Matsi Modise, Africa Lead at the World Climate Foundation, highlights Africa’s pivotal role in shaping global climate finance. She stresses the importance of blended finance, local currency mechanisms and sustainability-linked funding to de-risk projects and ensure measurable outcomes. Public-private partnerships, regional collaboration and cross-sector engagement between large corporations and small businesses are seen as vital to accelerating Africa’s green economy.
Modise urges Africa to move from being a recipient of climate finance to defining investable opportunities and managing risks itself. She calls for practical action over rhetoric, emphasising the need to build sustainable businesses and pipelines. Events like Africa’s Green Economy Summit provide crucial platforms for collaboration, while carbon markets offer opportunities to empower women and youth. Her message is clear: Africa’s time is now.
My name is Matsi Modise. I’m the Africa lead at the World Climate Foundation. It’s one of the biggest climate action platforms and climate investment platforms globally. We focus on connecting and bridging the gap between emerging markets and Nordic institutional investors.
I met the World Climate Foundation a few years ago. I attended one of their conferences in London, the Climate Investment Summit. And four years ago, I remember thinking, “wow, this is quite a platform.” Climate is quite an agenda in the rest of the world, except for in Africa or in South Africa, where I come from. And I was quite intrigued by how every other panel and everybody was engaging and speaking about how beautiful Africa is, what the opportunities are, our biodiversity. And I was probably one of the few Africans in that room. And I felt that, hang on, there’s something not right about this picture. And I was bold enough to raise it and go to the founders of the World Climate Foundation and bring up this great gap that we have where everyone is talking about Africa, but Africa is not at the table.
So that’s how my journey with the World Climate Foundation started, where our founder, Jens Nielsen, was very excited about the prospects of including Africa in the engagements and within the functionings of the organisation. So since then, we’ve been able to create Africa Leading, which is one of the elements of the organisation I lead. We have an office in Brazil and various other emerging markets.
So I’m quite excited that I’m part of this dynamic team at the World Climate Foundation. And how do we bridge that gap between the Global South and the Global North and how do we catalyse climate finance?
There are many different ways of skinning a cat, as they would say. And I believe the same goes for finding innovative ways of financing or market mechanisms. The ones that stood out for me at AGES was how important blended finance is: using public and philanthropic funding to de-risk projects. I also believe that ensuring that we are able to prepare our projects to a point where investors in the rest of the world are able to say I they see this as an opportunity. I see how we have been able to collaborate and de-risk. And I reckon that putting together blended finance mechanisms is one of the options.
Green and sustainability linked finance is also quite key, particularly mechanisms that connect capital directly to measurable climate, energy and developmental outcomes. So every country on the African continent has its own unique value propositions, its own unique challenges, and being able to assure that the climate finance that we are structuring does solve for the problem, not necessarily taking a bullet approach is very, very important.
And local currency financing, I think also came out quite strongly. In that how do we ensure that the projects are actually adding value, are creating the returns instead of if we are going to price them around international currency. So I think localised financing and ensuring that if we are putting together the project and we are valuing it in a manner that makes sense locally, it adds value for the country or the region locally, it’s quite important. So I think those are some of the key things that came out of the conference.
I would say public private partnerships are quite important if we are talking about cross-regional, cross-sector partnerships. So ensuring that governments are creating the right policies, are creating the right environments for private capital to be deployed and to also show returns, not just from a monetary perspective, but from a social perspective, is important. Partnerships between African markets and global capital providers. I think understanding the particular African market that you’re in. West Africa, East Africa, North Africa or Southern Africa are very, very different environments. So partnerships between the various African markets and global capital, but understanding that Africa is not just one place. It has its own uniqueness. If you come to Southern Africa, if you go to West Africa, they are very unique opportunities, but then there’s also very unique opportunities and challenges.
I would also say cross-sector collaborations between large corporations and small businesses. Big companies are able to provide opportunities for small businesses. But it is important that small businesses are able to understand that procurement is going green. What does it mean to be a greener business or sustainable business? So that cross-sector collaboration, but also understanding the role of the small businesses, but then taking them from a point of a small business that might not necessarily understand why it matters for them to be sustainable. Why it matters for them to have sustainable practices and being able to perhaps nurture that process, helping small businesses calculate what is their carbon footprint, helping small businesses understand that they need to have environmental policies in place. So there is a big opportunity in that regard.
And then I would also say regional collaboration matters. African markets by themselves can be quite small, but if we act as a region, so instead of South Africa doing things for itself, it then cooperates with Botswana, it cooperates with Zimbabwe, and we worked as a collective, I think having that collaboration does matter.
We have quite a big role to play, because at the end of the day, this is our African continent and this is the opportunity of our time. And I always say we might have missed a few opportunities in the past. How do we beneficiate our natural resources such as the minerals, such as the gold, but now we have an opportunity to beneficiate our own green economy as an African continent. So we need to move from being seen as primarily recipients of, let’s say, climate finance to helping shape how global climate finance is designed, helping it understand the risks associated. But then also, how do we manage those risks? Because these are the opportunities.
Also, Africa can help redefine what an investable climate opportunity looks like. We tend to adopt what the rest of the world says we should do, or what’s investable, or what our risk is. But I think as a continent, we need to redefine and define what those parameters are. We need to showcase how it is to avert those risks, because everybody tends to tell us that, if these are the implied risks for investing in Africa, this is the solution. Well, who else but Africans can find the risks, but then also be able to define how do we solve for those risks.
There’s also an opportunity to shift the conversation from climate finance as aid to climate finance as investments for economic opportunities and growth. Everyone is looking at the continent. We have a lot to offer. We have the most incredible biodiversity. We have all the natural resources and the forests. And so, how do we position ourselves as the assets that we have? How do we price our own assets? Because right now we’re not necessarily participating in how things are shaped and how things are being negotiated. I always say that everyone seems to have a plan for Africa, but Africa needs to have a plan for itself. So the East has a plan for Africa. So you had to go to China right now and ask, what is your plan for Africa? They can clearly and carefully articulate it if you go to the West and then ask them, is your plan for Africa? They can clearly articulate and are able to say that, but Africa as a collective, what is our plan as a continent to leverage the green economy, to leverage the transition, to leapfrog some of the technologies that we ourselves should be designing? So there is a lot. And I also feel that just talking about it is not enough. I really do feel that just convening and talking about it is not enough. We now have to start turning these relationships into investable pipelines, these relationships into partnerships and ultimately capital deployment.
Yes, I did say that we need to stop with the poetry. We have to focus on the plumbing. And what I meant by that is we talk a lot about climate, we talk a lot about nature, we talk a lot about how it’s an opportunity of our time. We convene at conferences and summits and we engage a lot around, yes, but climate is probably a big factor on the continent and the energy transition, the climate transition, it’s a big opportunity for our continent.
But we need to start focusing on the plumbing. And what I mean by plumbing is getting our hands dirty, figuring out what the challenges are, figuring out what the channels are in which we are able to ensure that we are building sustainable businesses that are able to leverage these opportunities and co-creating investment mechanisms that are fit for purpose on the African continent.
What I mean by plumbing: I just think when a plumber comes to a house because there’s a problem, they’re able to fix it. They’re not going to talk about how it smells, right? I mean, we know what it smells like, but they’re actually going to get their hands dirty and start figuring things out and solving the problem. So yes, we love the poetry of the African opportunity in the climate and the nature space and the climate and nature era. But we now need to focus on getting our hands dirty, coming together, figuring out the problems and let it be fit for purpose. We shouldn’t just talk about it. We should actually do something about it.
So AGES as an event is quite important for the green economy. My first encounter and exposure to a convening of various stakeholders that are discussing climate change and the climate opportunity, but also focusing around how do we, we have all these targets for 2030, we have all these great targets for 2050, but how do we come together and how do we finance this transition?
So when I attended this great conference a few years ago in London, I realised that there is a lot that’s happening in the rest of the world, but it’s still not being said and it’s not being done on the African continent. So a conference like AGES for me is very, important because this is how we as African stakeholders come together, identify the opportunities, identify the risks and the challenges but then also collectively come up with the solutions.
