UAE to invest $4.5bn in clean energy in Africa

During a historic climate summit hosted by Kenya on Tuesday, the United Arab Emirates announced a $4.5 billion investment in sustainable energy projects for Africa. The event's goal was to attract funds for the fight against global warming.

“We will deploy $4.5 billion… to jumpstart a pipeline of bankable clean energy projects in this very important continent,” said Sultan Al Jaber, who heads the government-owned renewable energy firm Masdar, the UAE’s national oil company ADNOC and the COP28 climate talks.

The Nairobi summit, where Africa is touting its potential as a sustainable energy powerhouse, is attended by thousands of people, including heads of state, representatives of governments, and business executives.

The COP28 summit, which will take place in Dubai later this year and contain rival agendas for the future of global energy, will come after the Africa Climate Summit.

“If Africa loses, we all lose,” warned Jaber, who is also the UAE’s minister for industry and advanced technology.

He said the investment aimed “to develop 15 GW (gigawatts) of clean power by 2030” and “catalyse at least an additional $12.5 billion from multilateral, public and private sources”.

The International Renewable Energy Agency estimates that by 2022, the continent's renewable energy generation capacity will be 56 gigawatts.

A unifying vision for green development on the diverse continent of 1.4 billion people is to be defined at the three-day conference being held in Nairobi, which started on Monday.

On Tuesday, the summit will present recommendations for changing the international financial systems that have led to only a small portion of investments in climate solutions going to Africa.

Jaber called for a “surgical intervention of the global financial architecture that was built for a different era”, urging institutions to lower debt burdens.

Despite having an abundance of natural resources, just 3% of the world's energy investments are made in countries in Africa, which are constrained by rising loan prices and a lack of funding.

Source