Sharing solutions: Africa Climate Week gets underway

Collaborating for a Just Energy Transition

How can Africa leapfrog traditional high-carbon development models in a just, managed, financed and inclusive manner? That was the focus of The Just Energy Transition Collaboration (JET-Co) Dialogue for Africa event. At COP27, governments recognized that just transitions require meaningful and effective social dialogue and participation of all stakeholders.

Existing initiatives including Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETP-s), the African Just Transition Investors Alliance (JTIA) and the Nexus Water Food Energy in Egypt (NWFE) have laid the groundwork for a? country-led,? collaborative approach but this now needs to be mainstreamed, taking into account national and local circumstances while elevating the role of non-government entities in helping drive these efforts.

During the session, Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin , UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for COP27 introduced the idea of Just Energy Transition Collaboration (JETCos) as a means of achieving this holistic approach, reflecting local contexts and contributing to economy-wide transformations including hard-to-abate sectors and food systems.

He said: “No one would argue that an energy transition needs to be just. Yet we’ve seen with the Jet-P initiatives how complicated the implementation can be. We need frameworks that are not just conceptual but practical too. The cost of introducing new energy infrastructure is huge so public- private finance partnerships are critical. Similarly, local communities need to be consulted on how these projects are developed and implemented to ensure they’re in line with their local priorities and realities on the ground.”

Reminding us of the business? opportunities of the clean energy transition Emmanuel Egyei-Mensah, CEO of Arch Holdings Ltd spoke about his clean cooking venture which replaced wood fuels for cooking with liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). Arch Holdings is one of the projects featured in the UN Compendium of Projects highlighted as being potential investment opportunities for financiers.??

In addition, speaking at the Building adaptation and resilience across systems event, Dr. Mohieldin underscored the importance of supporting the ambition of the private financial sector to create transformative solutions for adaptation and resilience.

Financing Resilient Urban Infrastructure

Africa is the fastest urbanising region in the world. The population of the continent’s cities is projected to rise from 472 million people today to over 1.2 billion by 2050. Coupled with this, African cities are experiencing adverse climate challenges that compound existing challenges of rapid urbanisation. Hardest hit are the vulnerable communities living in informal settlements, who make up over half of the entire continent’s urban population.

There is therefore an urgent need for African cities to adapt and build their resilience to climate shocks and provide adequate finance to do so.?

Speaking at the event H.E. Razan Al Mubarak , UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for COP28 said: “We are excited to see signals of progress since COP27. Blended finance instruments such as the African Cities Water Adaptation Fund (ACWA Fund), have begun offering support to some cities in Africa to prepare bankable projects, and begin the implementation of others. At the recent UN Habitat General Assembly held in Nairobi, a resolution on informal settlements was adopted by the member states, formalising the need to recognize these vulnerable communities in urban planning.”

During the discussion?Joe Muturi , Chairperson of Shack Dwellers International (SDI) called for stronger representation at city level. The Hon. Manuel Alculete Lopes de Araujo, Mayor of Quelaimane in Mozambique echoed this and added that education was also important to communicating the importance of climate resilience. He said, “60% of my people’s income comes from fishing. If we destroy mangroves, a vital ecosystem, we are destroying their already vulnerable livelihoods. We’ve now begun to educate our citizens on the importance of their preservation.”

Sharing solutions on African nature-based solutions

Convening representatives from African national and sub-national governments, non-state entities and organisations, the African NbS Implementation Dialogue Workshop aimed to address the central question: “What are the main implementation challenges and barriers that governments and other entities face in delivering nature-based solutions at scale and how can these be overcome?”

Introducing the event H.E. Razan Al Mubarak said: “Nature-based projects hold the key to unlocking the ambitious climate action required in this critical decade of delivery. The? collective experiences of governments and non-government entities will shape our understanding of the opportunities and obstacles we face in accelerating the vital projects”.

Ms. Al Mubarak? also acknowledged that the discourse on nature is complex but that? forward-looking, inclusive and pragmatic solutions are the only way forward.?

Africa’s Green Hydrogen Potential

The Africa Climate Summit and Africa Climate Week have worked to advance a new vision for climate-positive growth. Green hydrogen, which can provide a route to energy access for all in Africa and decarbonise pivotal parts of the global economic system, like heavy industry, shipping and aviation – is key to this vision.?

