5 December 2011

The World Wildlife Fund and the African Development Bank announced the progress made in the partnership between them that was signed in July 2011 to promote green growth at the climate change conference, or COP, in Durban.

The overall aim of the joint venture is to promote knowledge-sharing between developing countries to further the cause of sustainable economic growth, or green growth.

Cutting the price of energy is one way to fight poverty, the delegates at the climate change conference, or COP 17, heard in Durban.

Around 1.5 billion people around the world do not have electricity because they are not connected to a power grid.  That means those people have no choice to resort to far costlier fuels, which can also be more dangerous.

As a continent of mainly developing economies, Africa can least afford to lose percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP)  to climate change. Where GDP is built on unsustainable growth, there could be adverse economic effects in the future, said the moderator Buchizya Mseteka, adding that this made mitigation and adaptation both an environmental and an economic imperative.

Africa as a continent suffers a huge lack of power.  Most people in sub-Saharan Africa have little or no access to affordable, easily-available electricity.  Even a developed country like South Africa is plagued by power cuts.

The African Development AfDB (AfDB) is at the leading edge in putting climate change adaptation into the mainstream of development.  The AfDB is also on the forefront in creating tools to climate proof AfDB-financed investments, and to mainstream climate change adaptation into development.

When the much-praised guide to climate science The Atlas of Climate Change was first launched, the late Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Wangari Maathai, wrote in her foreword: “We have come a long way on climate change, from ignorance and denial to policy recommendations and global negotiations. The Atlas of Climate Change should inspire us all to action.”