Africa's largest hydroelectric dam

Climate Focus

By Sharon Kimathi, Energy and ESG Editor, Reuters Digital

Hello!

Energy and the environment are in focus in today's newsletter as Ethiopia has officially inaugurated Africa's largest hydroelectric dam.

The project will provide energy to millions, but not without some diplomatic consequences.

Let's get into the positives first.

Ethiopia, the continent's second most populous nation with over 120 million people, sees the $5 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on a tributary of the Nile as central to its economic ambitions.

The dam's output has gradually increased since the first turbine was turned on in 2022, and it reached its maximum 5,150 MW of power on Tuesday.

That puts it among the 20 biggest hydroelectric dams in the world, at about one-quarter of the capacity of China's Three Gorges Dam.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has said the dam will improve access to electricity for almost half the population and will export the surplus to the region.

The dam's reservoir will provide a steady water supply for irrigation downstream while limiting floods and drought.

Now for the not-so-positives.

Ethiopia's downstream neighbours have watched the project advance with dread since construction began in 2011.

Egypt, which built its own Aswan High Dam on the Nile in the 1960s, fears the GERD could restrict its water supply during droughts, and could encourage the construction of other upstream dams.

Its Foreign Ministry wrote to the U.N. Security Council saying the inauguration of the dam violated international law.

Sudan, meanwhile, has joined Egypt's calls for legally binding agreements on the dam's filling and operation – but could also benefit from better flood management and access to cheap energy.

Independent research shows that so far, no major disruptions to downstream flow have been recorded, noting favourable rainfall but also the cautious filling of the reservoir during wet seasons over a five-year period.

Keep scrolling for more on the aftermath of Afghanistan's earthquake last week.

Earthquakes in eastern Afghanistan flattened villages last week. The quake destroyed homes and livestock, and left survivors with almost no resources to rebuild as aid runs thin. Taliban authorities say more than 6,700 homes were destroyed. Families remain in tents as aftershocks persist.

At least 2,200 people were killed and more than half a million affected when a powerful earthquake struck the region on the night of August 31 followed by a series of strong aftershocks. The quakes have left tens of thousands of people homeless, with some fearing further landslides.

Click here for a Reuters video interview with a Young Afghan quake survivor.

A Palestinian man fills a water tank in Bardala, in Jordan Valley, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. REUTERS/Ammar Awad

Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank are facing severe water shortages that they say are being driven by increasing attacks on scarce water sources by extremist Jewish settlers. Across the West Bank in Palestinian communities, residents are reporting shortages that have left taps in homes dry and farms without irrigation.

Click here for the full Reuters story.

Two people were still missing on Indonesia's resort island of Bali, officials said on Friday, as waters began receding after flooding killed at least 16 people this week, most of them swept away when rivers burst their banks.

Governments in sub-Saharan Africa have provided school meals to roughly 20 million more children over the past two years, the World Food Programme (WFP) said, showing a move away from dependence on foreign aid and a stronger commitment to education. The region achieved the biggest rise in school feeding of any region, up by nearly a third to 87 million in 2024.

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Click here to watch a Reuters video about New York City's food waste solution or click here to read the full article.

We're continuing today's focus on power in today's climate lens with a look at Europe's Energy and Climate Security Risk Index (ECSRI) which shows how progress toward clean, secure and affordable supply is highly uneven across the continent.

The report, developed by the Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD), measures energy security across four pillars: geopolitics, affordability, reliability and sustainability. Its findings reveal a widening energy security divide between leaders like France, Sweden and Denmark and laggards such as Hungary, Italy and Bulgaria.

Click here for the full Reuters comment by Martin Vladimirov.

That's the record amount multilateral development banks provided in climate finance in 2024, up 10% from the previous year, and also helped boost private sector funding for climate-related investments by a third, a report by the banks showed.

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