- Kenya will host the first African Climate Action Summit in Nairobi from 4th to 6th September 2023.
- The summit organizers are announcing the signing of several nature-based agreements worth several million dollars.
The African continent holds its first Climate Action Summit. More than 20 African heads of state and government and nearly 20,000 delegates worldwide, including Antonio Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), have confirmed their attendance at the summit from 4th to 6th September in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital.
According to the organizers, agreements worth several hundred million dollars are expected to be signed at the summit, including a new model for climate finance that is gradually taking shape in Africa. This involves financing based on the debt-for-nature mechanic. Joseph Ng’ang’a, Head of the Secretariat of the African Climate Summit, says, “We anticipate agreements ranging from one million dollars to hundreds of millions of dollars. These agreements would involve private and public financing for nature-based investments, clean energy production and climate adaptation efforts.”
At the beginning of August 2023, Gabon concluded its own agreement, worth $450 million, with the Bank of America to protect part of its marine ecosystem. This is the second operation of its kind on the continent, after the Seychelles. The debt-for-nature mechanism has been expanding in Africa for some time. In June 2023, Portugal announced that it would swap $153 million of Cape Verde’s debt for investments in nature.
The debt-for-nature swap is often presented as a technique for relieving the debt of developing countries. It involves extending payment terms, reducing interest rates, granting new loans at lower rates than conventional and even cancelling debts.