The solar potential of North Africa is exceptional. The most formal proof of this is the realization, in 2016, of the Moroccan solar complex Noor, located in the province of Ouarzazate, in the southeast of the country. Equipped with four technologically different solar power plants and spread over more than 3000 hectares, this solar project aims to increase the share of renewable energy in Morocco’s national electricity mix to more than 52% by 2030. Capable of supplying electricity to more than two million Moroccans, the project has been supported by partners and investors such as the African Development Bank Group, Masen, and the European Union.

On the Egyptian side, it is the Benban Solar Park, located in the Aswan Governorate and commissioned in 2019, that commands admiration! With a maximum capacity of 1650 megawatts peak, the annual production is estimated at 3.8 terawatt-hours. Benban has since become the largest solar installation in the world.

But what is happening on the Tunisian side? Why are the country’s energy ambitions not reaching the goals achieved by its neighbors?

Due to the monopolistic behavior of the Tunisian Electricity and Gas Company (STEG), disagreements between investors, partners, authorities, and local organizations, large-scale solar projects in southern Tunisia are being canceled over time without reaching agreements.

For now, only two solar power plant projects (the Tozeur photovoltaic plant and the Tataouine plant) are operational, but their energy production is not enough to meet the country’s annual energy ambitions.

Indeed, the recent news of the cancellation of a solar power plant project in the city of Gafsa is not a good sign. At odds with the Tunisian authorities, the Franco-Moroccan consortium ENGIE/NAREVA will not build this plant, due to disagreements over the pricing basis for electricity commercialization. The recent spike in solar panel prices and the prices proposed by the Tunisian authorities have made the project unprofitable, according to the same consortium.

Furthermore, other information has reached us that Scatec, the Norwegian energy company entrusted with the construction of another solar power plant project in Tataouine, is finally abandoning the project. The company no longer believes in the economic viability of the project, given “the economic upheavals, post-COVID inflation, and the increase in interest rates by at least 4%.”

The project has therefore been reassigned to an Emirati competitor, but they cannot start work without the approval of the Tunisian parliament, which has been frozen until the crucial date of the next presidential elections on October 6.

Lagging in the race for sustainable development, Tunisia finds itself stalled due to blockages and disagreements.

Ahmed Lagha

Cofounder and Treasurer

Ahmed Lagha

Cofounder and Treasurer

A small river named Duden flows by their place and supplies it with the necessary

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L’article North Africa’s Solar Ambitions: Successes in Morocco and Egypt, Stalled Progress in Tunisia est apparu en premier sur mdi-international.

From the eastern Mediterranean, on the night of Sunday to Monday September 11, the storm known as ‘Daniel’ recharged with moisture and energy to pour most of its force into Libya.

The storm, which started out as an ordinary low-pressure phenomenon, became more intense as a result of the high summer temperatures in the Mediterranean basin caused by global warming.

According to data from the European observatory Copernicus, the surface temperatures of the oceans, which have absorbed 90% of the excess heat generated since the industrial era, are rising drastically, resulting in unprecedented heat increases.

This passage caused considerable and deadly flooding, particularly in the city of Derna, which suffered a double blow following the breach of the dykes of two dams upstream from the city.

This breach, coupled with the already extensive flooding, caused large mudslides engulfing the former capital of Cyrenaica.

To date, 3,200 people have been reported dead, around 7,000 injured and more than 2,400 missing in a city with a population of over 100,000.

Since the demise of dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, Libya has been plunged into instability, with two authorities claiming power. In the east, Khalifa Haftar heads an authority that is not recognised by the international community, while in the west, a UN-backed authority is officially recognised.

The arrival of international aid, although necessary, is hampered by the presence of armed factions that have proliferated in the country. These militias have taken advantage of the chaos to establish themselves in the towns, some of them with affiliations to radical Islamic movements, as was the case in Derna with “Ansar al-Sharia”.

Anas El Gomati, one of MDI’s first guests and founder of Libya’s leading think tank Sadeq Institute, spoke about the situation in his native country.

L’article Human disaster in Libya after storm and destruction of dam est apparu en premier sur mdi-international.

Legislation designed to protect the climate and nature was adopted yesterday by the European Parliament. The aim? Restore at least 20% of the union’s seas and land by 2030 and all degraded ecosystems by 2050.

All the elements were there to sound the climate alarm:

• Humanity is facing the 6th mass extinction of its fauna.

• 80% of natural habitats are in continual decline.

• Global warming is causing temperatures that are harmful or even fatal to the development of all species.

Indispensable for the protection of biodiversity and ecosystems and for the fight against global warming, this legislation had been under discussion for several months but was blocked by the conservative and climate sceptic blocs.

“A rejection of the text would have signalled a double failure: both for our younger generations, who would be deprived of a major step towards preserving our planet, and for European democracy. (Salima Yenbou, French MEP)

The law passed by just a handful of votes: 336 in favour, 324 against and 12 abstentions. Strong support from civil society, green organisations and citizens was needed for the media coverage and framework of this new regulation.

