COP28: Can Africa Green Industrialisation Initiative be the Continent’s Holy Grail?

Can the Africa Green Industrialisation Initiative (AGII), launched on December 2 at the 28th Conference of Parties (COP28) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, transform the continent?

The ambitious programme to upscale and accelerate green industries and businesses across Africa was launched by presidents and representatives from Kenya, Angola, Burundi, Djibouti, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal and Zambia, as well as COP28 President Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber.

Also present were the President of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al Nahyan and the UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for Egypt Mahmoud Mohieldin.

The initiative underscores the importance of green industrialisation to harness Africa’s vast and quality resources to secure prosperity for all, according to the COP28 presidency. The leaders and delegates present stressed that Africa’s green industrialisation is critical not just on the continent but also for the attainment of global climate ambitions.

Besides leaders, African policy wonks have also largely embraced and joined the green industrialisation bandwagon, identifying it as the Holy Grail of the continent’s socioeconomic transformation. 

Unwavering support for green industries 

As witnessed in recent economic forums in N’Djamena in Chad, Abuja in Nigeria, Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, Rabat in Morocco and elsewhere on the continent, Africa’s experts have expressed unwavering support for green industrialisation. 

“Green industrialisation is the only way for Africa…it is a precondition for sustainable and inclusive growth,” highlights the Economic Report on Africa 2016: Greening Africa's Industrialization, published by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). 

The AGII, which incorporates elements of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement, discourages fossil fuel production and use that immensely contributes to global warming. 

Despite the difficulty of selling the concept to leading oil producers in Africa, especially to countries where oil and related products account for more than 90 per cent of exports and huge chunks of their national budgets, it is being embraced slowly but surely.

However, completely convincing countries such as Angola and Nigeria that heavily rely on oil to abandon fossil fuel drilling now could be a tall order, for they fear such a radical move would severely damage their economies.

It is even more heartbreaking to ask countries that have recently discovered oil and are anticipating a financial windfall from the sector such as Ghana, Uganda, Liberia and Sierra Leone to abandon or limit their fossil fuel investments.

The United Nations and green advocates continue to preach that going green, especially relying on energy generated from the sun, wind, rain and geothermal heat that Africa has in abundance, is the way to go.

They insist that countries should take advantage of new innovations, technologies and business models that use natural resources optimally and efficiently.

COP28 president Al Jaber lauded the AGII as an opportunity to elevate the ambition of the COP28 Presidency’s Clean Energy programme launched in September during the Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi, Kenya.

"Africa’s biggest challenge is not in the scarcity of resources but in the scarcity of action. The UAE not only wants to support countries’ green industrialisation, we want countries to have access to more economic opportunities,” said Al Jaber, adding that the initiative will enable the continent to meet green development objectives while also tackling climate change.

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