During the latest conference of African Ministers of Finance in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe it was indicated that African countries should explore innovative green financing mechanisms to promote a green transition to mitigate the effects of climate change.
The side event on Sustainable green financing mechanisms for Africa was hosted by the Government of Zimbabwe and organized by the Ministry of Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion.
Veronica Jakarasi, Chief Director, Climate and Meteorological Services, Zimbabwe stressed the need to support environment friendly investments like climate smart agriculture to mitigate climate change.
“To attract green financing, Africa needs to have policy and regulatory frameworks with set targets in line with ambitious development,” said Ms. Jakarasi.
She said Zambia and Zimbabwe are already investing in adaptation and that countries should now set aside budgets to mitigate and adapt against drought as a step towards leveraging international financing.
Green financing, she added is the new way of mobilizing resources for financing climate change resilience. Countries should establish innovative financing mechanisms such as green bonds through public private partnerships, to fund their climate change projects and programs.
On the role of banks in mobilizing resources for green financing, Nqobizitha Dube, Climate Finance Manager; Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe said banking institutions should be involved in climate change discussions to enable them make informed decisions on funding green projects. Innovative clean mechanisms that reduce risks should be considered and evaluated for funding by banks to help address the effects of climate change.
Linus Mofor, senior environmental expert from the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), said African countries are increasingly experiencing water and heat stress at varying magnitudes, including droughts and seasonal shifts. The public international financial flows are nowhere near sufficient to address adaptation, loss and damage or to support the low-carbon development needs of developing countries.
“Green climate finance is key for sustainable development and thus inform programming by continental and regional organizations in their quest to capacitate and facilitate low-carbon and climate-resilient development in Africa,” said Mr. Mofor.
“Green transition requires financing for sustainable investment and access to real time climate-related data. We need to have national and regional programs aimed at galvanizing green finance for enhanced economic development; regional collaboration.”
He noted that most African countries have ratified the Paris Agreement with ambitious NDCs requiring up to $3 trillion for implementation.
“Countries should now focus on addressing issues of sustainability and finance under the Paris Agreement to move forward and mitigate climate change effects,” he said adding that countries should be supported with the tools and capacities needed to integrate climate resilience into their programs.
Paul Thangata, Head of Data and Analytics at AGRA said Africa is importing four major foods – maize, rice, soya, wheat –at a cost of $4billion. Discussions on climate change should include agriculture food systems. There is need for countries to set up processing point of production that will help in decision making on the smart agriculture systems.
George Laryea-Adjei, Global Director of Programmes, United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) USA said the youth who are the majority on the continent should be involved in the climate change discussions of Africa.
“Climate change impacts, like floods, affect young people more. Climate change education should be incorporated in the school curriculum to educate young people on how cope with the crisis, be empowered with green skills and opportunity to solve disasters as a results of climate change,” said Mr. Laryea-Adjei.
“There is need to have programs to bridge the gap between the youth and the elderly to get them to be leaders in planting the trees and taking care of them, water conservation, taking care of plastics around, learning new skills by being attached to enterprises for a more resilient economy.”
Ethiopia stands as one of the countries in the world striving to promote green development through diversifying greening projects, upholding clean and green energy as well as developing ecotourism, among others.
As can be recalled the country has exhibited its various projects executed over the past several years in response to mitigating climate change in Ethiopia. On this conference in which 150 countries were represented, Prime Minister Abiy stated that Ethiopia has so far planted 32.5 billion seedlings in the National Green Legacy Initiative in response to mitigating the effects of climate change globally and at the national level.
He mentioned the achievements Ethiopia has made in being self-sufficient in wheat and efforts underway to develop and expand renewable energy resources across the country. During the Conference Ethiopia signed 600 million USD agreements with a company named UAE MEA to build a wind power plant which can generate 300 MW. Ethiopia also signed 8 million Euros with the Government of Italy for environmental development and climate change mitigation projects.
Ethiopia participated in COP28 as a leading member of the African Ministerial Conference on Environment (AMCEN) and Africa Group of Negotiators/AGN) and Least Developed counties Group (LDC). Ethiopia played a crucial role in coordinating African nations to consolidate their voice and negotiate in a unified manner as the current president of AMCEN.
On the side of the climate change conference, Ethiopia has presented its success stories through 35 forums highlighting the areas it has been praised for globally including the Green Legacy Initiative, sustainable agriculture and food self-sufficiency, renewable energy supply and water use, urban development, transportation, low-carbon incentive system and the ongoing participation of the private sector in climate change and green development.
At the end of the Conference, various resolutions were made regarding The loss and damage fund designed to support climate-vulnerable developing countries was brought to life on the first day of the COP. Countries have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars so far for the fund; Commitments of worth $3.5 billion to replenish the resources of the Green Climate Fund; New announcements totaling over $150 million for the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDC) and Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF).
An increase of $9 billion annually by the World Bank to finance climate-related projects (2024 and 2025);
Nearly 120 countries backed COP28 UAE Climate and Health Declaration to accelerate actions to protect people’s health from growing climate impacts;
Over 130 countries have signed up to COP28 UAE Declaration on Agriculture, Food, and Climate to support food security while combatting climate change; and
Global Cooling Pledge has been endorsed by 66 countries to reduce cooling related emissions by 68% from today.
BY STAFF REPORTER
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD TUESDAY 5 MARCH 2024