César Luena, Spanish MEP, reports: “The Nature Restoration Act is an essential part of the European Green Deal and follows the scientific consensus and recommendations to restore Europe’s ecosystems. Farmers and fishermen will benefit, and it guarantees a habitable land for future generations. The position we have adopted today sends a clear message.

We must now continue to work hard, defend our position in negotiations with the Member States and reach an agreement before the end of this Parliament’s mandate to adopt the first regulation on nature restoration in the history of the EU”.

A considerable step forward, but it remains to be seen whether this will be the first of many, as recommended in the scientific reports of the IPCC …

Photo Credit : European Commission

L’article Historic vote on the green deal in the European Parliament : The Nature Restoration Act has been approved! est apparu en premier sur mdi-international.

• The gradual desertification from the south, combined with the consequences of global warming, make the task of new agricultural performance difficult.

• Since the country’s independence, Tunisian agriculture has not been considered as an economic sector but as a social sector.

• In Agriculture, Tunisia exports two thirds of what it imports.

• Agricultural policies never existed and we still follow the same pattern.

These are five of the many facts presented by our interlocutors in the Mediterranean Development Initiative Brussels| KLL ADVISORY roundtable on the topic of Tunisian agriculture.

For decades, the social policy of the state has never considered de facto producers and breeders as economic operators but as social instruments of a subsidy policy aimed at satisfying a maximum of consumers. As a result, farmers and breeders have always had a traditional approach to agriculture: they consume and waste a lot of water for their plantations, develop little accounting and work only on their cost policies rather than on their profit margin. Their welfare has never been considered.

The issue of water, precious in Tunisia, was also raised. A palm tree would consume 20 to 100 times more water than it should. Annual losses due to poor maintenance are also drastic. Faced with bottle rationing due to low annual rainfall, the state of drought being for 4 years, we must at all costs review our strategy and its governance.

Moreover, out of more than 230 varieties of olive trees and 200 varieties of pomegranate trees, only one of each, the Spanish variety, is planted. Investing in R&D is more than necessary for Tunisia!

Finally, our guest Yasser Bououd, CEO of EZZAYRA, a company that combines technology and agricultural performance, told us how important it is to reconcile modern technology, sustainable development, and agricultural and forestry performance in the future! A future without awareness of the consequences of global warming, sustainable development and the well-being of the producer would lead Tunisia down a very bad path!

We are grateful for the quality of the dialogue of the speakers present, the moderation and the presentation provided by Faten Kallel and the logistical support provided by Achref Kbaier.

We would like to thank our speakers at the second MDI Roundtable in Tunis, organised jointly with KLL Advisory. Many thanks to :

Faouzi Abderrahmane – Engineer, politician and former Minister of Employment and Professional Training.

Akissa Bahri – Agricultural engineer, former Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Hydraulic Resources.

Karim Daoud – Farmer & former President of SYNAGRI.

Leïth Ben Becher – Founder of SYNAGRI, Honorary President of APAD, Vice-President of the Arab Network for Food Sovereignty “ANFS”.

Yasser Bououd – CEO EZZAYRA.

Mahmoud Bouassida – Agricultural promoter.

L’article KLL Advisory & MDI organised their second roundtable on agriculture in Tunisia est apparu en premier sur mdi-international.

The most vulnerable ecosystems are highlighted, including that of the Mediterranean Sea and the nations that surround it: Tunisia is no exception! Indeed, in recent years, the damage caused by global warming in Tunisia has been multiple:

• Fires due to ever-rising temperatures: during the summer of 2022, the news about fires has been revived several times. More than 5900 hectares of forests were destroyed in different governorates, the most affected being those of Nabeul, Tunis & Bizerte.

• Repeated droughts due to lack of water: Tunisia’s water potential is in the red, explaining the shortages of mineral water and the poor agricultural results this year and last year. Dams are reaching a minimum filling rate of 30.4% at the end of January 2023 and natural sources, including groundwater, are being exhausted by ever-increasing demand.

• The Mediterranean Sea is suffering as it warms up. Swimming in the summer of 2022 was hot, very hot in some sea areas: the water temperature was three to five degrees above the normal for the season. With human activity still increasing, the IPCC states that climate change in the Mediterranean will be one of the most radical in the world! It should be noted that the entire ecosystem and marine biodiversity is at risk, as an increase of even one degree in water temperature is capable of killing millions of marine biological organisms, including corals, influencing the lifestyle of fish (and probably killing them) and altering the migration path of living beings in the same area.

Moreover, the World Bank underlines the fact that climate change and the depletion of natural resources pose a major risk to Tunisia’s development projects: a temperature increase of 1.9 degrees to 5.3 degrees is expected by 2080 if actions are not taken to slow this increase.

The nations most at risk in this global context are those peripheral to the major polluters. They may not have a large share of the world’s carbon emissions, but they are the ones who will suffer the most from global warming…

Mediterranean countries have a role to play in the energy transition: investing considerably in renewable energies instead of fossil fuels is the first step to limit and save the planet.

Credit: IPCC — Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, World Bank, Kapitalis, la Presse, Euronews, Bon Pote

L’article The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC): the Mediterranean and Tunisia cases est apparu en premier sur mdi-international.