Browsing: United Nations

• There is a debt crisis in Africa as countries struggle to repay international loans. 
• According to the World Bank, nine African countries entered 2024 in debt distress, with another 15 at high risk of distress and 14 more categorised as moderate risk.
• According to the United Nations, Africa’s public debt will stay above pre-pandemic levels in 2024 and 2025.

At 4 per cent, Africa is projected to be the second fastest-growing economic region in the world in 2024,  according to a report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). However, behind the headline figure is a less optimistic reality.

Many African countries have suffered from slow post-COVID-19 recovery, climate change shocks, worsening food security situation, political instability, weak global growth, and high-interest rates. These economic shocks have pushed over 55 million people into poverty since 2020. The situation is increasingly alarming as more than half of the continent’s countries are in …

• The reward for fixing the carbon credit trade could be enormous, especially for Africa’s energy transition.
• The $2 billion global trade in voluntary carbon markets (VCMs) has suffered from greenwashing allegations, with prices plummeting from the 2022 peaks.
• For some African climate-linked businesses, the successful functioning of the carbon credits market is not a nice one but is core to their operating strategy.

Highly indebted nations need all the financing available to support their energy transition and climate adaptation needs. With the developed world lagging on its climate funding pledges, market-based solutions provide a supplementary funding source.

Carbon credits, a tradeable instrument obtained when a tonne of carbon is avoided or withdrawn from the atmosphere, have always offered significant optimism. With swaths of carbon-capturing biodiversity in the global south, Africa has the supply, while the industrialised nations looking to offset their emissions have the demand. Buyers then channel the finances …

As COP28 unfolds with its myriad discussions and commitments, a less visible but equally critical issue looms on another continent – the pervasive problem of greenwashing in Africa. From the corridors of corporate power to the burgeoning startup ecosystem, greenwashing emerges as a misleading marketing tactic and a significant barrier to genuine environmental and social progress in Africa.

In Africa’s corporate sector, greenwashing has become a strategic tool used by both corporations and governments to cover up environmentally detrimental practices. This issue is acutely critical in a continent where environmental conservation is not just a matter of policy but survival.…

• For African universities, governments and businesses, 5G Tech Spaces are part of the solution to enable Africa to leapfrog with clean innovation.
• Africa’s climate finance inflows remain very low, at 3 percent of global climate finance.
• The continent requires as much as $2.8 trillion through 2030 to implement its climate commitments.

Africa’s most renowned universities are keen to be at the forefront of Research, Innovation and Outreach (RIO) of technologies, products, services and operating models that reduce CO2 emissions and help attain Net Zero Emissions (NZE).

To achieve this, the gap between rhetoric and action needs to be reduced, if we are to have a fighting chance of reaching Net Zero by 2050 and capping the rise in global temperature at 1.5 °C in full attainment of the Paris Agreement.

Africa produces only about 4 percent of the world’s emissions, but is disproportionately vulnerable to the impact of climate change. …

A new commentary from the International Energy Agency (IEA) on the upcoming World Energy Outlook 2023 has revealed that despite improvements, global access to electricity still needs to catch up to the pace required to meet SDG 7. The commentary supports discussions from the recently concluded United Nations’ SDG Summit on 18-19 September 2023. It is also part of the IEA’s support of the first global stocktake of the Paris Agreement, which will be finalized in the run-up to COP28, the next UN Climate Change Conference, at the end of 2023.…

A considerable gap exists between symbol and substance regarding an African climate change approach. Foreign leaders often nod to how Africa accounts for only four per cent of global emissions but bears the brunt of the devastating climate change effects. Rising temperatures, extreme weather conditions, and ecosystem disruptions threaten millions of Africans’ livelihoods.

For many communities across the continent, the climate threat is already existential. With 18 per cent of the global population, Africa has 16 of the 20 countries most vulnerable to climate change, according to Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative.…

• The World Bank Group has suspended new loans to Uganda in response to the country’s Anti-Homosexuality Act.
• Uganda’s anti-LGBTQ law, with its provisions carrying the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality,” is sparking global concern.
• The World Bank provided $5.4 billion in International Development Association financing to Uganda by the end of 2022.

In a significant move, the World Bank announced on Tuesday its decision to suspend new lending to the Ugandan government. This decision comes in response to the Ugandan government’s enactment of an anti-LGBTQ law. The law is still garnering widespread condemnation from numerous countries and international organizations, including the United Nations. The bank’s stance is rooted in the belief that this law directly contradicts its core values and principles.

The World Bank’s social standards

Promptly after the anti-LGBTQ law was implemented in May, a World Bank team embarked on a fact-finding mission to Uganda. The team’s assessment concluded …

In recent years, Africa has emerged as a promising destination for global investment, with its vast natural resources, expanding consumer markets, and growing middle class. As the continent’s economies continue to strengthen and diversify, global players increasingly recognise the potential for mutually beneficial partnerships. The United States has significantly contributed to Africa’s economic transformation among these partners.…

France will host, in Paris, on June 22 and 23, 2023, the Summit for a new global financing pact. The Summit seeks to rethink the contract between the countries in the Global North and the Global South. The organisers aim to formulate a new pact to address the global economic crisis and climate change.…

The United Nations (UN) has called for major reforms for two institutions considered key players in the new world order. Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, is pushing for major changes in the IMF and the World Bank.

According to Guterres, the International Monetary Fund has profited the rich nations at the expense of the developing ones. The UN secretary-general describes the response by IMF and the World Bank towards the COVID-19 pandemic as a “glaring failure” that left most developing nations significantly indebted.…