Fwd: Africa pitches green aid as investment

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At the Africa Climate Summit in Ethiopia this week, leaders tried to counter the narrative that the continent is a climate charity case. It offers global solutions for the green transition, too. Read more below and online at Bloomberg.com.

Africa says it needs green investment, not charity

By Yinka Ibukun, Antony Sguazzin and Laura Millan

African leaders are shifting from the language of “aid” to “investment” as they seek funding to prepare for climate change. With wealthy nations tightening foreign development budgets, officials argue support should be seen not as charity but as a stake in the planet’s future.

At the Africa Climate Summit in Ethiopia this week, leaders stressed that the continent — responsible for just 4% of the world’s emissions but among the hardest hit by global warming — offers untapped potential to drive global climate solutions if given the right backing.

“It is time to replace climate aid with climate investment,” Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said at the opening ceremony in Addis Ababa, the capital. “The returns will be measured in avoided emissions, millions of jobs, enhanced food security, stabilized regions and a more resilient global climate.”

From droughts to floods, extreme weather events have wreaked havoc across the continent, with flooding alone responsible for approximately 70% of climate-related losses in Africa, costing roughly $13 billion in damaged infrastructure and buildings a year, according to Ramesh Subramaniam, global director of programs and strategy at the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure.

A resident inspects flood damage to a bridge following heavy rains on the Athi River, Kenya in April 2024. Photographer: Patrick Meinhardt/Bloomberg

“Developing countries have been asking for more and more concessional funding, but that’s not coming through,” he said. “That failure to invest in infrastructure has significant costs in terms of lost growth. And if you’re not building infrastructure to be resilient, you are multiplying the losses.”

The concerns about funding in Addis Ababa this week are a taste of the arguments to come at United Nations climate talks in Belem, Brazil two months from now. Rich countries have been struggling to deliver on a promise to provide $100 billion annually to fund climate action in developing nations. At last year’s climate summit they committed to ramping up that support to $300 billion a year by 2035 — yet governments in Europe and the US have since announced they will be slashing foreign development aid and assistance.

Today in Africa loans, often incurred by governments themselves, are used to finance more than half of adaptation costs, diverting resources from basic services such as healthcare and education at a time when many sovereigns are already at high risk of debt distress.

“Like the rest of Africa, the Kingdom of Eswatini refuses to be defined solely by vulnerability,” said Russell Mmiso Dlamini, the prime minister of the southern African nation that’s become more reliant on food aid due to intensifying droughts.

Africans want to be seen more as “architects of global solutions,” he said.

Key to their message is that the continent holds critical minerals needed for the world’s decarbonization — an endowment that’s drawn major investments from China, Africa’s primary trading partner. A growing list of countries, including Switzerland and Singapore, are also courting African nations to develop carbon offset projects, which can be used to meet emissions cutting targets they’ve pledged to the United Nations.

Notably, Africa is home to 17% of the world’s forests, including the Congo Basin, the second-largest tropical rainforest after the Amazon, and contains 60% of the world’s uncultivated arable land, providing opportunities to sequester carbon from the atmosphere.

“This is not charity,” said Ahmed, Ethiopia’s prime minister. “It is the most strategic investment humanity can make. When Africa’s land heals, when our rivers run clean and our air is fresh, Africa wins and the whole world breathes easier.”

Ahmed might get a chance to showcase his country’s natural wares several years from now. This week Ethiopia officially launched its bid to host COP37 in 2032.

Green shortfall

$3 trillion

Africa needs at least this much to meet its climate goals by 2030, Africa Climate Summit attendees wrote in a declaration this week. The continent only received $30 billion between 2021 and 2022.

Keeping promises

"The true measure of success lies in accountability. Pledges must translate into tangible finance that reaches communities."

Wanjira Mathai

Managing director of Africa and global partnerships at the World Resources Institute

Mathai said she is cautiously optimistic about commitments that have been made to help Africa's green industrialization.

