According to a U.N. official on Monday, by 2030, Africa would lack $2.5 trillion in the funding necessary to combat climate change. The continent has also contributed the least to greenhouse gas emissions, but experiencing some of the worst effects.
During a conference in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, chief economist Hanan Morsy of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa warned against the consequences of underfunding clean energy, pointing out that Africa only receives 2% of global investments in the sector and needs $2.8 trillion by 2030.
“Investment shortages lead to a vicious cycle where exposure risk worsens and impacts us even more, thus reducing fiscal space and driving up financing prices,” the speaker stated.
Climate change is costly even though the continent produces fewer emissions than other continents.
According to a joint U.N.-African Union research last year, each African produced 1.04 tons of carbon dioxide emissions on average in 2021—less than a fifth of the global average.
According to the paper, during the period of 1991–2022, the average rate of warming in Africa was 0.3 degrees Celsius each decade, while the global rate was 0.2 degrees.
According to Morsy, “the problem is further worsened by heavy public debt,” and African nations pay 1.7 percentage points more in interest on their debt than other nations.
“National debt service costs are outpacing investments in climate action.”
Reforming the global financial architecture was advocated by several speakers at the UNECA summit.
UNECA Executive Secretary Claver Gatete stated, “We must address the issue of unjust risk perceptions and credit ratings that provide Africa limited borrowing possibilities.”
Using data from the UN Development Program, he calculated that Africa was losing as much as $74.5 billion due to the subjectivity of credit ratings.
(Reuters)
