I am writing this as the week which saw the first ever African Climate Summit has come to an end. And what a summit it’s been. I had the opportunity to experience it first hand in Nairobi, where I recently relocated to with my family. In the following I’d like to share some of my thoughts on where Africa (and the planet) might be heading.
The feeling I’m left with is that the world didn’t really get to know what went down in Nairobi in the past week, although it saw participation of 13,000 delegates and around 30,000 participants including public events. I also had the chance to listen in on some highly inspirational speeches from the Kenyan President William Ruto and UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres.
Viewed through the lens of Western media however, it looked like another summit that didn’t lead to anything and where the Global South once again asked for more money. Maybe it’s because journalists are taught to focus on the conflicts in their stories. Maybe it’s because we’ve been fooled so many times before from positive winds from a COP that didn’t lead anywhere.
Yes, the summit has rightly been criticized for having a low attendance of African heads of state, but there were also many who did decide to come. And yes, the African leaders’ call for a global carbon tax that can take us closer to the declared goals of reducing emissions and financing the necessary climate reparations for all the damage and harm caused by decades of excessive CO2 emissions, was indeed one of the points in the “Nairobi Declaration”.
For the inattentive follower from afar, this might recall a picture of a victimized continent, which we’ve come across so many times before. But the truth is, that this is far from the vibe and spirit felt on the ground in Nairobi. From listening to the main speakers, participating in side events, and talking to fellow participants from UN employees to the street ballers from the eastern part of town, you get a different picture. A picture that for the first time in a long while, the solutions are within reach and Africa can play a defining part in this. Here are a few interesting fact I picked up:
- 80% of emissions come from the G20 countries
- In 2050 25% of the world’s population will be African
- We need rapid action to provide opportunities and a future for the young population on the continent, which has a median age of only 19 year
- The large youth population aligns well with the necessary green transition, as we need to train skilled workers for the clean and green sector
- On Africa’s Horn 85% of the electricity is already being generated from renewables including hydro, thermal, wind, and solar energy
- Africa has the potential to produce more than half the green hydrogen (GH2) that the world will need in 2050
- Unfortunately, currently only 2% of global finance goes toward African renewable projects
- The cost of borrowing money is 5-8 times as high for African countries compared to Western countries. The high costs are caused by real and perceived higher risks when engaging with African countries
- We need to de-risk and inform the credit ratings, which are all carried out by private Western rating agencies with few or no feet on the ground in Africa
- The global finance system must be transformed to allow everyone mechanisms for the transition to low emission technologies if we are to get this climate challenge right
I hope the reverberations from the summit will be felt beyond Nairobi. My conclusion is therefore: Stop seeing Africa as a victim and start seeing it as the critical part of the solution it can and must be for the world to adequately address the climate crisis. We may start by improving the loaning facilities for green investments. This will help us put an end to fossil fuels and comes with the positive side effects of creating jobs and improving the economy across the continent.
Let’s stand as one – for Africa’s and everybody else’s sake!
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