Climate Investor Roadshow Starts in Africa

A series of regional forums kicked off in Addis Ababa this week, aimed at accelerating financial flows to the projects needed to reduce emissions, build climate resilience and advance the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.?

These roundtables – titled Towards COP27: Regional Forums on Climate Initiatives to Finance Climate Action and the SDGs – take place across Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean and are hosted by the incoming Egyptian COP27 Presidency, the UN Regional Commissions and the UN Climate Change High-Level Champions.

Developing countries entered the Covid-19 crisis with significantly bigger debt vulnerabilities than at the start of the 2008 financial crisis, leaving them with constrained fiscal space in which to build resilience to climate impacts and respond to the pandemic.?

Meanwhile, developed countries and private sector investors have yet to deliver the US$100 billion per year of climate finance promised by 2020. The Africa Group of negotiators has called for US$1.3 trillion per year to be made available from 2025.

The regional forums will convene countries looking to raise capital for critical climate projects and initiatives, along with significant financial institutions such as regional development banks and members of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero. They will look at how best to de-risk investments in developing countries and help countries present their investment-ready projects.

The schedule of forums is:

Addis Ababa, Egypt: 2-4 August (register here )

Bangkok, Thailand: 25 August

Santiago, Chile: 1-2 September?

Beirut, Lebanon: 15 September

Geneva, Switzerland: 20 September

Building for Resilience

City life around the world is being pushed to the brink by extreme, unbearable temperatures and the havoc they wreak.?

In the past month alone, Shanghai issued its highest alert for extreme heat for the third time this summer, requiring construction and other outdoor work to be reduced or paused. London saw the highest number of fires since World War II, and flights at Luton Airport halted due to a melted runway, as the capital breached a record 40 degrees Celsius. Tehran experienced power outages due to a heatwave, compounded by a severe drought that pushed up power prices.?

If this continues, major urban hubs will become unlivable in the coming decades, even as their populations multiply. Cities in developing and emerging economies are most at risk. We can avoid the worst impacts, by designing future built environments to be more resilient to climate change impacts and fit for a zero-emissions economy by 2050.?

The buildings and construction sector is responsible for nearly 40% of energy- and process-related carbon emissions. That footprint is set to grow, with two-thirds of people expected to live in cities by 2060. In Africa, the floor area is expected to more than double by 2050. But only half of the urban fabric needed to accommodate this influx has so far been built. So the decisions businesses, investors, cities, regions and national governments take today will determine how liveable and resilient the built environment becomes.???

To reach net zero by 2050, all new buildings need to operate with net-zero emissions, whilst reducing the buildings’ embodied emissions, by 2030, according to the Race to Zero’s Breakthroughs report. Given the lag time of around five years between design and completion of a large building, change must start now.?

This makes sound business sense. The shift to green buildings in emerging markets alone offers a US$24.7 trillion investment opportunity, and can spur sustainable development, according to the? International Finance Corporation . Green buildings also offer sales premiums of up to one-third higher than traditional buildings, and sell faster. Their lower water and power consumption reduces operational costs by as much as 37%. And their construction can create millions of skilled jobs, and lead to improved health, equity and resilience.?

It will also save lives. Some 1 billion live in informal settlements in homes that are vulnerable to climate change, many with an iron roof that leaks when it rains and in a heatwave can feel like it’s cooking you. Yet little attention is given to this challenge of improving existing homes and building new ones in informal settlements. Roof Over Our Head , a new initiative led by Slum Dwellers International, is working to meet this challenge by bringing communities, cities, architects, industry and financiers together.

Built Environment Action

The shift towards greener, more resilient urban hubs picked up ahead of COP26 – but it needs to accelerate.?

The High-Level Champions worked with a coalition of business and government groups to establish 26 climate action initiatives announced for the sector at COP26. Among those, 44 developers, designers and asset managers representing US$85 billion in annual turnover signed the World Green Building Council’s commitment to reduce energy consumption, eliminate emissions from energy and refrigerants, and reduce embodied carbon from new developments and renovations by 2030 and ensure that all buildings reach net zero operational carbon by 2050.