Also on our radar

By Ntando Thukwana

South Africa’s cabinet will meet next week to formulate its stance for the COP international climate summit in Brazil in November, with the country’s environment minister expressing dismay over developed nations reneging on funding pledges.

“The finance issue obviously is a big one,” Dion George said at a meeting of the Presidential Climate Commission in Johannesburg on Friday. “Crucially, our message has to be do as you say. If the developed economy countries are going to have promised money that they would pay, they must do that.”

“Some of the countries have in fact said they’re very constrained financially, because they need to spend more money on defense in Europe,” George said. “Very importantly for us, South Africa and Africa, we must not wait and rely on other people to save us from anything.”

Read the full story on Bloomberg.com.

South Africa's environment minister Dion George. Photographer: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Washington diary

A tally of recent news you may have missed on changes impacting climate policy and science under the Trump administration.

The Department of Energy has disbanded its Climate Working Group, Bloomberg reported Wednesday. The group of scientists, who were chosen by Energy Secretary Chris Wright, authored a controversial report that minimizes the severity of global warming. Other scientists have vocally critiqued the report and two environmental nonprofits filed suit against the agency, saying the way it convened the group violated federal law.

Also this week, the Treasury Department-helmed Financial Stability Oversight Council voted to dissolve two Biden-era committees that focused on climate change as a risk to the US financial system. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said rescinding their charters will allow the council to focus on "core" issues.

And in case you missed it, we surveyed the Trump administration's multi-front attack on US climate science and policy in a major feature story: Trump Is Dismantling Climate Science at a Dangerous Pace.

--Amanda Kolson Hurley

What did we miss this week in Washington? Email dboc...@bloomberg.net

More from Green

Germany plans to push the European Union to soften emissions-reduction rules for its most polluting industries as the nation struggles with higher energy costs.

EU emissions trading system rules will tighten next year, with more industries required to buy carbon certificates if they haven’t invested in cleaner technologies. Free allocations for those certificates will be stopped for aviation and phased out for all industries in 2034, making fossil-fuel-intensive production more expensive.

Since the start of the system, big polluters like steelmakers have received free allowances to emit CO2. Under the bloc’s net-zero plan, those permits will be phased out and replaced by a carbon border levy on imports like steel and cement, known as CBAM.

For Germany, that’s not enough. The country must find a solution with the European Commission for companies that can’t meet carbon-cutting targets, Economy Minister Katherina Reiche said at a reception organized by energy company RWE AG in Berlin.

“We must extend the free allocation,” the minister said. “Otherwise we will lose essential industries in our country.”

Read the full story on Bloomberg.com.

Photographer: Jens Schlueter/Getty Images Europe

The International Monetary Fund plans to reorganize some divisions that deal with climate change and gender policies, according to people familiar with the matter, after the Trump administration criticized its work in those areas.

The EU's financial services commissioner, Maria Luís Albuquerque, says making the EU's financial regulations more attractive to investors would likely draw more green capital to the bloc.

China has experienced challenges in reducing carbon emissions intensity, one of the key climate goals set out in the 14th five-year plan, citing factors including trade tensions, weather and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Worth a listen

You’ve heard about Formula 1, right? But do you know about Formula E, its plucky all-electric sibling? This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi talks with Sylvain Filippi, co-founder and chief technology officer of Envision Racing, about why the world needs an electric racing series, how Formula E is improving the experience for consumer electric cars, and why he’s not too concerned about the US backlash against EVs.

Listen now, and subscribe on Apple, Spotify or YouTube to get new episodes of Zero every Thursday.

Formula E Gen3 race cars at the start of the Formula E Tokyo E-Prix in Tokyo in March 2024. Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg

Live with Bloomberg Green

Bloomberg Green New York: Join us Sept. 25 for a solutions-focused look into a new era of climate action during Climate Week NYC. Following the 80th United Nations General Assembly, we’ll hear how top leaders in business, finance and government are approaching climate issues during times of geopolitical uncertainty. Learn more here.