Green hydrogen land allocation in a sensitive area questioned

'Cart before the horse on green hydrogen'
Independent economist Robin Sherbourne says government did not follow its legislative framework when it allocated land for green hydrogen projects in a national park.
Ogone Tlhage
  • 2 Weeks Ago - 2024-09-02 00:00:00
Independent economist Robin Sherbourne says the government erred when it allocated land in the Tsau ?Khaeb National Park by not following national policy on prospecting and mining in protected areas, which was implemented in 2018.
Sherbourne made the remarks during a discussion on the economy hosted by the Economic Association of Namibia (EAN).
“I think we have very much been putting the cart before the horse on green hydrogen,” Sherbourne said of the government’s plans to introduce green hydrogen. He said because economic growth stalled during the Hage Geingob presidency, that administration adopted the nascent green hydrogen industry as a future driver of the economy.
“His Excellency and team grasped at the idea of green hydrogen and wanted to run with it and show people, yes, things are moving forward. Something exciting was happening in the economy, but they tendered for this project in the national park before they had done any land planning,” he said.

Protected areas
Pointing to work done by the Namibia Chamber of the Environment (NCE), Sherbourne said government should have conducted land planning before allocating land in the national park as a means of protecting the environment.
“We should have done the land planning first and said, yes, these are the areas where we can farm out its boundaries. We should have done that first and then opened up the green hydrogen space,” Sherbourne said.
Referring to the government’s national policy on protected areas, he reasoned that since the legislative framework was already in place, the government should have relied on that before allocating land.
“We do already have a policy that was passed in 2018 – this is what we should have done before opening the door to investors, it seems sensible to me,” he said.