Africa Climate Summit 2023 kicks off in Nairobi, centring on green growth and climate finance

The inaugural Africa Climate Summit was a three-day event in Nairobi, culminating in the Nairobi Declaration, which calls the international community to action on climate change and to assist Africa in its transformation to becoming a greener continent.

Published

September 21, 2023

The world’s first Africa Climate Summit

The first Africa Climate Summit (ACS) ran this year between the 4^th to the 6^th of September in Nairobi, Kenya. The ACS was a pivotal moment for climate action, hoping to create a roadmap for low-carbon development across Africa.[i]

Africa is responsible for less than 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions, but it suffers disproportionately from the effects of climate change.[ii] More than 36 million people in Africa are affected by prolonged drought.[iii] Over the next decade, it could cost between $30-50 billion a year for sub-Saharan Africa to adapt to climate change.[iv]

Africa is simultaneously facing other challenges alongside climate change. 418 million people do not have a basic level of drinking water access, 600 million still do not have electricity, and 970 million lack access to clean cooking.[v] Rapid urbanisation mixed with poverty and inequality is creating disaster hotspots in cities.

ACS was convened by the African Union and funded by the African Development Bank, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and Ecobank. The German, Danish and French Governments and the European Union acted as bilateral partners.[vi]

30,000 people registered to attend the summit.[vii] Those attending included government representatives, policymakers, civil society organisations, the private sector, multilateral institutions, and youth representatives from Africa and around the world.[viii] Seven speakers addressed the Summit, including Kenya’s president, William Ruto. Two Kenyan Ministers also spoke along with representatives from the African Union and the United Nations.[ix]

Themes & focus areas

This year’s summit was centred around “Driving green growth and climate finance solutions for Africa and the world”.[x] Four focus areas divide this central theme:

· Climate action financing

· Green growth agenda for Africa

· Climate action and economic development

· Global capital optimisation

The Africa Climate Summit works in parallel with Africa Climate Week

The United Nations’ Africa Climate Week was taking place in tandem with the ACS, running between the 4^th to the 8^th of September in Nairobi. Last year, Africa Climate Week was hosted in Libreville, Gabon.[xi]

Other regional climate weeks for the Middle East and North Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Asia-Pacific follow Africa Climate Week between the 8^th of October to the 17^th of November.[xii] The UN General Assembly and G20 meetings will also take place at the end of September.[xiii] These events start the ball rolling before COP28 in November.

Ministerial day (4^th of September)

Source: PBS

President William Ruto opened the summit by saying that Africa has an “unparalleled opportunity” to benefit from acting on climate change. Still, trillions of dollars of green investment is needed to do this.[xiv]

“Friends, this summit is a moment to imagine a bold and radically affirmative African future, a continent that thrives and shapes climate proof future for all.” – William Ruto[xv]

Ruto also talked about Africa’s potential to be energy self-sufficient because of its renewable resources. Africa has 60% of the world’s best solar energy resources, but the solar capacity it has installed is only roughly equivalent to the capacity installed by Belgium.[xvi]

The climate finance agenda started out hot from day one. Hundreds of millions of dollars were pledged to an initiative to boost Africa’s carbon credit production 19-fold by 2030.[xvii] Investors from the United Arab Emirates also said they would buy $450 million worth of carbon credits from the Africa Carbon Markets Initiative (ACMI), which was established at COP27. Climate Asset Management pledged a $200 million investment in projects producing ACMI credits, whilst the UK said it would announce projects worth $62 million. Germany announced it would free up some of Kenya’s money for green projects through a $62 million debt swap with the host country.[xviii]

Other events occurring on the first day discussed carbon pricing, building circularity into NDCs (nationally determined contributions), African voices on climate change, new EFT (exchange-traded fund) reporting tools in development, agriculture, electric railway development, youth activism, COP28 expectations, future adaptation finance, Africa’s progress on the Paris Agreement goals, and Africa’s refugee population. The day was finished with a Ministerial Working dinner on the Declaration and a premiere of ‘Between the Rains’, a film about low annual rainfall in northern Kenya.[xix]

Spotlight on opportunities (5^th of September)

Day two discussed many of the same topics as day one but from a different angle. Additionally, there were events about nature-based solutions in cities, a just transition, locally led restoration initiatives, members of the Maasai working to establish a carbon project under the Paris Agreement, and the first commercial securitisation transaction in Kenya.

On Tuesday also came a statement from António Guterres, UN Secretary-General. He said,

“Today I renewed my call for the world to step up climate action to avoid the worst effects of climate change, keep global promises to provide essential support, and help Africa make a just and equitable transition to renewable energy.”[xx]

Nairobi declaration (6^th of September)

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Source: United Nations

The Nairobi declaration will set Africa’s first formal green growth agenda, helping to position Africa as a “globally powerful climate solutions hub”.[xxi] The declaration was adopted unanimously.[xxii] The body of the declaration is split into four sections.

The first section argues that more collective action is needed. The international community needs to work together to fulfil its promises, including the goals set in the Paris Agreement, the pledge of $100 billion in annual climate finance promised at COP15, which has never been met, commitments to phase down coal and abolish fossil fuel subsidies, and the Loss and Damage Fund which was agreed at COP27. The declaration also calls for more climate-positive investments, which will address climate change and help Africa develop.[xxiii]

The second section outlines fifteen commitments made by African countries. These commitments touch on policy, regulation and incentives; economic growth and job creation; renewable energy and a just energy transition; restorative agriculture, smallholder farming, and boosting yields to increase food security; strengthening continental collaboration, including grid interconnectivity and the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement; green industrialisation; developing global standards, metrics and market mechanisms; biodiversity including the African Union Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan; including adaptation in policy; partnerships between Africa and external regions; investing in urban infrastructure; early warning systems and the importance of indigenous knowledge and citizen science in this; supporting the Africa Investment Programme; and the implementation of the African Union Climate Change and Resilient Development Strategy and Action Plan (2022-2032).[xxiv]

The third section states that “no country should ever have to choose between development aspirations and climate action.”[xxv] To prevent this choice from taking place, more capital is needed from the international community. This money should come from Multilateral Development Banks, debt management and relief measures, innovative solutions that address the high cost of capital in Africa like the partial foreign exchange (FX) guarantee for emerging and frontier economies, international tax cooperation at the United Nations, as well as measures like blended finance instruments, purchase commitments, industrial policy collaboration and guarantee mechanisms that will “crowd in and de-risk private capital”. This section also discusses non-finance contributions from the international community, such as helping to increase Africa’s renewable energy generation capacity and helping to decarbonise the transport, industrial and electricity sectors.[xxvi]

The declaration finishes with a call to action. This is made up of ten invitations, requests, and propositions, several of which relate to finance. Important proposals at the end of the declaration are that the Africa Climate Summit will be established as a biennial event and that the Nairobi declaration will serve as Africa’s common position at COP28 and beyond. The African Union Commission is asked to translate the declaration into an implementation framework and a roadmap, and they are asked to make climate change the African Union theme for 2025 or 2026.[xxvii]