A statement issued by Stephen Jackson, United Nations Resident Coordinator in Kenya, ahead of the Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi, Kenya (4-6 September)
Transcript
I am Stephen Jackson, the United Nations Resident Coordinator here in Kenya. From September 4th to 6th, coming right up we have the Africa Climate Summit co-organized by the African Union and the Government of Kenya here in Nairobi. Why is it happening in Nairobi? Why is it so crucial that we have an Africa Climate Summit?
There is a paradox: Kenya is on the frontlines of the climate crisis. Kenya is at the forefront in proposing solutions. The same is true of Africa. Africa is on the frontlines of the climate crisis, but Africa is also on the front foot in providing solutions.
Africa Contributes the least globally to carbon dioxide and Greenhouse gas emissions. Yet, we know through drought, through heating, through drying up of water courses, Africa is suffering the most from climate Change.
And yet, Africa is the Place where we are going to find the solutions. Africa has the second lung of the planet in the Congo rain Forest; Africa has the biggest natural endowment of renewable energy resources. Kenya, where I work, is already at a massive 93 per cent of electricity being produced from green sources.
Africa has the largest endowment of arable agricultural land that can feed the world. So, for all these reasons, Africa is the place of solutions to the climate crisis, and Kenya is one of the leading voices in reshaping the narrative.
Africa is the place of solutions to the climate crisis, and Kenya is one of the leading voices in reshaping the narrative.
Agendas such as loss and damage remain crucial. Financing climate adaptation at scale for impact remains crucial. But going beyond that, the journey now is for Africa to provide solutions for itself, to scale for itself and for the world, to the climate crisis and for the world, to bring the necessary financing at scale.
So that's where the private sector comes in. We need financing on reasonable terms to bring Africa's climate solutions to scale to solve the world's problems.
Right now, there is no capital, and when there is capital, it costs way too much. So, President Ruto's vision for this climate summit, the African Union's vision for this climate summit, is to go beyond the loss and damage agenda and the climate adaptation agenda-- both of which remain very important-- and to look at how we crowd in financing at scale to bring Africa's viable solutions to the global marketplace.
There is so much to learn that the world can and must learn from the kind of innovation Africa and Africans already have for the climate crisis.
As I have said, Africa, including countries like Kenya, has been at the forefront of the crisis for decades already, So there is much to learn already in the space of adaptation. There is much to learn already in terms of the pace of uptake of green energy and of the just energy transition.
There is much to learn from how Africa has tackled the question of preserving its rainforest, the Congo rainforest, one of the two lungs of the planet. And I would say Africa has gone miles further in terms of that preservation agenda already.
So, in all of these ways and more, there are solutions that African governments and people are bringing to the fore. This climate summit puts the magnifying glass on those who would crowd in the financing that we need, that Africa needs to take to scale.
It is clear that the developed North has to get much, much more serious about delivering on two sides of the same promise:
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One is to get serious about reducing its own carbon dioxide emissions. Africa does not emit anything like the CO2 that the developed world does. Second, the developed world also needs to get serious... about financing for loss and damage and for climate adaptation. Both remain crucial.
But over and above those two, the real inhibitor to bringing the kinds of solutions that Africa has on sustainable energy, sustainable agriculture, CO2 absorption and CO2 mitigation, is the cost of capital and the inequities built into the present international financing architecture.
On that point, the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, Deputy General Amina Mohammed and His Excellency President William Ruto are all singing the same hymn, that the cost of capital has to come down, and the quantity of capital has to go up to Africa so that solutions can urgently be brought to scale.
So, this climate summit is, in many ways, a financing summit.
