recession and with good reason. But what if the factors driving rising prices are beyond the limits of policymakers’ control? I discuss what central bankers’ next move might be, what markets are pricing in and what the probability of a recession is.

From October 3 to 7 this year, African and global leaders in the oil and gas sector will converge in Cape Town for Africa Oil Week. In the lead-up to the conference, the debate around Africa's use of its natural resources for its benefit is coming into sharp focus, including the conference host country - South Africa.

South Africa loses R700 million a day for every stage of Eskom’s rolling blackouts. Given these catastrophic economic challenges created by the collapse of electricity infrastructure, an urgent alternative energy supply is needed to stabilise the grid.

Decarbonisation of the energy system, from a hydrocarbon-based to a sustainable, low-carbon energy system poses an existential threat to the oil and gas industry. On the other hand, it presents oil and gas companies with new portfolio opportunities to build adjacent businesses, shape and participate in new markets, and drive new sources of value from existing assets and capabilities.