Botswana’s coal industry: Russia/Ukraine war and the rise of the phoenix :: Mmegi Online

The past 20 years have seen increased pressure from environmentalists across the world on global warming issues and the use of dirty fuels like coal in generating electricity across the world.

Due to the pressure, we saw Europe and the Western world decide to reduce their coal consumption in the past decade. This was especially prevalent in banking where we saw most companies stop funding anything coal or dirty fuel related. At the recently ended UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) which was held in Glasgow in October to November 2021, most developing nations committed to phasing out the use of coal by 2030 with the latest being 2050.

This evolution of sentiment for coal was a big blow to the local coal industry. Around 2005 Botswana decided to diversify its economy by focusing on coal since we have an estimated 200 billion tons of coal under the ground. This coal would largely be used for local electricity generation but more for export as China and India ramped up consumption of coal as they fed their appetite for industrial and economic growth.