Building resilient futures in Africa

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“You must treat the earth well.
It was not given to you by your parents.
It is loaned to you by your children.”
– A Gikuyu Proverb (Kenya)

In 1972, the UN General Assembly designated 5 June as World Environment Day. The first celebration, under the slogan “Only One Earth” took place in 1973. This year’s World Environment Day was held under the theme “Inspired by Nature. For Climate. For Our Future,” to raise awareness of environmental protection.

Somalia: Environmental decline and displacement

The African Union ’s Support and Stabilisation Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM) and the UN in Somalia jointly celebrated World Environment Day in Mogadishu. The Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission for Somalia (SRCC) and Head of AUSSOM, Amb. El-Hadji Ibrahima Diene, highlighted the link between environmental degradation in Somalia and insecurity and displacement. He called for stronger collaboration and greater participation of local community in climate action, advancing environmental protection, climate resilience and preserve the future generations in Somalia.

Ambassador Diene added: “We need strong cooperation among governments, institutions, communities, private sector and all international actors and partners. Youth and women play a critical role in protecting the environment and in climate adaptation.”

Bridging gap between ambition and capital

Throughout the week-long London Climate Action Week forum this month, African nations and development institutions pushed an agenda to bridge the gap between policy ambition and actual capital deployment across the continent. Specific key developments focused on:

• Methane action: Nigeria officially joined the UK-led declaration on drastically reducing methane emissions in the global fossil fuel sector at a high-level gathering at St James’s Palace.
• Investment summits: Nigeria and Rwanda hosted dedicated climate investment events in London to pitch large-scale, bankable green projects—from clean energy infrastructure to nature finance—to global markets.
• Climate and health intersections: Global health advocates spotlighted the continent’s vulnerability by evaluating devastating, climate-induced outbreaks (such as past cholera crises caused by flooding) to urge better connection between African health systems and resilient water infrastructures

AfDB: GEF and the road to 2030

The African Development Bank reaffirmed its partnership with the Global Environment Facility (GEF) earlier this month, coinciding with the 8th GEF Assembly in Samarkand. Since 2007, the Bank has mobilised $4.8 billion in co‑financing alongside $521 million in GEF resources, supporting climate, biodiversity and land projects across Africa.

Results have included solar‑powered water systems in Mauritania, climate‑smart sanitation in The Gambia and electricity access for 220,000 people through blended finance. New initiatives in Benin, Burkina Faso, CAR, DRC, Liberia and São Tomé and Príncipe highlight Africa’s frontline role in climate resilience as GEF‑9 launches, aligning with the AfDB’s Ten‑Year Strategy.

Bankable projects

It is well-known that Africa contributes only a small share of global emissions yet faces severe climate threats and receives limited climate finance. One of the main challenges in solving this gap is the lack of investment-ready, bankable projects. Enter the Platform for Investment Support and Technical Assistance (PISTA), hosted by the UNDP Rome Centre and backed by Italy.

By providing targeted technical assistance and financial structuring support, PISTA helps governments and partners turn national climate priorities into credible, investable opportunities that can unlock public and private finance at scale. This year, six projects have been selected that together show what climate finance can look like when it is grounded in national priorities and designed for impact:

In Angola, grid expansion with solar power will reach 55,000 households; Côte d’Ivoire’s cocoa biomass plant will generate 76 MW of clean energy; across Senegal, Uganda and Tanzania, a regional initiative with public development banks will de‑risk and scale climate‑resilient lending to farmers by embedding climate‑risk analytics and insurance into core credit operations; Senegal’s electric taxi programme will replace 4,000 diesel vehicles; and Zanzibar’s fisheries initiative is strengthening blue‑economy livelihoods.

Pioneering renewable energy

Affordable renewable energy is the linchpin of Africa’s energy transition and its climate resilience strategy. It simultaneously addresses two urgent imperatives: closing the continent’s massive energy access gap and safeguarding ecosystems against climate change.

Two of this GEE edition’s featured interviews reflect the pioneering work being doing in the renewable energy space on the continent.

“We invest equity in renewable projects, mostly IPPs initially, and increasingly we are investing in C&I platforms across the continent,” says Patrick Kouame, AIIM’s Investment Director. “We’ve invested in close to 30 projects in terms of solar, wind and thermal. In South Africa, we’re the largest equity investor in the energy space. We’ve also invested in Nigeria, Mali and Ghana.”

He adds, “We’re looking into BESS, because storage is essential when you talk about renewables. We’re looking at on-grid and behind-the-meter as well. There are also some interesting projects coming up elsewhere on the continent, especially in the SAPP, given that’s a growing market.” [Watch the full interview here].

Energy transition: New roles

Eng. Mbiko Banda is a research lead at Africa GreenCo, the first private sector member of the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP). “We are currently spread across four different countries,” says Mbiko, “which include Zambia, South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe, where we do have the necessary trading licences and domestic licences. At the same time, we are emerging in the DRC market.”

She concurs that storage is vital in the renewable energy space: “Energy storage is emerging, quite established in some countries, but it is an emerging technology that’s going to facilitate the deployment of renewable energy, especially in Southern Africa. So the issue is how do we address storage problems in order to contribute to the renewable energy expansion as well as to feed into the grid in a different way.”

Eng. Banda adds: “We should think about an energy transition that should tackle each and every sector in a different way, defining roles for different stakeholders, including emerging roles that do not currently exist.” [Watch full interview].

 – This article first appeared in the Green Economy Express newsletter, published by Africa’s Green Economy Summit.