Explore how innovative bond structures, including green, blue, and wildlife conservation bonds, are being used to finance nature-positive outcomes. This workshop unpacks success stories and structuring tips from across the public and private sectors, from capital markets to conservation funds. How can these instruments be made investable, impactful, and scalable in Africa?

Debt-for-nature swaps, sustainability-linked loans, and impact-linked finance are gaining traction as tools to align sovereign and corporate debt with environmental outcomes. This session looks at how to tie financial performance to biodiversity impact, restructure debt with nature at its core, and attract investors seeking measurable ESG returns.

Biodiversity credits are emerging as a complementary tool to carbon markets, but how do they actually work? This session decodes the state of play around biodiversity credit methodologies, market demand, and verification systems with a spotlight on what’s happening in Africa and where the real opportunities lie.

Nature-based carbon credits remain one of the most powerful and contested tools for climate finance. This session explores how African projects can access both voluntary and compliance markets, navigate Article 6 opportunities, and ensure integrity, equity, and local benefit as demand for high-quality nature-based solutions grows.

A candid conversation with leading investors and financiers on where climate and nature finance is actually moving, where is it drying up, and how Africa can compete in a world of shrinking concessional flows and rising private capital.

This fireside chat explores how sovereign climate strategies and country platforms can mobilise capital, create local ownership, and turn national plans into investable pipelines.

As climate ambition rises across Africa, the focus is shifting to implementation. This high-level session puts the spotlight on African public investment actors: National green funds, development banks, and sovereign platforms that are using their own balance sheets to move green projects from ambition to execution. Grounded in real investment cases, the session asks: Who is putting capital to work, and how?

Panel discussion:

• How are public financial institutions (green banks, infrastructure funds) deploying capital to crowd in private investment?
• How are local and sub-national governments leading climate finance execution on the ground?
• What reforms or mechanisms are enabling investment readiness within AfCFTA frameworks?
• Where are public finance tools actively unlocking real deals, and what made them work?

Case Study 1 – Sustainable Aviation Fuels
Exploring how emerging SAF projects are advancing low-carbon aviation.

Case Study 2 - Maritime Pathways to Net Zero
Exploring Africa’s emerging green shipping corridors, from hydrogen to electrification, and their potential to transform trade competitiveness

Panel Debate - From Fuels to Zero Emissions: Scaling Transport Solutions Across Africa
A dynamic debate on Africa’s transport transition, balancing the immediate role of alternative fuels with the long-term shift to true zero-emission systems

• How are different sectors (aviation, shipping, freight) planning their roadmaps to zero emissions?
• What is the role of alternative fuels now vs. in the future?
• What pace of transition is realistic for African exporters under CBAM?

How can global asset owners, who predominantly deploy capital at scale through intermediated routes, find investable platforms in Africa that meet institutional standards and can absorb billions? This session convenes asset-owner groups, leading allocators, DFIs, and platform managers to discuss and co-design fit-for-purpose vehicles that can channel billions, at pace, into Africa’s transition, matching global capital with aggregated pipelines, strong governance and reporting, and the enabling architecture that gives ICs confidence.

Case Study 1 - Aquaculture
Is aquaculture Africa’s next big bet for food security and climate resilience?

Case Study 2 - Solar-Powered Irrigation & Agri-Energy
A firsthand look at how solar is empowering small-scale farmers and igniting Africa’s agricultural revolution.

Fireside Chat - AgriTech at the Forefront From digital finance and precision farming to smart logistics and youth-led startups, Aagritech is rewriting the rules of African food systems. This fireside chat explores how innovations can move from pilots to investable ventures and what it will take to scale them.

Unlocking investment at scale means confronting risk head-on. This session dives into how insurance, guarantees, and other derisking tools are helping to turn climate ambition into investable reality. From infrastructure and energy to nature and resilience, we explore how DFIs, donors, and insurers are making green projects bankable, and what it takes to scale these solutions across African markets.

• Which de-risking tools are turning interest into investment?
• How are guarantees unlocking capital for infrastructure and nature projects?
• What role can insurance play in climate adaptation and resilience?
• How do we make projects bankable in uncertain or emerging markets?
• Where are DFIs and donors leading, and what’s missing to scale?

