Kenyan President William Ruto said on Wednesday that Africa could help decarbonise the global economy — but developed countries need to step up with serious investment to help unlock the continent’s potential.
In Seoul for a major summit this week, where South Korea committed $24 billion in aid and investment support to Africa, Ruto urged wealthy countries to do more: from better financing to technology transfers to funding clean energy transitions.
“We are seeing the effects of climate change everywhere,” he told AFP, pointing to Kenya’s recent experience of swinging from extreme drought to devastating floods.
Africa wants “to be part of the solution” but is being left out of some climate efforts, he said, referring to recent historic levels of investment in renewable energy, of which just a fraction has been directed to Africa.
“There is a need for greater investment in the continent of Africa to unlock African potential — not necessarily to benefit Africa alone,” he said.
“We can use the renewable energy assets we have, the mineral resources we have, the human capital we have in our African continent, to decarbonise not just our production and consumption, but global consumption and global production,” he said.
This requires “international financial architecture that gives countries that suffer the most and yet have contributed the least the best possible chance to be resilient, to adapt,” he said.
“And that’s why we’ve been pushing the international financial architecture to be much more agile, much more flexible, and to provide resources for countries in the developing world, especially in Africa… because at the moment, we are paying close to five or six or seven times more than our counterparts elsewhere.”