Dollars, deals and thousands of delegates: Day one at the Africa Climate Summit

Opening the inaugural Africa Climate Summit, President William Ruto said “it is time to break out of the shackles of low ambition.”??

With that in mind here’s a round up of some of the key announcements from day one of the Summit:

• The United Arab Emirates (UAE) committed to buying $450 million of carbon credits from the Africa Carbon Markets Initiative (ACMI). Instigated by the High-Level Champion’s first regional finance event and launched at Egypt's COP27 co-sponsored by SEforAll, GEAPP, UNECA and Rockefeller Foundation, ACMI seeks to unlock the potential of voluntary carbon markets for financing Africa’s energy, climate and development goals. President Ruto referred to them as “an economic gold mine”.

• Climate Asset Management – a joint venture of HSBC Asset Management and Pollination, a specialist climate change investment and advisory firm – also announced a $200 million investment in projects that will produce ACMI credits.

• The Democratic Republic of Congo's Rawbank and global energy trader Vitol announced a $20 million investment in renewable energy, clean cooking and forest conservation in Congo.

• Germany announced a 60-million euro ($64.76 million) debt swap with Kenya to free up money for renewable energy and sustainable agriculture. Germany also expressed support for Just Energy Transition Partnerships. The High-Level Champions will be? convening a broader dialogue on this subject on Thursday 7th September.?

• The UK announced new climate finance and resilience projects worth ￡49m to be delivered across Africa. This includes ￡34 million for new projects across fifteen African countries to help women, at-risk communities, and more than 400,000 farmers build resilience against the effects of climate change. In addition,? seven new climate finance projects worth ￡15 million were launched with the aim of mobilising capital from private sources, allowing small-scale businesses to access finance, create innovative products and deliver inclusive tech solutions such as turning desert into land for farming.
• The Belgium government announced 24 million EUR to new projects that will contribute to climate adaptation with? regard to agriculture, sustainable cities and biodiversity in 5 African countries.

• Establishment of the Pan-African Fund Managers Association (PAFMA), a mechanism to help African pension funds share ideas and skills, as well as facilitate co-investment opportunities and leverage the platform to transform African asset management to a globally competitive industry position to address the continent's economic, social and climate change challenges.

The Climate Champions at Africa Climate Summit

Speaking at the Carbon Markets for Global South event, UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for COP27, Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin welcomed the investment commitments to the African Carbon Market Initiative (ACMI) - an event attended by African ministers - and added that we? now need to work on “cross border adjustment mechanisms so exporters of carbon markets like Africa ensure the integrity of their offerings”.

Speaking at a Green Climate Fund event on Climate Initiatives to Finance Climate Action and the SDGs, Dr. Mohieldin highlighted that more equity investments and concessional financing needs to go to Africa to ensure climate resilience for people and business. In addition, whilst addressing a session on investing in science and innovation for a just and equitable climate framework, he emphasised the need for increased data and evidence on what works and instead of reinventing wheels, build on existing successful partnerships.

At the ministerial on Scaling High Impact Climate Finance for Africa, Bogolo Kenewendo, UN Climate Change High-Level Champions’ Special Advisor, Africa Director spoke to the urgent need to recognise Africa as a place to invest emphasising the UN Compendium of projects as? proof that bankable, climate-focused opportunities exist.

During the Investment in Nature and Biodiversity ministerial, Ms. Kenewendo also urged the scaling of finance in nature for Africa and increasing domestic private capital to accelerate Africa’s green economic transformation. The launch of? the Pan African Fund Managers Association aims to support this as a mechanism to help African pension funds share ideas and skills, as well as facilitate co-investment opportunities.

Watch our highlights from day one here: