Africa will play a “fundamental role” in implementing the goals of the Paris Agreement on climate, officials said ahead of the Cop28 summit in the UAE in November.
The world must ensure that climate finance is more “available, affordable, and accessible” to all developing countries, including those in Africa, Cop28 President-designate Dr Sultan Al Jaber, Kenya's President William Ruto and African Union Commission chairman Moussa Mahamat said in a joint statement on Monday.
International investment must be “massively scaled up” to enable commitments to be turned into action across the continent, the statement, released at the Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi, said.
“Africa is a continent brimming with promise,” it said.
“It is blessed with abundant renewable energy potential that is waiting to be tapped. Africa’s 1.4 billion people represent 17 per cent of the world’s population, 60 per cent of which are under the age of 25 making it the youngest population in the world.
“But despite accounting for less than 3 per cent of the world’s energy-related carbon dioxide emissions to date and having the lowest emissions per capita of any region, Africa is also home to many of the most climate vulnerable countries.”
Developed countries must deliver on their commitments, including the $100 billion of annual climate finance, doubling adaptation finance and ensuring a strong replenishment of the Green Climate Fund, the statement said.
Africa’s installed renewable energy capacity is set to grow to more than 530 gigawatts by 2040, from about 54 gigawatts in 2020, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena).
Solar photovoltaic capacity will rise to 340 gigawatts and wind to 90 gigawatts.
At the summit on Monday, Irena, in collaboration with Kenya, the UAE, Denmark and Germany, also announced a new partnership pledging to boost renewable energy in Africa.
The Accelerated Partnership for Renewables in Africa (Apra), which also includes Ethiopia, Namibia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe, focuses on three crucial areas: mobilising finance, providing technical assistance and capacity building, and engaging the private sector.
Partners are inviting other countries as well as public and private sector organisations to join Apra to amplify efforts, lead ambitious climate action, and use effective green energy strategies, a separate statement said.
“Although Africa has 17 per cent of the world’s population, it has only received 2 per cent of worldwide investment in renewable energy,” said Irena director-general Francesco La Camera.
“This partnership recognises a key opportunity for African nations to tap into their abundant renewable energy and mineral potential to drive green industrialisation locally while reinforcing the energy transition worldwide.”
The UAE is supporting Africa's renewable energy push through initiatives such as Etihad 7, which aims to raise public and private sector funds to invest in the development of the sector. It aims to achieve 20 gigawatts of capacity to supply 100 million people across the continent with clean electricity by 2035.
As part of the deals signed under the umbrella of the Etihad 7 initiative, UAE clean energy company Masdar signed agreements in January with three African countries to develop renewable energy projects with a combined capacity of up to 5 gigawatts.
Masdar will develop renewable projects in Angola, Uganda and Zambia – with a capacity of 2 gigawatts each in Angola and Zambia, and 1 gigawatt in Uganda.
In March, Infinity Power, a joint venture between Egypt’s Infinity and Masdar, also completed the acquisition of the entire shareholding of Africa’s wind power platform Lekela Power and became the largest renewable energy company in the continent.
“Our efforts are focused on advancing a credible response to climate change that builds resilience and limits impacts on lives and livelihoods through clear and tangible outcomes on adaptation and loss and damage,” the statement said.
“This includes operationalising the loss and damage fund and funding arrangements at Cop28. We have to make every effort to realise the promise made at Cop27 in Egypt, including early capitalisation of the fund.”
Adaptation finance represents less than 10 per cent of all climate finance and this imbalance must be “urgently addressed”, it added.
Africa could be a key supplier of green hydrogen to Europe, which is currently looking to diversify its energy mix following the reduction of Russian natural gas supplies, according to Rystad Energy.
More than 52 green hydrogen projects have been announced in Africa, with production set to reach 7.2 million tonnes by the end of 2035, the Norway-based consultancy said in a report in March.
Access to clean cooking is a major issue in Africa, where thousands of people die annually and millions suffer chronic health problems from illnesses linked to air pollution.
China, India and Indonesia have halved the number of their citizens who lack clean cooking access since 2010.
But in Africa, the number of people without clean cooking access has increased during the same period, the International Energy Agency intergovernmental organisation, said in a July report.
An annual investment of $8 billion will be required until 2030 to achieve universal access to clean cooking, the Paris-based agency has said.
Developing countries require about $1.7 trillion per year in the clean energy sector but only managed to attract foreign direct investment worth $544 billion in 2022, Unctad, the UN intergovernmental organisation that promotes the interests of developing countries in world trade, said in its World Investment Report in July.
FA Cup fifth round draw
Sheffield Wednesday v Manchester City
Reading/Cardiff City v Sheffield United
Chelsea v Shrewsbury Town/Liverpool
West Bromwich Albion v Newcastle United/Oxford United
Leicester City v Coventry City/Birmingham City
Northampton Town/Derby County v Manchester United
Southampton/Tottenham Hotspur v Norwich City
Portsmouth v Arsenal
In-demand jobs and monthly salaries
- Technology expert in robotics and automation: Dh20,000 to Dh40,000
- Energy engineer: Dh25,000 to Dh30,000
- Production engineer: Dh30,000 to Dh40,000
- Data-driven supply chain management professional: Dh30,000 to Dh50,000
- HR leader: Dh40,000 to Dh60,000
- Engineering leader: Dh30,000 to Dh55,000
- Project manager: Dh55,000 to Dh65,000
- Senior reservoir engineer: Dh40,000 to Dh55,000
- Senior drilling engineer: Dh38,000 to Dh46,000
- Senior process engineer: Dh28,000 to Dh38,000
- Senior maintenance engineer: Dh22,000 to Dh34,000
- Field engineer: Dh6,500 to Dh7,500
- Field supervisor: Dh9,000 to Dh12,000
- Field operator: Dh5,000 to Dh7,000
Key recommendations
- Fewer criminals put behind bars and more to serve sentences in the community, with short sentences scrapped and many inmates released earlier.
- Greater use of curfews and exclusion zones to deliver tougher supervision than ever on criminals.
- Explore wider powers for judges to punish offenders by blocking them from attending football matches, banning them from driving or travelling abroad through an expansion of ‘ancillary orders’.
- More Intensive Supervision Courts to tackle the root causes of crime such as alcohol and drug abuse – forcing repeat offenders to take part in tough treatment programmes or face prison.
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
The struggle is on for active managers
David Einhorn closed out 2018 with his biggest annual loss ever for the 22-year-old Greenlight Capital.
The firm’s main hedge fund fell 9 per cent in December, extending this year’s decline to 34 percent, according to an investor update viewed by Bloomberg.
Greenlight posted some of the industry’s best returns in its early years, but has stumbled since losing more than 20 per cent in 2015.
Other value-investing managers have also struggled, as a decade of historically low interest rates and the rise of passive investing and quant trading pushed growth stocks past their inexpensive brethren. Three Bays Capital and SPO Partners & Co., which sought to make wagers on undervalued stocks, closed in 2018. Mr Einhorn has repeatedly expressed his frustration with the poor performance this year, while remaining steadfast in his commitment to value investing.
Greenlight, which posted gains only in May and October, underperformed both the broader market and its peers in 2018. The S&P 500 Index dropped 4.4 per cent, including dividends, while the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index, an early indicator of industry performance, fell 7 per cent through December. 28.
At the start of the year, Greenlight managed $6.3 billion in assets, according to a regulatory filing. By May, the firm was down to $5.5bn.
Key changes
Commission caps
For life insurance products with a savings component, Peter Hodgins of Clyde & Co said different caps apply to the saving and protection elements:
• For the saving component, a cap of 4.5 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 90 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).
• On the protection component, there is a cap of 10 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 160 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).
• Indemnity commission, the amount of commission that can be advanced to a product salesperson, can be 50 per cent of the annualised premium for the first year or 50 per cent of the total commissions on the policy calculated.
• The remaining commission after deduction of the indemnity commission is paid equally over the premium payment term.
• For pure protection products, which only offer a life insurance component, the maximum commission will be 10 per cent of the annualised premium multiplied by the length of the policy in years.
Disclosure
Customers must now be provided with a full illustration of the product they are buying to ensure they understand the potential returns on savings products as well as the effects of any charges. There is also a “free-look” period of 30 days, where insurers must provide a full refund if the buyer wishes to cancel the policy.
“The illustration should provide for at least two scenarios to illustrate the performance of the product,” said Mr Hodgins. “All illustrations are required to be signed by the customer.”
Another illustration must outline surrender charges to ensure they understand the costs of exiting a fixed-term product early.
Illustrations must also be kept updatedand insurers must provide information on the top five investment funds available annually, including at least five years' performance data.
“This may be segregated based on the risk appetite of the customer (in which case, the top five funds for each segment must be provided),” said Mr Hodgins.
Product providers must also disclose the ratio of protection benefit to savings benefits. If a protection benefit ratio is less than 10 per cent "the product must carry a warning stating that it has limited or no protection benefit" Mr Hodgins added.
Terror attacks in Paris, November 13, 2015
- At 9.16pm, three suicide attackers killed one person outside the Atade de France during a foootball match between France and Germany
- At 9.25pm, three attackers opened fire on restaurants and cafes over 20 minutes, killing 39 people
- Shortly after 9.40pm, three other attackers launched a three-hour raid on the Bataclan, in which 1,500 people had gathered to watch a rock concert. In total, 90 people were killed
- Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the terrorists, did not directly participate in the attacks, thought to be due to a technical glitch in his suicide vest
- He fled to Belgium and was involved in attacks on Brussels in March 2016. He is serving a life sentence in France
Six large-scale objects on show
- Concrete wall and windows from the now demolished Robin Hood Gardens housing estate in Poplar
- The 17th Century Agra Colonnade, from the bathhouse of the fort of Agra in India
- A stagecloth for The Ballet Russes that is 10m high – the largest Picasso in the world
- Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1930s Kaufmann Office
- A full-scale Frankfurt Kitchen designed by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, which transformed kitchen design in the 20th century
- Torrijos Palace dome
