United Kingdom Minister for Africa, Vicky Ford ,has said that the pledges made by rich countries towards African countries to support their clean energy transition should materialise before COP27 begins.
Ford said this during her recent trip to Nigeria where she visited a startup, Metro Xpress Africa (MAX) that seeks to introduce electric vehicles (two- and three-wheelers) for public transportation. MAX has received funding support from UK Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO)’s Manufacturing Africa (MA) and UK impact finance firm Light Rock.
Recall that rich nations at the United Nations Climate Conference at Copenhagen (COP16) in 2009 pledged US$100 billion a year to less wealthy nations by 2020, to help them adapt to climate change and mitigate its effects.
Although, this target has not been met year after year, at COP26 hosted by the UK Government in Glasgow, Scotland, millions of dollars in climate finance were raised. For example, The Adaptation Fund announced $356 million in new support from contributing national and regional governments at COP26; while the African Development Bank (AFDB) said it received $136 million in additional donor commitments for its Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA) also at COP26.
Speaking about COP26, Ford who was in Nigeria for the first time, said, “Every single country made their own decision of what they determined that they can contribute towards the climate change target.”
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She noted that Nigeria set its own target to be net-zero by 2060.
The UK Minister for Africa added that, “They set themselves a period of time to get that done realising the challenges, but it was each country that made their own decision. They were not told by the UK or any other country what target to set. It was led from the bottom up and I think that is really important.
“As a planet, we have to keep that hope of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees celsius alive. We see the impact of climate change in Nigeria already. We see it across Africa.
“We have the NDCs to keep that hope and to meet the challenge of global warming and overcome it.”
On the issue of climate finance for Africa, she said, “The main thing between now and COP27 is to try and make sure that funds that were delivered and promised get turned into action. I don’t think that COP27 is going to be about whether we need to raise more commitments for financing.
“As you have heard our COP President, Alok Sharma say, what we need to do now is to make sure that the pledges that were made in Glasgow last November are turned into reality with actions and projects on the ground.”
She noted that start-ups like MAX were one of such micro-projects on ground that could turn macro- with proper financing. She added that more projects across Africa could be financed to actualise a just energy transition in Africa
and then