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It's no longer good enough to just produce electric vehicles (EVs). You have to produce green EVs, and to do that, you need green steel. To get green steel, you need the green molecules that green hydrogen provides.

To get green hydrogen, you need green electrons from sun and wind renewable energy to power water electrolysis, and the most efficient way of obtaining green hydrogen from the water is to deploy proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysers that are catalysed by platinum group metals (PGMs), which South Africa hosts in overwhelming abundance.

Furthermore, hydrogen fuel cells, which are again catalysed by PGMs, beckon as an inviting value-add to South Africa's essential re-industrialisation to meet its net-zero contribution under the Paris Accord.

To contribute at the level that meets our national obligation, South Africa must build somewhere in the region of 30 GW of renewable energy between now and 2030.

While South Africa is experiencing an exceedingly buoyant market in procuring that renewable energy, the scale at which it is now required to ramp up is fairly massive, and the ramping up to the level opens the door for the development of inviting new green hydrogen and green ammonia industrialisation channels.

Very fortunate for South Africa is that a world-class green hydrogen and green ammonia project is already at an exceedingly advanced stage of conceptualisation and planning at Coega, in the Eastern Cape - the well-led Hive project - and this presents the opportunity to create a key initial hydrogen valley kickstart, in the same way that the $10-billion Hyphen protect is initiating a green hydrogen and green ammonia advance in Namibia.

"The opportunities are almost limitless," was the comment of Nedbank Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB) head of infrastructure, energy and telecommunications Mike Peo when he spoke to Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview ahead of Nedbank's far-reaching Green Hydrogen Roundtable, which outlined the 17 skills required for the green hydrogen economy and the steps already being taken by South Africa's Department of Higher Education and Training and sector education and training authorities (Setas) to provide those skills. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

South Africa stands to gain so much if it takes up the hugely rewarding collective green electron and green molecule opportunity - and to lose so much if it fails to do so.

For instance, if it fails to take up the opportunity, even continuing to export local product to particularly Europe will be threatened by cross-border tariffs.

Supply chains will thus have to go green not only to keep the country moving forward, but to stop it from sliding dangerously backwards.

Encouragingly, at the green electron end, the private sector is procuring renewable energy on a very substantial scale. But there needs to be far more realisation by all stakeholders of the potential re-industrialising boost at the green molecule end - and how this can assist in enabling the creation of more jobs than decarbonisation displaces.

The issue must be centred on how to decarbonise on a just and fair basis, with the just energy transition embedded into the net-zero targets across the broadest of fronts.

HUGE FINANCE CHALLENGE

A huge challenge of the green energy transition is finance. None on the continent of Africa has the ability to match the billions of dollars that, for example, the US is providing to incentivise the generation of green electrons and green molecules.

As a result, Southern Africa's cost of capital is relatively expensive and for this reason, Nedbank CIB in particular is working with global development finance institutions as well as countries intent on importing their climate obligations and in doing so, pay on the buy side by buying green fuels from South Africa.

"We're hoping that creates the same sort of offsets as the big subsidies being seen ...