UAE announces $4.5 billion in renewable energy projects in Africa

The UAE committed $4.5 billion in renewable energy projects in Africa on Tuesday during a historic climate meeting hosted by Kenya to lure money for efforts to tackle global warming. “We will deploy $4.5 billion… to jumpstart a pipeline of bankable clean energy projects in this very important continent,” said Sultan Al Jaber, who heads the government-owned renewable energy firm Masdar, the UAE’s national oil company ADNOC and the COP28 climate talks. Thousands of guests at the Nairobi meeting include heads of state, government and industry executives, and are showcasing Africa’s potential as a sustainable energy superpower. Following the Africa Climate meeting, the COP28 meeting in Dubai later this year is anticipated to contain conflicting agendas for the world’s energy future. “If Africa loses, we all lose,” warned Jaber, who is also the UAE’s minister for industry and advanced technology. He said the investment aimed “to develop 15 GW (gigawatts) of clean power by 2030” and “catalyse at least an additional $12.5 billion from multilateral, public and private sources”. As of 2022, the continent’s renewable generation capacity was 56 gigawatts, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency. The three-day event in Nairobi, which began Monday, is billed as bringing together African leaders to define a shared vision for green development on the diverse continent of 1.4 billion people. On Tuesday, the summit will offer proposals to reform global financial structures that have resulted in only a tiny fraction of investments in climate solutions being directed towards Africa. Jaber called for a “surgical intervention of the global financial architecture that was built for a different era”, urging institutions to lower debt burdens. Countries in Africa are hamstrung by mounting debt costs and a dearth of finance, and despite an abundance of natural resources just three per cent of energy investments worldwide are made in the continent.