Africa investor calls for climate investment statesmanship at UN Climate Week
New York, 20th September 2023 – Africa investor (Ai) participated in the 78th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) attended by over 130 heads of state and government and the UN Climate Week activities, under the theme ‘We Can. We Will.’
This year’s Climate Week was bigger than 2022, which was the most impactful, ambitious, and far-reaching one to date, with institutional investors, heads of state and governments, business leaders, policy change makers, local decision takers, and civil society representatives using the week as a rallying call to triple clean investments, find new solutions, take concrete action, explore new opportunities and solutions, and break down barriers to private capital mobilization at scale. This will lead to the just and optimal integration of emerging markets and developing countries (EMDCs) into the value chains of the $10trn per annum and growing, global green industrial economy.
Ai, led by Dr Hubert Danso, Ai CEO and Chairperson and Chairperson of the CFA Global Asset Owners Council, took part in a number of events and bilateral meetings with heads of government, business, and civil society leaders.
Dr Danso Chaired the CFA Global Asset Owners annual Climate Summits Closing the Emerging Markets and Developing Countries Investment Gap High Level Leaders Panel.
He also spoke following the UN Secretary General’s Ambition Summit, at a high-level panel on What the Ambition Summit Means for COP28.
Commenting on Africa investor’s participation at UNGA and UN Climate Week, Dr Danso lamented the climate and SDG financing and investment gap of more than $23trn which places Emerging Markets and Developing Countries (EMDCs) at a disadvantage. He also highlighted the gravity and urgent need for decisive climate investment statesmanship, to address the long standing systemic Multilateral Development Banks’ (MDB) private capital mobilisation market failure to avert an imminent green finance debt crisis.
Dr Danso restated the institutional investment community’s commitment to provide leadership and work with Heads of State, to constructively course correct and boost private capital mobilization at scale and with speed for EMDCs. Finally, he called for climate investment statesmanship from world leaders who share this vision, to join hands with African and global asset owners (representing over $150trn of assets), to establish a Heads of State – institutional climate investment coalition, to be announced at COP28, to systematically build deeper and co-create more strategic institutional investor public partnerships (IIPPs), with the global institutional investment community, and close the huge but surmountable climate and SDG financing and investment gap in EMDCs.
Dr Danso, as the Chair of the 2023 NDC Investment Awards Adjudicating Panel, also presided over the announcement of the shortlisted nominees for the prestigious 2023 NDC Investment Awards to be presented at COP28 in the UAE.
The NDC Investment Awards sponsored by the Africa investor (Ai) and the African Green Infrastructure Investment Bank (AfGIIB), are the first-of-their-kind global African climate investment awards, launched at COP27 in Egypt and showcased during the recent successful Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi, are designed to raise ambition, recognize achievements across the main NDC project sectors and reward the governments, institutions and leaders driving private capital mobilisation and improving the investment readiness of Africa’s NDC projects, which require over $3 trillion of investment by 2030.
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