More businesses have signed up to the commitment since COP26, including Africa Logistics Properties which acquires, develops and manages warehouses in East Africa; Deutsche Bank, which has over 6000 buildings in its portfolio; and Schneider Electric, according to a recent status report by the World Green Building Council.?

Governments are acting too. Austria has brought forward a sales ban on new gas boilers by two years to 2023, following similar moves by the Netherlands and Germany. Colombia has launched a national roadmap for zero-carbon buildings by 2050, and 33 US states and local governments have launched a coalition dedicated to creating cleaner, healthier and more affordable buildings.?

Recognizing that much of the growth will be in Africa, the World Green Building Council’s Africa Regional Network is developing a manifesto for sustainable cities and built environments on the continent, which will be released in the lead up to COP27. It makes recommendations across five areas: energy, water, materials, finance and infrastructure. The draft manifesto is now open for public consultation, with written comments due by 18 August through this form . This will be followed by regional roundtables ahead of COP27.

Latin America & the Caribbean Climate Week

July’s Latin America and the Caribbean Climate Week in Santo Domingo brought together over 1,700 participants from governments, multilateral organizations, the private sector and civil society, with events ranging from climate finance to the building of resilience to climate change impacts.

The Champions hosted two Marrakech Partnership deep-dive workshops. The Implementation Lab, which looked at how infrastructure plans and financial flows can benefit strengthening coastal resilience while accelerating emission reductions in the region. The Regionalization Workshop saw Mahmoud Mohieldin, the COP27 High-Level Champion, and Raquel Moses, Global Ambassador for the Race to Zero and Race to Resilience, share the five-year plan for enhancing the Marrakech Partnership’s ambition.??

The Champions also convened a session on collaborative solutions for non-State action after impacts, highlighting the role of businesses in increasing resilience and shifting the focus from philanthropy to investment, as well as an open dialogue on the urgency of accelerating financial flows for mitigation and adaptation in the region and showing the immediate implementation of NDCs. The Champions also opened an event on the Global Stocktake, which underlined the importance of inclusiveness, regional balance and forward-looking opportunities.?

Mahmoud Mohieldin took part in the Climate Week’s opening and received the week’s outcomes from Dominican Republic Acting Environment Minister Milagros De Camps at the end, committing to take the region’s perspectives forward.?

?Latin America and the Caribbean have already been hit by impacts such as drought, glacier melt, extreme rainfall and deforestation, according to a World Meteorological Organization report released during the week.??

You can watch all the week’s events here .?

Registration is now open for the next regional climate week, Africa Climate Week , from 29 August to 2 September in Libreville, Gabon.

Keeping up with the Champions?

• Businesses, investors and governments that are serious about fulfilling net-zero emissions pledges should be rushing to protect, conserve and regenerate nature – yet the trailblazers are still worryingly scarce, Nigel Topping and Mahmoud Mohieldin wrote in Project Syndicate .?
• Mahmoud Mohieldin spoke at the UN’s The Africa We Want conference, in a roundtable on preparing for an African COP27. He emphasized the importance of addressing the special needs of developing countries in mitigation, adaptation and implementation.?
• On the sides of the Sydney Energy Forum , Mahmoud Mohieldin met Australia’s Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen and invited him to participate in COP27. He also met other government officials and business leaders to discuss mobilizing climate investments in Africa and emerging markets.?
• In Singapore, Mahmoud Mohieldin discussed climate finance, including mobilizing investments and setting up carbon markets in Africa, with Teo Chee Hean, the Coordinating Minister for National Security and Chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Climate Change, and Tharman Shanmugaratnam, the Coordinating Minister for Social Policies. He also met the Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore and Chair of the APAC GFANZ network advisory board, Ravi Menon, CEO of the Singapore Stock Exchange Boon-Chye Loh, and representatives from Singapore’s Sovereign Wealth Fund, Temasek.
• In Cairo, Mahmoud Mohieldin met representatives from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and discussed how the bank can support the Champions’ objectives for COP27. Efforts include helping to mobilize the private sector and supporting localization initiatives.
• Mahmoud Mohieldin attended a roundtable with renewable energy executives including the Global Wind Energy Council, Siemens Gamesa, Iberdrola, General Electric, and Lekela Power Egypt, where they discussed the important role that wind energy firms can play in the energy transition and COP27’s potential to be an implementation COP.?
• Mahmoud Mohieldin met with Seteve Varley, the Vice Chair for Sustainability at Ernst & Young (EY) Global, and participants from the Egyptian and UK office, and discussed how EY can support the goals and initiatives of the champions on the road to COP27.?
• Commenting in The Times on the UK’s political leadership race, Nigel Topping warned that any candidates wanting to water down the national net-zero emissions commitment, and supporting interim targets for 2030, is not serious about the UK’s future.?