Africa is undergoing two transformations at once: a green transition and a digital transition. But will booming data demand, AI adoption, and digital infrastructure threaten or accelerate climate action? This session explores the nexus of connectivity, energy, and innovation. From greening Africa’s data centres and mobile networks, to harnessing AI, digital MRV, and frontier tech as enablers of a climate-resilient economy.

Panel discussion:

• How can Africa seize the data centre investment boom?
• Which climate tech sectors are primed for scale and serious investment?
• Can digital MRV unlock the trust—and finance—climate solutions need?
• How can AI supercharge Africa’s green transition?

Africa’s climate-resilient future will be built on the infrastructure that powers its cities, industries, and trade. This plenary dives into the boldest strategies and most investable opportunities to deliver that transformation at scale. From clean mobility and green buildings to modern ports and climate-smart utilities, speakers will showcase how public and private leaders are breaking bottlenecks, mobilising capital, and fast-tracking delivery.

A snapshot of Africa’s infrastructure and financing landscape, highlighting the opportunities and urgency to fast-track climate-smart investment

Examine what makes Africa’s industrial green clusters succeed or fail and the lessons for building low-carbon competitiveness at scale

How can African cities fast-track green buildings, climate-smart utilities, clean mobility, and sustainable logistics? A dialogue with city leaders, investors, and DFIs on delivering livable, low-carbon cities at scale.

Case Study: Community Waste Management Models that Scale
Showcasing how low-income communities are managing waste, creating jobs, and generating income through zero-waste models, and what lessons this holds for other African cities.

Panel Discussion: Financing Africa’s Circular Economy
A dialogue between city leaders, investors, and innovators on how to move from fragmented pilots to bankable, continentwide solutions.

Africa’s renewable potential is vast, but deployment is slowed by grid constraints, wheeling challenges, and financing gaps. This session brings together leaders with hands-on experience in technical grid solutions, scalable wheeling models, and innovative financing to explore how these barriers are being overcome and what it takes to move renewable projects from promise to scale.

• How are grid bottlenecks being turned into innovative solutions?
• Are wheeling models scalable enough to unlock new markets?
• How can regulatory reforms accelerate renewable integration?
• In what ways are blended finance and anchor off-takers de-risking projects?
• What role are programs like South Africa’s ITP and RITFF playing in speeding integration?
• Should Africa prioritize country-level grids or regional expansion first?

This inspiring session explores how women leaders, entrepreneurs, and investors are transforming Africa’s green and blue economy. Through a dynamic fireside chat and interactive panel discussion, participants will gain insights into the regulatory frameworks, gender-responsive finance mechanisms, and innovative approaches that are enabling women-led climate projects to scale. Speakers will share trailblazing case studies from sectors, including renewable energy, agriculture, and coastal/marine initiatives, demonstrating how women are driving tangible impact.

The discussion will focus on:

• Gender-responsive finance and access to investment: How women-led projects can secure funding and scale effectively.
• Regulatory frameworks and policy: Enabling environments that support inclusive climate action.
• Leadership and entrepreneurship: Strategies for women to lead innovation and transform sectors.
• Innovation and scaling solutions: Highlighting practical examples of impactful projects and technologies.
• Embedding gender equity and inclusion: Practical approaches to mainstream inclusion across policies, governance, and value chains.

Can Africa turn water credits into its next big natural capital market: Driving investment, restoration, and community resilience? With Latin America already piloting successful frameworks, Africa has a unique opportunity to adapt these models into its own credible, scalable market. This session will unpack what it would take to pioneer an African water credit framework, from defining creditable actions to ensuring equitable benefit-sharing and attracting credible buyers.

What makes water credits different and why now for Africa?

• Can Africa develop a credible water credit market, and what would it take?
• How can lessons from Latin America be adapted to African contexts?
• Who will buy water credits, and what drives demand?
• How can communities benefit fairly from water finance mechanisms?
• What role can DFIs, governments, and corporates play in catalysing early projects?