Africa’s first global climate investor roadshow ahead of COP 27 held in Ethiopia

Ahead of COP27 to take place in Egypt in November 2022, the first African Regional Roundtable on Climate Initiatives took place  July 1-3 in Ethiopia’s capital, focusing on how to chart a new and sustainable economic model, accelerate financial flows to the projects needed to reduce emissions, build climate resilience, and advance the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

This is the first in a series of five regional forums jointly organized by the incoming Egyptian Presidency of COP27, the United Nations Regional Commissions, and the UN Climate Change High-Level Champions for COP26 and COP27 that will take place across Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean regions, being conceived as a targeted initiative to drive greater public and private investment in the regions where the need is greatest.

The UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Vera Songwe alongside African finance and trade ministers are amongst the stakeholders taking part in the forum in Addis Ababa. ”Africa COP is not just a COP where we go and meet and talk, but that it has to be a club that delivers,“ Songwe said.

“We’re looking at this COP being really the clarion call, the wake up post-COVID recovery. We’re all going to be in a different economic setting. Unfortunately, that is not where we are’’. The ministers also discussed the African Trade Exchange Platform highlighting the need for fertilizers across Africa, especially since the continent has been heavily impacted by Covid-19, the Ukraine conflict and rising food prices.