Many African nations have no choice but to fund their own response to climate change, and in many instances borrow at commercial rates to do so, according to Bogolo Kenewendo, Africa director of the United Nations Climate Change High-Level Champions panel.
(Bloomberg) — Many African nations have no choice but to fund their own response to climate change, and in many instances borrow at commercial rates to do so, according to Bogolo Kenewendo, Africa director of the United Nations Climate Change High-Level Champions panel.
“Many African governments are having to fund issues of adaptation and resilience through their national budgets and through debt instruments that aren’t even concessional,” Kenewendo, who also serves as a special adviser to the panel, said in an interview at the Africa CEO Forum in Abdijan, Ivory Coast. “This shows the unfairness of the global finance infrastructure.”
While Africa produces just 4% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, it’s being hard-hit by climate change and its response has been hamstrung by a lack of funds. In recent years, unusually strong cyclones have struck the southeast coast, droughts have parched East Africa and floods have destroyed infrastructure in South Africa and parts of the west of the continent.
More than three-quarters of the money that least-developed countries raised to finance climate adaption in 2019 was in the form of non-concessional loans, said Kenewendo, who previously served as minister of trade and investment in Botswana.
Ivory Coast Set to Meet Cocoa Output Target (June 5, 3:43 p.m.)
Cocoa output in Ivory Coast is likely to be slightly higher in 2022-2023 than the prior season, Yves Kone, director general of the nation’s cocoa regulator, Conseil Café Cacao, said in an interview at the Africa CEO Forum.
“We expected an output of 2 million to 2.2 million tons and we’ll still be within that range,” he said.
Ivory Coast is preparing to comply with new rules to export cocoa to the European Union that require exporters to prove the chocolate-making ingredient wasn’t grown on deforested land or produced using child labor. The country is the world’s largest source of the crop, with about two-thirds of its output exported to the EU.
Read More: Ivory Coast Sees Higher Cocoa Output in 2022-23 Versus Year Ago
Talks to Combat Plastic Pollution Make Headway (June 5, 11:30 a.m.)
Officials discussing a legally binding agreement on plastic pollution expect to have a draft treaty in place by the time a third round of talks happens in Kenya in November, according to UN Environment Program Executive Director Inger Andersen.
Governments, civil rights organizations, academics and companies are among the groups engaging in negotiations to reach an accord on tackling the 400 million tons of plastic produced every year, of which less than 10% is recycled, according to UNEP. A second of five planned rounds of talks on the matter concluded in Paris last week.
“I feel really rather optimistic,” Andersen said in an interview in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, ahead of the Africa CEO Forum. “If we get the treaty right, then we will place a premium on recycled” plastic, she said.
Read More: Nations to Start Talks on Plastics Pact Seen as Next Paris Deal
Africa CEO Forum Gets Under Way (June 5, 9 a.m.)
The two-day Africa CEO Forum got under way, with Jeune Afrique Media Group Managing Director Amir Ben Yahmed welcoming the participants. About 2,000 people registered to attend, including executives, government ministers and bankers.
IFC Managing Director Touts Emerging-Market Data (June 4, 5:00 pm)
The International Finance Corp., the World Bank’s private lending arm, has made data available to help institutional investors evaluate risk in emerging markets, Managing Director Makhtar Diop said.
“One of the commitments that we’ve made is to make available what we call the GEMs, a database that a development financial institution has gathered that gives an idea of the default rate,” he said in an interview. “All this type of information that will now be made available to the market so that they can better understand and assess the risk of a country or a region and price better.”
Several African countries have criticized the global capital market architecture of bias against African nations. Among them, Ghana is getting a $3 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund after being priced out of global capital markets. Senegal, whose President Macky Sall has also criticized ratings companies, is also requesting an IMF support program.
–With assistance from Thomas Hall, Jennifer Zabasajja and Baudelaire Mieu.
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