If Africa can maximise its role in the rising hydrogen economy, the continent could simultaneously respond to the socio-economic needs of its countries; addressing energy poverty and driving development.

According to the IEA , Africa could supply the whole world with affordable low-carbon energy in the form of hydrogen. In addition, it could power its rising industry and provide green energy to the 600 million people on the continent living without access to electricity and the approximately one? billion without means of clean cooking.?

Production of green hydrogen for domestic consumption and export in Egypt, Morocco, Mauritania, Kenya, Namibia and South Africa (the member countries of the Africa Green Hydrogen Alliance ), alone could create up to 4.2m new jobs and raise their GDP by $66-126bn by 2050, equivalent to 6-12% of their current GDP

Speaking at an event convened by the Africa Green Hydrogen Alliance, Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin emphasised that realising Africa’s green hydrogen potential is however not inevitable. Africa has over 70 announced green hydrogen projects – and the list is growing – but they all need ?nance to get off the ground.?

Dr. Mohieldin raised the high costs of capital on the continent as one significant barrier. In addition he said the continued subsidising of the fossil fuel industry needs to be addressed with the current level estimated at $680 million spent every hour.

It was also announced that South Africa will assume the chairship of the Africa Green Hydrogen Alliance. During the Africa Climate Summit, South African Minister in the Presidency for Electricity, Dr. Kgosientsho Ramokgopa shared lessons on how green hydrogen is supporting? South Africa’s energy security and driving green industrialisation and how we will use the Chairship to advance the green hydrogen agenda on the continent.?

Read more from Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin on how green hydrogen can power Africa’s economic growth.

Charting a course for green shipping

Building on the discussions held at the Africa Green Hydrogen Alliance event, the Developing green corridors opportunities in Africa zoomed in on the potential opportunities of a green hydrogen market for the continent’s shipping sector.?

90% of traded goods are carried over the waves. Decarbonising the sector is therefore a crucial element of keeping global temperature rise to below 1.5°C.? Hydrogen presents a viable alternative to traditional bunker fuels and with the recent International Maritime Organization (IMO) 2023 Greenhouse gas strategy adopted by 175 member States, this signals significant momentum to shift to more statinbel shipping fuels.

Given its potential as a major hydrogen - producing power, Africa is well-placed to lead and leverage this global shift to sustainable shipping fuels.?

At the Developing green corridors opportunities in Africa event, H.E. Razan Al Mubarak emphasised that the recent political momentum sends a strong market signal that demand for green hydrogen-based fuels will rise. Requiring at least 5 million tonnes of green hydrogen by 2030 and growing rapidly to 90 million by 2040, the sector will become one of the largest demand sources for green hydrogen by 2050. With the right support, “Africa could host the world’s green hydrogen hubs of the future” said the High-Level Champion for COP28.

Remarks made on behalf of? H.E. Salim Mvurya, Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Mining, Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs echoed this sentiment and included a call for both global and local level enabling policies to achieve the new goals set by the IMO as well as partnerships between, international finance, research and development and capacity building on the continent.??

It was also noted that with 5% of global seafarers coming from the continent coupled with its young population, green shipping was an opportunity to create a highly skilled workforce.

Meeting with the Marrakech Partnership

After a busy few days at the Africa Climate Summit, both High-Level Champions managed some time to grab a coffee and reflect on the outcomes with Marrakech Partnership colleagues. They also discussed the agenda for Africa Climate Week and how capturing solutions and inputs will be key to bringing a regional perspective to the Global Stocktake.?

Getting technical

Opening the Africa Climate Tech Festival, Bogolo Kenewendo championed the role of innovation in climate action particularly in the field of adaptation and resilience. Ms. Kenewendo also called on entrepreneurs to innovate on products that are responsive to the challenges and needs of both today and tomorrow. She urged entrepreneurs to engage governments in ensuring that pledges trickle down to local economies and communities.

She added that real-world solutions such as early warning systems have all derived from tech innovation and said “ it’s the innovators who are going to drive the change we want.”

Watch the day four video highlights here