African Business Roundtable holds event alongside COP27 for Africa's climate goals
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On the occasion of the 27th United Nations Conference of Parties on Climate Change (COP27) that took place in Sharm El Sheihk, Egypt, 6 -18 November 2022, the African Business Roundtable organised a side event on Thursday, 10 November, 2022, at the Nigerian Pavilion.
The African Business Roundtable, true to its founding principles of establishing Africa on an international platform, built the event around raising awareness on what the continent needs and forging partnerships to achieve those objectives. The theme of the program - “Scaling Up International Partnerships for the Next Steps of the Glasgow Climate Pact: Bridging Investment Gaps, Outlining Priorities and Unlocking Opportunities for Africa” - reflected the urgency to build on the outcome of COP 26 and launch concrete measures to fast track the implementation of the Glasgow Climate Pact, especially with regards to scaling up international resources for financing Africa’s clean development drive.
Panelists and participants agreed that the world needed giant, immediate steps to tackle the climate crisis we face, not only because of warnings from the world’s scientists, but also in the face of daunting challenges of a post-COVID world and the impending slow-down in the global economy. With a strong focus on Africa, the forum discussed concrete measures and effective pathways to significantly increase development partnerships that will deliver climate action for the continent.
The program succeeded in bringing a new dimension to the conversation on Scaling Up Partnerships for Africa – domestic and international, public and private, in the effort to protect the environment and the global commons and promote sustainable development across the globe. This renewed effort sought to build on the remarkable progress made at COP26 which provides a framework for addressing emerging and persistent climate concerns. The outcome of the Glasgow Climate Pact stipulated developed countries› commitments to reach the $100 billion goal in climate finance as soon as possible. The Pact also commits to doubling the collective share of adaptation finance to $40billion annual targets by 2025.
In addition, the private sector for the first time clearly demonstrated that clean energy finance is a shared responsibility. In a broad based coalition, three private sector giants - Rockefeller Foundation, IKEA Foundation and the Bezos Earth Fund - announced the Global Energy for People and Planet. They are bringing together leading philantropies and eight developing finance organizations to address specific climate needs, with clear targets and strategy, backed by their own resources. The plan is to kickstart it with $10 billion of their own, which would then be leveraged to raise $100billion for climate-focused initiatives that will unleash the power of the green economy.
The session concluded that replicating and scaling up these initiatives will certainly make Africa part of the solution – not the problem – of the world climate crisis. The meeting looked forward to the continuation of the conversation through periodic programs which the African Business Roundtable will organize on the road to the 28th Conference of Parties which is scheduled for Dubai, United Arab Emirates in November, 2023.
About the African Business Roundtable
The African Development Bank Group set up the African Business Roundtable in 1990. Today the ABR is Africa’s foremost and continent-wide association of businesses and business leaders, and is the representative of the African Business Society to the United Nations. An independent, non-partisan, non-profit private sector funded organization, The African Business Roundtable is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC) and is the only organization representing the African Private Sector within ECOSOC.
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