The King of Lesotho supplies green energy to Davos elites
Lesotho’s King Letsie III has embarked on an ambitious mission in snowy Davos, where global power brokers have gathered, to make a royal plea: invest in his tiny African nation’s green transition.
The monarch traveled from his landlocked mountain kingdom in South Africa to promote his green energy fund during meetings with business and political leaders in the Swiss Alpine village.
“Davos seems to be a magnet for political, economic and business leadership around the world,” King Letsie told AFP in an interview at the World Economic Forum.
“We felt that, if possible, we should come and see how we can work with some of these business leaders and some of these political leaders to see how we can sell our renewable energy potential,” he said.
Lesotho is a poor country with just over two million inhabitants that is affected by drought. It is economically dependent on South Africa, where a large part of the population goes to work and sends money home.
Many work in South Africa’s gold and diamond mines, but even fewer work because the industry is “not what it used to be,” King Letsie said.
Lesotho is a constitutional monarchy where the king has no formal power, but King Letsie has traveled the world promoting the private sector-managed fund.
The aim of the fund is to stimulate private investment in solar, energy and hydropower projects in Lesotho and one day export renewable energy to South Africa.
“I see our potential to produce renewable energy as something that can be a transformative factor in the development of our economy,” said King Letsie.
“We need to create a different economic model.”
– ‘Make sure everything gets going’ –
British bank Standard Chartered and South Africa’s Standard Bank Group are providing financial advice to the fund, which was launched in February 2024 and is known as His Majesty King Letsie III Just Energy Transition Fund.
King Letsie is working on attracting investors.
“What we urgently need now is catalytic financing to get things going,” he said.
Lesotho has a lot of sunlight, wind and water to offer and works with Chinese companies to produce solar energy.
But the country is also on the front lines of climate change, with a drought last year devastating crops and livestock and forcing the government to declare a national emergency.
“This is one of the striking consequences of climate change,” said King Letsie.
In Davos he has scheduled meetings with mining group Anglo American, a Danish wind energy company and the presidents of South Africa and Botswana.
“We have been to Scandinavia, all the Scandinavian countries. We’ve been to Britain, we’ve been to the US, trying to talk to different institutions and companies to be involved and invest,” King Letsie said. .
“I’m optimistic,” he said. “The mood in the international community is to move away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy.”
