The alliance aims to raise up to $500 million of early-stage project preparation and development capital. Goal: boost project bankability and generate up to $10 billion in investment opportunities for the private sector. The African Union, the African Development Bank Group and Africa50– in partnership with several global partners – have launched the alliance for Green Infrastructure in Africa (AGIA), an initiative to help scale and accelerate financing for green infrastructure projects in Africa. The collaborating global partners working with the African Union, African Development Bank and Africa50 are the European Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the French Development Agency, The Rockefeller Foundation, the US Trade and Development Agency, the Global Centre on Adaptation, the Private Infrastructure Development Group, and the African Sovereign Investors Forum.
High expectations for supporting adaptation in Africa
The Africa COP is very important because Africa is the one that has contributed the least to global greenhouse gas emissions. But it is suffering proportionately from that. So, I came to this COP with a big expectation in terms of what we are going to get to support adaptation for Africa because this is Africa’s main challenge: how to adapt to climate change. We brought two of our biggest efforts here for Africa. One is called the African Adaptation Acceleration Programme, which is Africa’s largest effort on global climate adaptation to mobilise $25 billion for Africa. I said, I didn’t come here to beg for money. We have $12.5 billion on the table already. We are trying to raise $12.5 billion for that programme. I’m very excited with how the global community has responded. In fact, yesterday we had video announcements by the government of the United Kingdom for £200 million towards this initiative, in particular towards the African Development Fund, which is our concessional financing. That is £200 million by the UK Government; but the Netherlands also came to the table with €110 million for that initiative. We are getting the momentum. People are listening. As I said, I came to this COP with a vuvuzela on Africa’s climate adaptation issue, so I’m pretty excited.
The Alliance for Green Infrastructure in Africa
We have no choice. In the greening of our economy lies our greatest opportunity because we have the world’s largest resources in terms of renewable energy. So, 45% of the global resources on energy are right here in Africa. The Alliance for Green Infrastructure was set up to allow us to unlock this potential and also to green our infrastructure space. Africa’s infrastructure needs are anything between a deficit of $68 to $108 billion a year. However, that is not talking about a new type of infrastructure that is green that we have to do. So, we set up this alliance for green infrastructure, the African Development Bank, and several other partners to develop bankable green infrastructure projects, to mobilise capital around those projects, to execute those projects, and also to create a space for Africa to tap into green bonds, to finance renewable energy, finance the greening of water systems, irrigation systems, or even in terms of lithium-ion batteries… All these things. We are mobilising a $500 million project preparation facility to prepare bankable projects. And, of course, we want to use that to leverage $10 billion of direct investment in green infrastructure. So, that will be great for Africa.
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