President William Ruto Calls On African Leaders To launch Green Industrialization Initiative
William Ruto, President of Kenya, and the UAE have joined to convene African Heads of State and other prominent personalities in a landmark event at COP28 to accelerate Africa’s Green Industrialization.
The launch event was attended by the Heads of State for Angola, Burundi, Djibouti, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, and Zambia; COP28 President Dr. Sultan Al Jaber; Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin, the UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for Egypt; Principals from leading green developers as well as industry, multilateral development banks, and key institutions from across the UAE and Africa.
Kenya’s Africa Green Industrialization Initiative aims to accelerate and scale green industries and businesses across Africa, promote climate mitigation and adaptation, and catalyze economic green growth on the continent.
In his remarks, President Ruto underscored that “the Initiative marks a concrete step toward the realization of the Nairobi Declaration, activating private sector-led scaling-up of green industrial clusters.”
African leaders unequivocally embraced the Africa Green Industrialization Initiative as the definitive pathway for their nations’ development. Leaders discussed their plans to activate end-to-end socioeconomic transformation through the rapid growth of green industrial clusters, and the strong role of regional and global export markets for value-added green products and technologies, crucial for the global clean energy value chain.
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“We are forging a green pathway for Africa. Through strategic collaborations with industrial and energy developers across the continent, we have set in motion a virtuous cycle, fostering economic growth and sustainable job creation” stated, Macky Sall, President of Senegal.
The initiative of the Kenyan President underscores the importance of green industrialization to harness the African continent’s vast and high-quality resources to secure prosperity for all. Attendees at the event also stressed that Africa’s green industrialization is critical for the achievement of the world’s collective climate ambitions.
COP28 President, Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, lauded the initiative as an opportunity to elevate the ambition of the COP28 Presidency’s Clean Energy program launched at the Africa Climate Summit. “The UAE not only wants to support countries’ green industrialization: we want populations in those countries to have access to high-quality jobs and opportunities. This is the spirit of green industrialization.” He further emphasized that the challenge the African continent faces is not in the scarcity of resources but in the scarcity of “action”.
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Participants at the event witnessed the strong progress of the USD 4.5 billion Africa Green Investment initiative, launched during this year’s African Climate Summit in Nairobi. Spearheaded by UAE’s Masdar, AMEA Power, Abu Dhabi Fund for Development, and Etihad Credit Insurance, with Africa50 as the strategic partner, this initiative has already allocated nearly USD 2.6 billion for green energy projects in 8 countries that will add about 1.8 GW of clean power to the African grid.
During the event, attendees learned of the UAE-led initiative’s project pipeline. The Initiative’s pa