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Explainer: What you need to know about the Africa Climate Week
After months of anticipation and careful planning, the D-Day has finally arrived. Beginning Monday, September 4th, 2023, leaders from governments, businesses, multilateral partners, international organizations, and civil society will come together to explore ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while upscaling the continent’s efforts to deal with the mounting impacts of the climate crisis.
Africa Climate Week is an annual event that provides regional collaboration on various topics, including energy systems and industry, urban and rural settlements, land, ocean, food, water, livelihoods, economies, transport, health, and infrastructure. It is one of four regional climate weeks held this year globally and designed to build towards the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 28) that will be held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in October.
This year’s edition is hosted by the Government of Kenya, in the capital city, Nairobi. The event is organized by the UNFCCC, in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the World Bank Group. Moreover, there are various regional partners such as the African Union (AU), the African Development Bank (AfDB), and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).
Not to be confused, another regional climate event is happening in Nairobi during the same period. The Africa Climate Summit, scheduled for the first three days of the week, is designed to parallel side events taking place at the Climate Week. Many high-level delegations from outside the continent have confirmed their attendance.
So why does it matter?
Conversations around climate change are picking up fast around the continent. Just last year alone, many African nations battled increasing cases of famine, tropical cyclones, deforestation, declining agricultural yields, rising oceans, increasing desertification, and growing rural-to-urban migration. Take for example, Lake Chad – the largest freshwater lake in the Sahara Belt – which has lost 90 percent of its surface area, leading to five million climate-related refugees moving from Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria as it shrinks.
In addition, African countries are on average spending 9 percent of their GDP responding to natural disasters caused by climate change. Analysts warn that if the scenario continues, it could cause Africa’s GDP to decrease by up to 30 percent by 2050. As a result, climate change is predicted to continue dampening Africa’s prospects for a quick economic recovery and magnify the trends of food insecurity and vulnerability arising from the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
As a result, this year’s summit is structured under the theme of unlocking climate financing. A study by the Climate Policy Initiative warns that the continent requires approximately $250 billion each year to address its combined climate goals. However, annual climate flows in Africa for 2022 were only $30 billion, or just 12% of the required amount. Considering that all 54 countries have a GDP of $2.4 trillion, according to the World Bank’s Annual Report of 2021, it implies that 10% of Africa’s current annual GDP needs to be mobilized above and beyond current flows every year for the next ten years.
But this situation should not be happening. That is, if the Paris Agreement, signed by all nations in the world in 2015, was to be fully implemented by the parties. Advanced economies are yet to fulfill their written pledges to contribute $100 billion annually to assist countries in the Global South in their efforts to cope with the impact of climate change.
What will happen?
Expect speeches, statements, and declarations from heads of state and key policymakers. There will also be powerful side events featuring high-level panel discussions on topics around the theme of raising climate financing in Africa. Civil society groups have also scheduled some round table dialogues to raise awareness on climate justice. All in all, if you find the diplomatic talk boring, numerous side events will keep you engaged and renew the fire in your belly to aggressively work harder to help the continent adapt to the changing climate.
AfriCatalyst, alongside the Open Society Foundations, will co-host a premier event on unlocking climate financing in Africa on September 5th,which you can register and attend for free.
Anything to watch out for?
Ah, yes! A lot! So let’s explain.
There are now two trendy, albeit innovative, topics on climate financing gaining ground in Africa – green bonds and carbon markets.
On carbon markets, Africa has vast amounts of carbon stored in its ecosystems. For example, the Congo Forest – the world’s second-largest forest, absorbs 1.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year. But it is not just Congo that is a large carbon sink, the Atlas Mountains, the Volcanic mountains of Eastern Africa (Mt. Kilimanjaro, Elgon, and Kenya), and mangrove forests that dot the African coastline, all play a major role in carbon sequestration.
At the last COP summit held in Sharm El-Sheik, Egypt, in November 2022, African heads of state launched the Africa Carbon Markets Initiative (ACMI) with a bold, long-term ambition to reach 300 million credits, unlocking $6 billion in income and supporting 30 million jobs by 2030. One year after its launch, the continent has only managed to raise a combined total of $200 million in carbon credits, and just seven countries have signed up to develop country carbon activation plans: Burundi, Gabon, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria and Togo. These figures are a drop in the ocean compared to the global carbon market, which has reached $10 billion this year.
It is expected that policymakers will renew talks on growing the space for carbon offsetting and enacting legislation that protects against green washing.
Aside from carbon markets, green bonds are another thing to watch out for. In 2017, Nigeria issued the continent’s first sovereign green bond (10 years after the European Investment Bank pioneered that form of investment), raising $29 million. Over the next two years, there was a 300% increase in the issuance of green bonds in Africa. But that growth is minute when compared with the rest of the world. According to the Brookings Institute, Africa accounts for just 0.4% of global green bond issuance, significantly lower than its 17% share of the global population and 3% share of global GDP.
Expect African leaders to make further commitments on expanding the issuance of green bonds, and reform regulatory frameworks to attract outside investors.
Citations
Afifi, Tamer, et al. Climate change, vulnerability and human mobility: Perspectives of refugees from the East and Horn of Africa. Bonn: United Nations University, Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS), 2012.
Silver, Jonathan. “The potentials of carbon markets for infrastructure investment in sub-Saharan urban Africa.” Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 13 (2015): 25-31.
United Nations Development Program. Africa needs carbon markets. Retrieved August 25th 2023 from