Funding for Africa ‘key to global climate change deal’

21 Apr 15

Ministers from across Africa have said additional funding for low-carbon energy schemes across the continent must be part of any global deal to tackle climate change reached later this year.

At the African Carbon Forum in Marrakech, countries from across the region called for new public and private funding to unlock the continent’s clean energy potential.

A global conference is being held in Paris in December to approve a new universal climate change agreement under the United Nations. As part of this deal, there is a need to sufficiently finance for low-carbon development, the event held by the African Development Bank heard.

Representatives of governments across the continent stressed that there was readiness to undertake low-carbon development, provided the funding was available from both public and private sources.

Kurt Lonsway, AfDB’s manager of environment and climate change, said the forum had ‘reiterated the need to have adequate, predictable, sustainable climate finance resources to address Africa’s challenges in transitioning to low carbon development, promoting smart agriculture, and sustainable urban development’.

These sectors are key to Africa’s development and must be integrated in to the global agreement, he said as part of measures to expand a

The ACF focused on programmes to unleash private sector finance, such as the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism, used to help developed countries obtain carbon credits by investing in emission reduction schemes. There is also a need to scale up other forms of climate finance to strengthen the sustainable development of African countries.

‘We all know current climate financial flows are currently insufficient to meet all of Africa’s climate change challenges, but it is also critical for African countries to demonstrate the ability to effectively deploy those resources that are available to help contribute to the global climate change goals.’

Over 620 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa – about two-thirds of the population – are without secure access to electricity, according the International Energy Agency. Some 730 million people in the region – about 80% – still rely on cooking mostly with wood, harming health and destroying vital forest cover.

Also speaking at the event, Richard Kinley, the deputy executive secretary of the United Nation’s Framework Convention on Climate Change, said that in the last eight months before Paris, a focus was needed on finding common ground solutions.

‘All countries have something to gain from the Paris agreement and it is in everyone’s interests to reach a strong conclusion as soon as possible this year,’ he said. ‘If heads of states come to Paris, it must be to adopt an agreement that is robust and ready for them.’

  • Judith Ugwumadu
    Judith Ugwumadu

    Judith writes about public finance, public services and economics across Public Finance International and Public Finance. She previously undertook reporting stints at Financial Adviser, Global Security Finance and The Sunday Express.

Did you enjoy this article?

Related articles

Have your say

CIPFA latest