Installation of solar panels in Mihuti village in Murang’a county (Kenya), June 16, 2023. TONY KARUMBA / AFP
Everyone has answered the call and this is already a sign of the importance attached to this first African climate summit, which took place in Nairobi from September 4th to 6th. Antonio Guterres, the Secretary General of the United Nations, Sultan Al-Jaber, the Emirati President of the next United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28), John Kerry, the American special envoy for climate, representatives of major financial institutions, international organizations or Ursula Von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, will attend this event, which aims to give the continent visibility in the climate change debate and show that it can be a driving force for proposals.
“It is possible to tell a positive story about the response to climate change and how Africa can develop for the global energy transition through the use of renewable energy and the conversion of its critical minerals,” explains Joseph Nganga, head of the organization of the meeting under the auspices of the African Union. The prerequisite for this is that the rest of the world is fairly committed to technology exchange and that the financing commitments made are kept. This is the message we want to send. »
Kenyan President William Ruto, host of the summit, embodies that ambition, and his pragmatic speech was intended to appeal to countries historically responsible for warming that are relieved to escape others’ demands for reparations. “William Ruto shares with us a common vision of the discussion that should enable the new climate finance architecture to be defined. It is not a logic of North-South balance or fragmentation,” says a French diplomatic source happily, recalling the African head of state’s speech during the Paris summit for a new global financial agreement in July. “Africa has always been placed in the camp of victims and problems. We no longer want to limit ourselves to this role, but rather sit at the table where we all look for solutions,” he explained. Kenya adopted a green growth strategy in the late 2000s. Almost 90% of electricity today comes from renewable sources.
“The continent that suffers the most”
Although it is at the forefront of the energy transition, the country, like its neighbors in the Horn of Africa, is still bearing the consequences of extreme climate events. The drought, not as intense in forty years, has decimated livestock and wildlife and plunged nearly 4 million people out of 50 million people into hunger.
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