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MTN Group has once again been recognised as one of the Forbes World’s Best Employers, marking its fifth consecutive year on the list.  MTN now ranks 3rd globally in the Telecommunications Services, Cable Supplier category – showcasing leadership in the sector. In a remarkable leap, MTN has also climbed 101 places in the overall global ranking to 166^th, up from 267^th in 2024.

This recognition, based on feedback from over 300,000 employees in over 50 countries worldwide, is a testament to MTN’s unwavering commitment to fostering a workplace culture rooted in care, integrity, agility, respect, and inclusion which aligns to the pillars of its “Live Y’ello” values.

“This achievement is a reflection of the incredible people who make MTN what it is. Our people are the driving force behind the group’s mission to enable digital and financial inclusion across the continent, and it is through their dedication that we continue to lead in delivering digital solutions for Africa’s growth,” said Ralph Mupita, MTN Group President and CEO.

“We are honoured to be recognised, and even more committed to the culture we’ve built – a culture that emphasises empowerment and inclusivity.”

At the heart of MTN’s success is its Live Inspired Employee Value Promise, which ensures every team member is supported to grow, innovate, and thrive. This promise is not just a statement but a lived experience across MTN’s markets, where every individual’s voice is valued, and where passion, dedication, and collaboration drive our shared success.

“This recognition from Forbes is a powerful testament to the value our 17,500+ people place in being part of the MTN journey,” said Paul Norman, MTN Group Chief Human Resources Officer.

“It affirms the importance of creating a workplace built on inclusivity, support, and personal growth – an environment where everyone can thrive. It is through the passion and commitment of our people that MTN continues to lead.”

The organisation’s continued investment in employee well-being, diversity, and growth reinforces its belief that empowered people build empowered communities.

By Sara Mattern

This September, Foley Hoag team members from across the United States participated in dozens of events at ClimateWeekNYC, Colorado Climate Week, and Houston Energy + Climate Startup Week. Our team left buzzing with energy and optimism. In New York, the momentum, collaboration, and shared purpose at the world’s largest annual climate gathering were truly inspiring. In Colorado and Texas, we saw the forefront of new technologies and new ideas about energy and climate that are impacting consumers, developers and policymakers across the country.

New York was rainy and humid, but our team trekked hundreds of miles across the city to engage in discussions across a wide range of topics. Gone is the frothiness of post-Inflation Reduction Act initiatives and we saw fewer pledges of ambitious decarbonization goals. Instead, many of the conversations focused on real-world immediate issues like load growth from data centers, strained grid systems, critical minerals supply, adaptation and resiliency, affordability of energy, and navigating a world with less federal support (or downright opposition). 

In Colorado, our team facilitated discussions on the role of government relations and legal strategy in climatetech.

In Houston, we joined our friends at Greentown Labs and Activate in multiple days of demos and workshops focusing on new technologies for the energy transition.

Attorneys at Foley Hoag have been at the forefront of navigating the new climate landscape. As we head into another week of a government shut down, we’re working with private and public companies, nonprofits, and state and local agencies to work through new solutions to the problems of the day.

At this year’s New York Climate Week, our conversations focused on bringing people together to brainstorm practical solutions, and to connect the founders and funders that will build the energy infrastructure of the next several decades. Together with our colleagues and partners at Planeteer Capital, Earthshot Ventures, Activate, Molecule Group, Node Climate, Impact Capital Managers, Tailwind Futures, Resilience Company, Resilience Investments, Cleantech Leaders Climate Forum and the Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition Institute, we dove into meaningful conversations on adaptation and resilience, clean fuels and corporate sustainability, FOAK technologies, and climate finance and investing—and even got an exciting preview of breakthrough green technologies poised to shape what’s next.

Thank you to everyone who joined us at our events. We’re energized by the engagement with so many partners and can’t wait to keep the momentum going.

Read the full report here.

More than 100 countries have cut their dependence on fossil-fuel imports and saved hundreds of billions of dollars by continuing to invest in renewables, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

It says nations such as the UK, Germany and Chile have reduced their need for imported coal and gas by around a third since 2010, mainly by building wind and solar power.

Denmark has cut its reliance on fossil-fuel imports by nearly half over the same period.

Renewable expansion allowed these nations to collectively avoid importing 700m tonnes of coal and 400bn cubic metres of gas in 2023, equivalent to around 10% of global consumption.

In doing so, the fuel-importing countries saved more than $1.3tn between 2010 and 2023 that would otherwise have been spent on fossil fuels from overseas.

Reduced reliance

The IEA’s Renewables 2025 report quantifies the benefits of renewable-energy deployment for electricity systems in fossil fuel-importing nations. 

It compares recent trends in renewable expansion to an alternative “low renewable-energy source” scenario, in which this growth did not take place.

In this counterfactual, fuel-importing countries stopped building wind, solar and other non-hydropower renewable-energy projects after 2010.

In reality, the world added around 2,500 gigawatts (GW) of such projects between 2010 and 2023, according to the IEA, more than the combined electricity generating capacity of the EU and US in 2023, from all sources. Roughly 80% of this new renewable capacity was built in nations that rely on coal and gas imports to generate electricity.

The chart below shows how 31 of these countries have substantially cut their dependence on imported fossil fuels over the 13-year period, as a result of expanding their wind, solar and other renewable energy supplies. All of these countries are net importers of coal and gas.

In total, the IEA identified 107 countries that had reduced their dependence on fossil fuel imports for electricity generation, to some extent due to the deployment of renewables other than hydropower.

Of these, 38 had cut their reliance on electricity from imported coal and gas by more than 10 percentage points and eight had seen that share drop by more than 30 percentage points.

Security and resilience

The IEA stresses that renewables “inherently strengthen energy supply security”, because they generate electricity domestically, while also “improving…economic resilience” in fossil-fuel importer countries. 

This is particularly true for countries with low or dwindling domestic energy resources.

The agency cites the energy crisis exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which exposed EU importers to spiralling fossil-fuel prices.

Bulgaria, Romania and Finland – which have historically depended on Russian gas for electricity generation – have all brought their import reliance close to zero in recent years by building renewables.

In the UK, where there has been mounting opposition to renewables from right-wing political parties, the IEA says reliance on electricity generated with imported fossil fuels has dropped from 45% to under 25% in a decade, thanks primarily to the growth of wind and solar power. 

Without these technologies, the UK would now be needing to import fossil fuels to supply nearly 60% of its electricity, the IEA says.

Other major economies, notably China and the EU, would also have had to rely on a growing share of coal and gas from overseas, if they had not expanded renewables.

As well as increasing the need for fossil-fuel imports from other countries, switching renewables for fossil fuels would require significantly higher energy usage “due to [fossil fuels’] lower conversion efficiencies”, the IEA notes. Each gigawatt-hour (GWh) of renewable power produced has avoided the need for 2-3GWh of fossil fuels, it explains.

Finally, the IEA points out that spending on renewables rather than imported fossil fuels keeps more investment in domestic economies and supports local jobs.