*Twenty-Five Years after YD, Africa’s Aviation Still in an Emergency: AMDC to the Rescue at COP29?*
_14 November, 2024_
_By E K Bensah Jr_
Last November, in Abuja, Nigeria, the Secretary-General of African Civil Aviation Commission (AFCAC), Adeyemi, used 14 November to sound a stentorian roar that Africans “want to fly” and insisted that they will fly – despite the African aviation industry being comatose, or what she called “in an emergency”.
In retrospect, this might have appeared contradictory to her actions since she took over the reigns of AU’s Dakar-based specialized agency in 2022. AfCAC’s mandate is in promoting cooperation among Africa’s civil aviation agencies and authorities,.while doubling as the Executing Agency of the flagship Agenda 2063 project Single African Airline Transport Mechanism (SAATM).
Twenty-five years after the Yamassoukro Decision (calling for a liberalised African aviation market), and eleven years after Agenda 2063, SAATM remains a known unknown, which thunder has been stolen by the Johnny-come-lately in AfCFTA and intra-African trade – to the extent that conversations on Freedom of Movement Protocol (FMP) were barely getting a look-in till quite recently in July after the end of the 6th Mid-Year Coordination Meeting of the AU that was held in Accra.
Somehow, the magic of the 20th anniversary celebrations of ECOSOCC may have served to catalyse civil society conversations and minds around Africans and their desire to move more freely with concomitant liberal visa regimes.
While references to AFCAC and SAATM by the few experts at the meetings who understand the complexities inherent in these initiatives – as well as the necessity of beautiful synergy needing to happen with other AU institutions to realise Agenda 2063 – barely got noticed, there’s no gainsaying how an important nexus of AfCFTA-FMP-SAATM remains an important catalyst of a new and integrated Africa that is unequivocally-audacious and resilient – in consonance with aspiration 7 of Agenda 2063.
**Removing African Aviation from Life Support**
If a year ago, Africa’s Aviation was on life support, twelve months later, it is moving from intensive care to being discharged to the house!
If ever there were a redemption of efforts to move Africa’s Aviation forward, the first week of November 2024 might have been it, when ECOWAS Transport ministers met for almost a week in Lome, Togo, to take decisive measures on reducing selected taxes, charges and fees in West Africa’s Aviation Sector by 25%.
These developments, notwithstanding, has prompted speculation whether COP29, happening in Baku, Azerbaijan, this week, could serve as some kind of panacea to consolidating energies in reducing the charges around the aviation sector.
The capacity for synergy and collaboration at COP meetings is legendary – and COP29 will be no exception.
*Understanding the policy context*
International aviation emissions are currently dealt with through a framework approach led by the UN’s specialized agency responsible for promoting civil aviation – International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). The so-called ‘basket of measures’ framework includes aircraft technology improvements, operational improvements in air navigation and airport operations; the development of sustainable aviation fuels; and a market-based international carbon offsetting scheme known as CORSIA.
However, Article 24 (a) of the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation (and several associated resolutions of the Council of ICAO) led to a general exemption from taxation for aviation fuel, while international aviation is also currently exempt from VAT in all EU Member States and domestic aviation is exempted in many EU states.
Same, regrettably, cannot be said for the African Market, reason for which YD and SAATM remain pivotal in strengthening Africa’s Aviation, including assessing what can be done more sustainably to green efforts in cohering around Africa’s Aviation.
How AMDC is helping fight Africa’s corner on green minerals
According to the African Minerals Development Centre (AMDC), many developing countries, which possess vast reserves of critical minerals, stand on the brink of an unprecedented opportunity to transform and diversify their economies. The promise of green jobs, economic growth, and sustainable local development beckons, but it comes with significant risks.
AMDC is emphatic that without careful management, the mineral boom may “exacerbate historical patterns of exploitation, deepen geopolitical tensions, and lead to environmental degradation, jeopardizing local livelihoods, health, human security, and human rights.”
To address these challenges, the UN Secretary-General’s Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals was convened, with co-chairs from South Africa and the European Commission.
The panel’s mandate was unequivocal: to establish a framework for an energy transition rooted in equity; respect for human rights; and promotes sustainable development in resource-rich developing countries.
The panel was populated by a diverse coalition – including governments, intergovernmental organizations, industry representatives, and civil society, united by a shared vision of a just transition to renewable energy.
As a member of the panel representing the African Union, Dr. Marit Kitaw, the Interim Director of the African Minerals Development Centre – AMDC, played a key role in ensuring that African interests were represented.
She emphasized the importance of value addition within the continent, calling for policies that would empower African nations to capture a greater share of the economic benefits generated by their mineral wealth, rather than remaining at the bottom of global value chains.
