Africa Needs Financing To Implement Climate Actions, Say Experts At COP27 Precursor Event

Climate financing in Africa needs to be a focus for implementing mitigation and adaptation measures, experts said on Tuesday.

"The needs of African countries continue to increase," said Vera Songwe, executive secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa, who was speaking at a regional forum focusing on initiatives to finance climate action and the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.

Underlining that a pledge in 2009 to provide developing nations with $100 billion in climate finance has so far not been achieved, Songwe said in her opening remarks that $3 trillion of investment would be needed for Africa to achieve its nationally determined contributions under the 2016 Paris Agreement during this decade.

Meanwhile, achieving universal access to electricity is expected to cost $500 billion, she added, arguing that to garner financing for climate action in Africa, carbon trading had viable potential.

"With a price of at least $50 per tonne, we would also be able to mobilize approximately $15 billion per annum for African countries," said the UN official.

To realize its carbon trading potential, however, Africa needs institutions that can measure the scale of emissions, she noted at the event, which brought together a diverse group of experts related to environment and financing, as well as representatives of UN agencies and the private sector.

The forum, where participants also made the case that multilateral financing for Africa should be grant-based as continent remains in dire need of debt relief and cancellation, came ahead of the upcoming ministers meeting in September and October in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, as the northern Africa nation gears up to host the COP27 conference.

In a prerecorded message, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said the summit would serve as forum where climate financing issues would be tackled towards better implementing adaptation and mitigation in the region.

"Africa is responsible for less than 4% of global green(house) gas emissions, but the continent has been disproportionately affected by climate change," Shoukry told the participants at the meeting -- one of a series of pre-cursors to the COP27 Summit to be held at the Egyptian city of Sharm El-Sheikh in November.

According to an article published by Chatham House, Egypt has "long prioritized climate finance and adaptation because it remains in need of technical and financial support to adapt, especially in agriculture and tourism."

The country intends to "expand its access to climate funding and investment," said the article, noting Egypt's relative success in this area as it receives 27% of all multilateral climate finance in the Middle East and North Africa region, where it has been first to issue sovereign green bonds. -