With just a few months before the red carpets are rolled out for global leaders at this year’s long-awaited COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, large corporations and development finance institutions are beating their path to commit large investments towards facilitating achievement of Just Transition targets amongst their investee countries.
Speaking at the 2022 Africa Climate Week in Gabon, which took place under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and is a crucial step on the road to COP27, Kevin Kariuki, African Development Bank Group Vice President for Power, Energy, Climate & Green Growth, said, “For us, a just transition is all about greening the economy in such a way that it is fair and inclusive, and that ensures the costs and benefits of the transition to low carbon and climate-resilient development are shared across the entire economy.”
The African Development Bank’s 2022 Africa Economic Outlook report projects that Africa will need as much as $1.6 trillion between 2020-2030 to implement its climate action commitments and NDCs.
The African Development Bank has committed to mobilizing $25 billion for climate finance by 2025; more than 50% of that funding will be allocated to adaptation projects.
South Africa’s largest mobile operator Vodacom Group announced that they would be partnering with the COP27 UN Climate Change Conference, with their parent company Vodafone firmly on the seat as the Principal Partner for Communications for the conference.
“As a technology company, our digital solutions and capabilities play a critical role in helping society to mitigate and adapt against climate change impacts. The Internet of Things (IoT) for instance, is key in saving energy, creating cleaner and more efficient communities and enabling sectors such as agriculture to be more efficient and sustainable and we look forward to engaging on this at COP27 so we can accelerate the fight against climate change”
Vodacom announced its entry into Egypt in November 2021 after buying out a 55% stake in the Egyptian arm of parent Vodafone Group Plc for $2.74 billion, with the South Africa operator gaining a foothold in one of the continent’s fastest growing information communications and technology market. Vodafone Egypt is also the country’s largest mobile wallet provider through Vodafone Cash. According to the national telecom regulatory authority Vodafone cash had almost 90% market share of mobile wallet transactions as at August 2021.
