Leaders from 54 African countries will meet in Kenya this week for a three-day climate summit. The summit must strengthen their collective voice in the run-up to the UN climate summit in November. That voice is changing: Africa also sees opportunities these days.
No one has high hopes for the annual UN climate summit. The reason is that the summit will be held in the United Arab Emirates, headed by Sultan Al Jaber, who is also the chairman of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.
Oil interests and climate policy are like water and fire. This is evident from the voting behavior of rich oil states at climate summits in the past.
But experience also shows that real breakthroughs are usually achieved outside the tops anyway. For example, the Paris Agreement was made possible by an earlier deal between China and the US. And after the European Union decided on the Green Deal in 2020, a true green wave swept the world. As a result, more than a hundred countries have now officially set themselves the goal of being climate neutral by 2050.
‘Africa receives only a tenth of necessary climate aid’
Now the African countries seem to be doing such preparatory work, with the Africa Climate Summit that started on Monday. The continent is responsible for less than 4 percent of current global CO2 emissions and an even smaller share of historical emissions.
At the same time, Africa is severely affected by the consequences of climate change and has few resources to deal with those consequences.
A condition for political support from African countries is therefore that rich countries fulfill their earlier promises for climate aid. That call sounds again this week in Nairobi. The climate aid Africa receives is one-tenth of what is actually needed, said Mithika Mwenda of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance at the opening of the summit.
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Climate action also offers major economic opportunities
But there is also a whole new sound. If the global approach to climate change succeeds, it will not only prevent a lot of damage in Africa, but also offer important opportunities for economic development.
“Africa is not only a victim, but also a dynamic continent with solutions for the world,” said Kenyan President Joseph Nganga ahead of the summit.
That message was repeated by Kenyan President William Ruto at the opening ceremony on Monday. “We’ve seen this as a problem for a long time. It’s time we turned it around and looked at it from the other side.”
“We need to see in green growth not only a climate imperative, but also a multi-billion dollar source of economic opportunity.”
A geothermal energy plant in Kenya. Geothermal energy can be extracted on a large scale in the Great Rift Valley. Photo: Getty Images
‘Tankers full of sun and geothermal energy’ from Mombasa to IJmuiden
This refers to sustainable energy: that is to say export of sustainable energy. This can be done via power cables across the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea and with tanker ships filled with green hydrogen. In the future, they could depart from the ports of Kenya, for example.
Renewable energy already provides 90 percent of the electricity needs of the East African country. This should be 100 percent by 2030. That energy comes from hydroelectric power stations, wind farms and solar panels.
But Kenya has a fourth speciality: geothermal energy. In the west of the country is the Great Rift Valley, a volcanic area where electricity is already being produced on a large scale from the shallow heat sources.
The African countries are therefore also looking for investors to increase the production of sustainable energy. And that also offers opportunities for the Netherlands. For example, to make heavy industry such as Tata Steel climate-neutral, a lot of green hydrogen will soon be needed.
Green matchmaking during climate summit in November?
We will produce part of this ourselves, using electricity from wind farms in the North Sea. But green hydrogen can also be easily produced using solar energy, especially in places where the sun shines often and is high in the sky, such as in the Sahara or in Kenya.
Anyone who still wants to spot successes at the climate summit in Dubai in November should therefore also keep a close eye on the sidelines. Who knows, deals may be concluded there between African and European countries: deals that make it possible to reduce global emissions more quickly and bring Africa more prosperity.
2023-09-04 15:32:39
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