From: 25/05/2018

To: 25/05/2018

Location: Busan, Korea

On Friday, May 25, 2018, the African Development Bank will host an open dialogue at the Bank’s Annual Meetings in Busan, Korea on the need to establish an African Financial Alliance for Climate Change (AFAC). Key representatives of financial institutions operating in Africa will exchange views on modalities to support and accelerate Africa’s efforts to fight climate change by mobilizing Africa’s domestic private resources to support the implementation of Africa’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and to deliver the financial flows consistent with a development pathway leading to low-carbon and climate resilient development in Africa.

Africa’s low access to global climate change finance, which stood at 3% at the end of 2016, hinders the implementation of these NDCs, which are at the heart of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. Their implementation would require investments of at least US $2.7 trillion for mitigation and another US $488 billion for adaptation by 2030. There are clear benefits to pursuing climate-resilient and low carbon development policies in Africa, but considerable creativity is needed to mobilize financial resources that can support local and national innovation.

This lively discussion, opened by Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank Group, and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Chair of the African Risk Capacity Agency Governing Board, will provide an opportunity to share views on how Africa can mobilize its private capital to promote sustainable development that puts climate change at its core. It aims to generate ideas and concrete proposals on how to effectively mobilize domestic resources at scale, which can also leverage global climate resources, to support climate related investments.

Representatives of Africa’s financial institutions and regulators including development and commercial banks, central banks, insurance companies, sovereign wealth and pension funds, private equity, stock exchanges and other investment companies will come together for the common goal of significantly raising the share of climate finance in their investments.

Through this dialogue, the Bank hopes to rally support for establishing the alliance whose members will work together to develop policies, procedures, financial and non-financial instruments to catalyze more African investments for climate-related projects both in mitigation and adaptation. It is a precursor to establishing the AFAC, which will be launched at a meeting to be convened by the African Development Bank on the sidelines of the Africa Investment Forum in South Africa in November 2018.

#AfDBAM2018

For more information about the Africa Investment Forum: http://www.africainvestmentforum.com/