While the Kenyan hosts promoted the economic opportunities of greener growth, experts highlighted Africa’s financial barriers
We must view green growth not just as a climate imperative, but also as a fountain of multi-billion-dollar economic opportunities that Africa and the world is primed to capitalise on,” said the Kenyan president William Ruto at the opening of the first Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi on 4 September.
Organised in tandem with Africa Climate Week, the summit attracted over 20 heads of state and government, along with thousands of representatives from civil society, academia and the private sector.
Co-hosts Kenya and the African Union framed the summit as a chance for Africa to move away from its image as a climate victim. Instead, the opportunities on the horizon for the continent as it attempts to mitigate and adapt to climate change were brought to the fore.
The Nairobi declaration – signed at the summit’s end – emphasised the Paris Agreement’s assertion that no country should have to choose between development and climate action.
Ruto was ebullient. He urged African governments to increase investments in renewable energy, green industrialisation, climate-smart agriculture and nature conservation. This, he said, would accelerate global decarbonisation, fuel sustainable development and create jobs.
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Representatives from academia and civil society were more cautious, citing the lack of financing and rising debt burdens as major obstacles to African economic development and climate resilience. The declaration recognised this too, calling for debt management mechanisms to be refined and the establishment of “a new financing architecture” sensitive to Africa’s needs.
The shackles of debt
In recent years, the burden of debt servicing has increased, due to the economic impacts of Covid-19 and rising interest rates.
According to research published in August, servicing external debt will consume an average of 12% of government spending in Sub-Saharan African countries between 2023 and 2027; in Angola, Zambia, Benin and Ghana, it will be at least 25%. These figures were calculated by Debt Relief for a Green & Inclusive Recovery, which is a collaboration between SOAS University of London, Boston University and the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Berlin.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, 600 million people cannot access electricity. The continent’s transport networks and industrialisation lag far behind the rest of the world. Huge investment is needed to propel Africa’s development in a climate-resilient way.
At COP15 in 2009, developed countries agreed to provide US$100 billion per year in climate financing to developing countries by 2020. The failure to meet this target further constrains Africa’s climate resilience efforts.
Calls are therefore growing for private-sector involvement. But Rishikesh Bhandary thinks private investors are deterred by the very high “cost of capital” of projects in Africa; a lot of money is needed before profits materialise, says Bhandary, assistant director of Boston University’s Global Economic Governance Initiative.
