COP28 President-Designate Dr. Sultan Al Jaber has unveiled a new $4.5 billion initiative between the UAE and Africa that seeks to unleash Africa’s potential for sustainable prosperity.
Dr. Sultan Al Jaber addressed the inaugural Africa Climate Summit, held in Nairobi, Kenya, where he made the announcement while emphasizing the need for mitigation and adaptation finance as critical success factors for climate progress in Africa and globally.
“It is our ambition that this will launch a new transformative partnership to jump start a pipeline of bankable clean energy projects,” said Al Jaber.
The President-Delegate explained that the partnership will “demonstrate the commercial case for clean investment” across Africa and “act as a scalable model that can and should be replicated…it is designed to work with Africa, for Africa.”
Al Jaber acknowledged that “Africa contributes just 3 percent of global emissions, yet suffers some of the worst consequences. Droughts, floods and failed harvests have exposed one fifth of Africa’s people to hunger, tripled the number of people displaced in the last three years, and is dragging down Africa’s GDP growth by at least 5 per cent every year.
Al Jaber also recognized the scale of energy poverty within Africa, acknowledging that “almost half of Africa’s population still have no access to electricity, almost one billion people lack clean cooking fuels, and this energy gap will only increase as Africa’s population grows.”
Discussing how to fast track low-carbon solutions for Africa’s growing population, Al Jaber said that the “key to making this happen is finance, but it must be made available, accessible and affordable.”