As the COP29 meeting progresses, the African Minerals Development Centre (AMDC) reports that the UN Secretary-General has committed to advancing the panel’s recommendations through several concrete actions.
One of the key outcomes of the meeting is the establishment of a High-Level Expert Advisory Group, which will work with member states, Indigenous Peoples, local communities, young people, civil society, and industry representatives to implement the report’s recommendations.
For African states, the panel’s recommendations offer a unique chance to reshape the continent’s role in the global energy transition.
Even as they do, more traction needs to be made on specific aviation solutions that can help bring prices down for consumers. One of these is airlines coming together to share costs of aviation fuel, which is also known as Joint Fuel Purchase.
Joint fuel purchase
In March 2024, AFRAA Fuel Committee members converged at the AFRAA headquarters in Nairobi for the first round negotiation meetings for the year 2024/25 programme tender process.
Established in 2012, the AFRAA Fuel Project is the vehicle which members use to coordinate, facilitate and manage the joint purchase of fuel enabling participating airlines to reduce cost of fuel and favorable terms achieved through economies of scale. Currently there are 14 participating member airlines including: Air Botswana; Air Burkina; ASKY Airlines; Astral Aviation; Camair-Co; Ethiopian Airlines; Express Air Cargo; Kenya Airways; LAM-Mozambique; PrecisionAir; RwandAir; South African Airways; TAAG-Angola Airlines; Uganda Airlines.
Running on an annual basis, the fuel programme has achieved significant cost savings to the participating airlines since its establishment.
However, it would be clear that even as Joint Fuel Purchase has made strides, other aviation stakeholders, such as IATA, have been promoting Sustainable.Aviation Fuel (SAF) as an important panacea to reducing costs.
The Rocky Road to SAF
SAF is a liquid fuel currently used in commercial aviation which reduces CO2 emissions by up to 80%. It can be produced from a number of sources (feedstock) including waste oil and fats, green and municipal waste and non-food crops.
Apparently, it can also be produced synthetically via a process that captures carbon directly from the air. It is ‘sustainable’ because the raw feedstock does not compete with food crops or water supplies, or is responsible for forest degradation.
Whereas fossil fuels add to the overall level of CO2 by emitting carbon that had been previously locked away, SAF recycles the CO2 which has been absorbed by the biomass used in the feedstock during the course of its life.
Nine biofuel production pathways are certified to produce SAF, which perform at operationally equivalent levels to Jet A1 fuel. By design, these SAFs are drop-in solutions, which can be directly blended into existing fuel infrastructure at airports and are fully compatible with modern aircraft.
Conclusion
Bearing in mind that COP29 is all about climate finance, there’s no gainsaying that solutions for raising funds to support a sustainable African aviation market are important.
For one solution, we need to go back to April 2024 – on the sidelines of the tenth Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development (ARFSD-10) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
One panacea was in a carbon taxation regime that covered carbon tax on fossil fuel, maritime transport and aviation.
According to Claver Gatete, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), these can generate additional funds to support the African energy transition,
He adds “If combined with other policy measures, a carbon tax could help to mitigate those residual emissions that cannot be addressed by carbon credit markets or subsidies and technologies. Such a tax could allow countries to improve responses to their commitments to contribute to reducing climate instability,” said Gatete.
Referring to ECA’s preliminary studies on exploring the benefits of carbon tax, he noted that carbon tax in the global supply chains could allow countries like Egypt and Ethiopia to reap substantial revenues that could be reallocated to research and development in aviation and marine transports.
ECA’s research also indicates that investing in nature-based solutions in African countries could generate up to US$82 billion annually at US$120 per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent.
Highlighting the importance of decarbonizing economies and expanding revenue streams through clean energy, Albert Muchanga, Commissioner for Economic Development, Trade, Industry and Mining at the African Union Commission (AUC) said, decarbonizing economies through carbon taxation is crucial to address the climate crisis. However, strong engagement with stakeholders at national and global levels is necessary for success.
For Muchanga’s part, “African economies are small and fragmented, integrating them is necessary for a unified approach to promote a green transition across the continent,”
Reason for which, by way of urgent conclusion, it remains critical for greater institutional synergy between AMDC and the AU’s counterpart of ICAO – AFCAC – to engage in dialogue that coheres towards a greening of not just the sustainable aviation fuel, but the SAATM process in full so that the next 25 years of YD becomes more impactful.
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_E K Bensah Jr is an ECOWAS & AU Policy Expert, with 20 years experience across communication & media (print, radio; TV; podcasts; media networks of AUDA-NEPAD; APRM; AMDC)._
ENDS