In case you missed it?

• The Champions and Marrakech Partnership published their thematic programme for COP27 , mirroring the incoming COP27 Presidency’s programme. Thematic days include finance; science; adaptation and agriculture; energy and gender; and biodiversity, youth and future generations.?
• The UN Secretary-General’s Expert Group on the Net-Zero Emissions Commitments of Non-State Entities has opened a public consultation seeking ideas on how to ensure that net-zero pledges are credible and matched by concrete action. Submissions are due by 31 August through this portal .
• The chairs of the UNFCCC Subsidiary Bodies are calling for all stakeholders to submit inputs to the first Global Stocktake , a process designed to assess collective progress towards achieving the Paris Agreement. Inputs are due by 6 August.?
• The UN General Assembly has officially recognized the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment . The last time the UN recognized a new human right – to water – in 2010, it spurred new action and protection around the world.?
• A Western-dominated debate on reducing emissions needs to include ways to adapt to climate change and broaden energy access in Africa, according to a report by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation . Financial pledges for adaptation remain “small and most unrealized”, and the majority of global financing goes to industrialized middle-income countries for mitigation, it found.?
• New UN-backed guidelines aim to protect, include and empower children who are forced to flee their homes due to the climate crisis. Nearly 10 million children were displaced due to weather-related shocks in 2020.?
• Egypt, host of COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, has submitted an updated Nationally Determined Contribution covering key sectors including energy, industry and buildings, aligned with the country’s development and climate policies.
• African countries command a significant share of the global industry that has become integral to billions of people’s lives – coffee. Yet, there is no guarantee that African coffee farmers will reap their fair share of benefits from efforts to develop a continental free trade area, which also faces risks from climate change, Bogolo Joy Kenewendo , the Champions team’s Africa director, wrote in Project Syndicate .?
• Converging shocks to global food security have exposed fragilities in global food systems, which urgently need to be made more resilient, Agnes Kalibata, former UN special envoy for the 2021 Food Systems Summit and global ambassador for the High-Level Champions, wrote in Project Syndicate .

For more news from across the High-Level Champions’ community, visit climatechampions.unfccc.int .?

Mark Your Calendar?

International Day of World’s Indigenous Peoples : 9 August?

World Water Week : 23 August-1 September

Africa Climate Week : 29 August-2 September?

International Day of Clean Air for blue skies : 7 September?

Tipping Points: From Climate Crisis to Positive Transformation : 12-14 September?

UN General Assembly : 13-27 September?

Under2 Coalition General Assembly : 19 September

Uniting Business LIVE : 19-21 September

Climate Week NYC : 19-25 September

Towards COP27: UNECE Forum on regional cooperation on enhancing sustainable management and financing for the critical raw materials required for low-carbon transitions : 20 September

Global Clean Energy Action Forum : 21-23 September?

Daring Cities 2022 : 3-7 October

OECD Forum on Green Finance and Investment : 5-7 October

2022 Daejeon United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) World Congress : 10-14 October

IMF-World Bank Autumn Meetings : 14-16 October

World Food Day 2022 : 16 October

World Health Summit 2022 : 16-18 October

C40 World Mayors Summit : 19-21 October

G20 Leaders’ Summit : 30-31 October

COP27 : 6-18 November