By Ebi Kesiena
On Friday, President William Ruto urged world leaders to support initiatives aimed at making Africa a green powerhouse.
While addressing nearly 200 Heads of State and Government representatives, Ruto said turning Africa into a green powerhouse is not just essential for the continent, but is also vital for global industrial decarbonization.
“A tendency to ignore Africa’s developmental and industrialization needs, and the failure to invest in our burgeoning younger generation, is no longer a tenable proposition.
“We cannot afford to neglect the immense potential or ignore the pressing needs of a continent on the cusp of transformative growth.” he said.
The President pointed out that the latest UN data shows that the world is hurtling at a perilous speed towards a world that is warmer by 3°C unless a significant and radical shift in economic and industrial patterns is adopted.
“In just the first ten months of this year, we experienced 86 days where temperatures soared over 1.5°C above preindustrial levels,” he said.
Ruto said Africa is ready to play its part in full to steer the world firmly back onto a 1.5°C preindustrial ceiling, adding that Kenya has already mooted an ambitious plan to expand its current energy capacity of approximately 3 Gigawatts to 100 Gigawatts of entirely renewable power by 2050.
Ruto said as a continent, the Nairobi Declaration adopted at the inaugural Africa Climate Summit in September set the pathway towards the realisation of this ambitious goal.
“It commits us to triple renewable energy capacity, establish green manufacturing, halt and reverse deforestation, promote sustainable agriculture, promote nature-based solutions, support the global call to phase down coal plants and eliminate inefficient fossil fuel production subsidies and further amplify calls for a new global financial architecture and global carbon tax,” Ruto told the summit.
The President said this level of ambition must be matched by the global commitment to achieve concrete, action-oriented outcomes as he called for a unified global effort to mobilise the necessary capital and the setting of clear, actionable roadmaps for implementation.
This, he however added, demands deliberate support for Africa by eliminating investment gaps that have over the past 30 years worked against the continent.
“Climate change does not respect artificial distinctions, traditional boundaries and old antagonisms. Instead, it should unite us against a shared, borderless challenge,” Ruto said.