This is how we get to identify the different roles that we all have to play. Whether you are the innovator that’s coming up with great ideas that have to scale, whether you are the financiers of small scale projects, farming initiatives in small rural areas of Africa, or huge industrial renewable energy initiatives. How do we finance those? Because as much as we can say Africans must come up with their own solutions. We also have to say, how do we collaborate as Africans? Because I do believe that we have great strong institutions on the continent. But how do we collaborate with institutions in the Nordics? How do we collaborate with institutions in other parts of the world, whether it’s the East or the West? So AGES for me is a great platform where we also identify that this is where Africa is going. Being able to articulate what our dreams, our aspirations are, and also being able to empower each other with how do we collectively solve for the challenges, but then how do you also ensure that the next generations of Africans are aware what the Green Revolution is?
You know, I speak about the Green Revolution. There was the Industrial Revolution, but Africans cannot miss out on the Green Revolution. But if they don’t understand what it is, they don’t understand what it takes, then we are also going to miss this era of opportunities. I think platforms such as AGES are fundamental to enabling us as a collective and the various stakeholders to come together and collectively solve for the issues that we might have, but then take advantage of the opportunities.
Yes, carbon markets are very important, especially for women and young people. It’s important for us to leverage it as it’s part and parcel of the Green Revolution. I think it’s part and parcel of the green transition. It’s part and parcel of what are levers of success? What are the levers of opportunities? And how do we uplift youth and women?
We have to understand that this is what exists. You do better when you know better. That’s what my mother would always say. So it’s important that you do your research. That’s why I was curious enough to go to London four years ago and attend Climate Week. They have one of the biggest Climate Action Weeks. I think given where things are geopolitically, everybody gravitated towards the London Climate Action Week. And it’s probably one of the biggest. And so that curiosity led me to then pivoting in my own space and being able to identify that this is a new environment or a new era that I want to champion as an African. This is a new era. This is a new environment that I want to be able to know who are the global players, who are the global best practices, and how do I collaborate with them? How do I learn from them? But also importantly, then coming home and saying, well, these are the platforms. Why don’t I bring something such as the World Climate Foundation to our African continent? Because my main and key role was how do I bring Africans to the table? How do they have a voice? How do they articulate their opportunities? How do they showcase our own best practices, our own initiatives on the ground? How do we demystify the whole element of risk, Africa being a risky continent?
There is a fair amount of laziness. The more I engage with my fellow stakeholders in the Global North, there’s a bit of a laziness around understanding Africa and understanding the opportunities, but then also risk is risk. Yes, there are some elements about the continent that can make things a bit difficult, right? I spoke earlier on about the currency and being able to price your projects with localised currency so that when you actualise the value, it’s not distorted, right? So young Africans feel that. And it’s not a bad thing to look at common factors that are global, but localisation is equally important.
So yes, to speak about women and young people, you do better when you know better. Have that curiosity. And it’s important that we educate our young females. We educate females in general; even just in your own community. What can you do to contribute towards this green transition? What can you do that emphasises sustainable practices? Whether it’s waste collection, whether it’s looking around and saying, hey, young people who don’t have opportunities, why don’t we come together and look around and say, there is waste everywhere where we are. What can we do to ensure that the environment around us is conducive. How do we come together on a daily basis, wake up and say, we’re going to collect the waste, we’re going to understand how waste collection happens and how can we monetise that? So it doesn’t have to be the big industrial things that we do to ensure that young women and women in general participate in. It’s how do we bring it to a community level in their own understanding, in their own environments and creating immediate solutions that would be able to actualise and realise the benefits of a better environment for all.
My final thoughts are around the emphasis on Africa’s time as a continent. We have the greatest of opportunities to empower ourselves, to empower our continent, to ensure that we beneficiate the processes within the transition, to understand the transition and to be part of it, because everyone is talking about Africa.
But now Africa needs to come together and have one voice where we are able to say, this is Africa’s greatest opportunity because we have what it takes. We have the skills, we have the talents, we are able to club together the resources that we have, and we’re also able to collaborate with the rest of the world. But identifying that we have our own story, we share our own narrative.
And this is our opportunity, and this is how we want to engage and how we want to collaborate. So Africa’s time is now. As Shakira said, it’s time for Africa.
Africa's Green Economy Summit connects industry professionals and organisations to information and each other in a carefully curated live environment. Its purpose is to support in mobilising investments for green projects to scale up and industrialisation, which will have a significant impact on environmental sustainability and economic growth.
.webp)
.webp)
.webp)
.webp)
