Cop28 sees hundreds of millions of dollars in Africa-focused pledges

African and global institutions have joined Germany, France and Japan to pledge over $175m to the Alliance for Green Infrastructure in Africa, one of a series of hundreds of millions of dollars in Africa-focused deals announced so far at Cop28 in Dubai.

The pledge is intended to scale up financing for transformative climate-aligned infrastructure projects across the continent and will contribute to the first close of a $500m fund of early-stage project preparation and development blended capital.

$40m of the capital has been provided by the African Development Bank, and another $40m will come from the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA). Germany’s minister for economic cooperation and development, Svenja Schulze, said that the country is planning to contribute up to €26m to AGIA starting in 2024.

Tomoyoshi Yahagi, Japan’s deputy vice minister of finance, confirmed Japan will provide $10m to AGIA, while Emmanuel Moulin, director general of the French Treasury, said the department was “delighted to announce a contribution of €20 million to AGIA and we hope that our contribution will catalyse more private and concessional resources.”

The Alliance, launched a year ago at Cop27 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, is a partnership of the African Union Commission, the African Development Bank, Africa50 and other partners which aims to unlock $10bn in private capital for green infrastructure projects.

Hundreds of millions pledged to Africa

Africa is seeking to nail down billions of dollars in financial support at Cop28 for climate change mitigation and adaptation – including existing pledges which have yet to be met – as the continent continues to disproportionately suffer the impacts of global warming.

The summit, which runs from 30 November to 12 December, has already seen several Africa-focused deals: 

• The European Investment Bank and the Bank of Kigali announced that they are developing a new targeted sustainable agriculture financing initiative in Rwanda. The scheme is expected to unlock €100m in new climate investment by small holder farmers and agribusiness, as well as improve access to finance by businesses owned by women.
• The African Development Bank presented its planned $1bn facility to provide insurance to more than 40 million farmers across the continent against the severe impacts of climate change. The Africa Climate Risk Insurance Facility for Adaptation aims to mobilise concessionary financing, high-risk capital and grants to support the African insurance industry. The facility is designed to protect farmers and countries against catastrophic weather-related events and to stimulate private sector investment in agriculture by mitigating risks.
• Italy has made a new commitment of €5m to the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA), a multi-donor special fund managed by the African Development Bank. It provides catalytic finance to unlock private sector investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency.
• British International Investment (BII), the UK’s development finance institution announced $5m debt funding for BasiGo, an electric bus solution provider., from its Climate Innovation Facility. The investment will be used to scale local assembly of electric buses to cater to the rapidly growing demand from bus operators in Kenya. BII and Shell Foundation separately announced investments of $2.1m and $0.5m respectively into SunCulture, a Kenya-based company that provides solar-powered irrigation systems to smallholder farmers. The investment will help 9,000 more smallholder farmers in Kenya to increase farmland productivity in a sustainable way.
• The European Investment Bank and Allianz Global Investors announced new capital commitments to the Emerging Market Climate Action Fund. The UK will commit €10m, while Germany’s KFW intends to top up its existing commitment with an additional €33m. Including these new commitments, EMCAF will likely hold its third close with a total of €385m in the coming weeks.  
• Eight African young women-led businesses will receive grant funding of up to $100,000 awarded by the YouthAdapt challenge. Jointly organised by the African Development Bank Group and the Global Center on Adaptation and supported by the Africa Climate Change Fund, YouthADAPT is an annual competition for young entrepreneurs leading micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in Africa with innovative climate change adaptation solutions.

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