Nineteenth Ordinary Session of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN)
Ministerial Segment 17-18 August 2023
Statement
By
Antonio Pedro
Acting Executive Secretary
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Video Recording, 14 August 2023
His Excellency, Mr. Demeke Mekonnen Hassen, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ethiopia
Her Excellency. Ms. Fitsum Assefa Adela, Minister of Planning and Development, Ethiopia
His Excellency, Mr. Alioune Ndoye, Minister of Minister for Environment, Sustainable Development and Ecological Transition of Senegal and President of AMCEN
Mr. Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
Her Excellency, Ms. Josefa Sacko Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment, African Union Commission
Ms. Elizabeth Mrema, United Nations Assistant Secretary General and Deputy Executive Director of UNEP
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen
It gives me great pleasure to address the Ministerial Segment of the 19th Ordinary Session of AMCEN on the theme: Seizing opportunities and enhancing collaboration to address environmental challenges in Africa.
This session comes at a time when all eyes are on Africa. This is on account of all the opportunities and potential our region offers to tackling global and our own national and regional challenges.
The top priority for Africa is to achieve inclusive and sustainable economic transformation that delivers tangible impacts on job creation and poverty eradication while addressing the triple planetary crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.
Africa’s opportunities and potential lies in the immense forests and wetlands for carbon sequestration; sun, water and wind to power renewable energy; and minerals that are crucial for the energy transition.
Indeed, the region is home to up to one-third of global mineral reserves, and currently produces well over half of the world’s platinum group metals, manganese, cobalt, and many others.
As the global community redoubles its efforts towards the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals, to keep global warming below the 2 degrees Celsius target for 2050, it will rapidly need to construct wind turbines, electric vehicles and other products that can generate electricity and transport people and goods without emitting C02.
These new products will lead to a projected 40-fold increase in demand for lithium, 25-fold increase in demand for cobalt, graphite and nickel, and a doubling of copper demand, by 2040.
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
Africa is uniquely placed to translate our mineral and metal endowments into tools for industrialization, economic transformation, job creation and the electrification of Africa. However, we have seen in the past commodity super cycle that without high-level political will, concerted industrial policy, strategic investments, and good-faith cooperation from partners, such a boom will not in isolation lead to the important and ambitious goals of the Africa Mining Vision.
That is why ECA has been working closely with member States, companies and SMEs across the region, and civil society groups, in order to assist countries to maximize their benefits from the ‘green’ minerals boom.
For example, ECA and its partners are currently supporting the building of a regional Battery and Electric Vehicle Value Chain. We are currently in the phase of finalizing a pre-feasibility study for a DRC-Zambia transboundary special economic zones for these manufacturing activities and will look forward to encouraging the expansion of this value chain through close linkages across the continent.
Excellencies, ladies, and gentlemen,
Africa has the opportunity to shape itself for a compelling energy transition agenda, premised on its industrialization priorities, while positioning itself at the centre of global decarbonization by harnessing its abundant clean energy resources to transform its critical minerals for regional and global electric batteries value chains.
Such an energy transition is essential for a number of factors. Our region accounts for 80% of the 733 million people globally without access to electricity and 39% of the 2.4 billion people without access to clean cooking. This is ironical given that Africa has about 60% of the best solar power resources.
Africa therefore needs a deep rethink on how it addresses its vast development challenges if the continent is to meet the goals of Agenda 2063, the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and various national development goals, while positioning itself at the centre of the global clean energy transition agenda.
In this regard, ECA continues to support the African Union’s blueprint agenda on energy, climate change and development, including the African Union Climate Change and Resilient Development Strategy and Action Plan 2022-2032 and the African Union’s African Common Position on Energy Access and Just Energy Transition.
ECA is also working with the Africa NDC Hub to support member states with the translation of their NDCs into investment plans; and implementing ECA’s SDG7 to support accelerated mobilisation of private sector finance to invest in climate action and energy access. This initiative supported the issuance of the first local currency green bond of 3 billion South African Rands to support investments in renewables in South Africa.
ECA will also continue to support the Africa Group of Negotiators on climate change as we go to COP28 and beyond on areas such as loss and damage, implementation of Article 6, including impacts of the implementation of climate response measures.
As we go to the Africa Climate Summit, the Africa Climate Week, and the 11th annual Climate Change for Development in Africa (CCDA), ECA will be providing technical inputs to these events. The draft key messages of the CCDA will be presented to AMCEN for initial review and feedback ahead of the summit.
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
There is also a huge opportunity for Africa to tap into the carbon markets to drive investments to benefit local communities, energy transition and attainment of national commitments on climate change and sustainable development.
However, despite the currently rising interest in carbon trading across regions, Africa has not been able to fully participate in the carbon markets and harness the full potential of its resources especially the largest carbon sinks found in the Congo Basin including the peatlands and rain forest. This is largely due to the lack of efficient carbon market instruments, unfair and unreasonable carbon prices, limited or absent legal and regulatory frameworks, and limited technical capacities.
It is for this reason that ECA has assisted the 16 member countries of the Congo-Basin Climate Commission (CBCC) to develop a regional carbon registry that allows the fast-tracking of relevant credits as well as the projects from which the credits have been generated.
In 2023, ECA has started extending a similar support to the African Island Climate Commission and countries from SADC with the similar tools. In this connection, the Republic of Malawi has launched the Malawi Carbon Market Initiative, supported by a carbon market roadmap to harness the potential of its vast water and land resources using the potential of carbon markets with the support of ECA and ACMI. To reach scale, we need more of these actions across the Continent.
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
It is now abundantly clear that climate actions and environmental conservation and economic development are mutually reinforcing. As the region seeks to attract a greater share of global climate investment, our immense natural resource assets will also be very useful in making the continent an appealing destination for the so-called ESG investments that factor in environmental, social and governance issues.
What will be very important is that we have an African-owned framework for attracting and applying ESG investments on our terms. Our region also needs a strategy to ensure the productive use of ESG investment funds. As these funds become available, we must have frameworks in place to ensure they are applied to reach our distinct goals for transformation as enshrined in Agenda 2063, the AMV and other regional priority documents.
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
I will close by reminding us that these critical issues facing Africa are directly linked with the 12 actions to accelerate SDG progress as championed by the Secretary General Antonio Guterres. Following the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, global energy and food crises, the world is not on track to achieve the SDGs. The Secretary General has therefore called for a redoubling of efforts and a focus on initiatives to accelerate progress towards the SDGs.
The very important issues will be deliberated at next month’s SDG Summit, Climate Action Summit and Global Africa Business Initiative. Through a rigorous process, a set of high-impact initiatives have been identified to help spur this progress, to bring about transitions in energy, biodiversity and nature, education, social protection, food and digital public infrastructure, while addressing the cross-cutting issue of violence against women. The enablers of this will be through an SDG stimulus of at least $500 billion per year, increased trade that drives inclusive development, localization of the SDGs, expanding public sector capabilities and unleashing a data dividend for the SDGs.
Success in all the areas I have highlighted above will not be possible without effective multidisciplinary, cross-sectoral and multi-institutional support, collaboration and coordination. I therefore applaud the decision of the 18th session of AMCEN calling for strong collaboration between AMCEN and ECA Conference of Ministers of Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development. This decision was welcomed by the 55th Session of ECA conference on Ministers. ECA therefore looks forward to exploring all channels to strengthen collaboration between the two bodies building on our long-standing collaboration with sister organization, UNEP.
I thank you.