Africa’s green hope

Trevor Manuel, South-African National Planning Commission minister, urged African nations to start identifying climate fund projects, in a speech Monday, 23rd of May.

The speech comes after Manuel has been named co-chair of a transitional committee. The group was set up to get the Green Fund, (an outcome from COP16, Cancun 2010) up and running by COP17 in Durban in December.

Mr. Manuel said that The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC’s) Green Climate Fund would offer African countries various opportunities for funding and that nations should think of viable projects for the new fund.

The fund that was set up to the benefit both industrialised countries and developing nations for climate mitigation and climate adaptation projects.  It was due to generate a hundred billion dollars for climate financing by 2020, including a “fast-start-finance” fund of thirty billion between 2010 and 2012.

Mr. Manuel had recently criticised the UN for not following through with fund distribution which he claimed was due to red tape and was “a headache for those who want products on the table". He noted that out of the 30 billion dollars promised, only seven were distributed and called for "adequate financial and technical support".

Mr. Manuel stated the difficulty of realising the funds: “Sometimes we Africans don’t push hard enough”; Referring to occasions when international funds were present but were not used due to a lack of proposed projects. Manuel stressed the importance of cross-border projects in order to encourage regional development. However, this requires infrastructure uniformity between countries: "We [Africa] have pretty good infrastructure in parts, but pretty knackered … in others," he said. However he reiterated that: “Better connections between us can be highly productive and profitable for all of us.”

Manuel believes that regional collaboration because as individual country resources are diminishing. Commenting on South Africa’s strained natural resources he said:"Already we use 30% of the total water available, and at 40% we will reach the limits of what we can feasibly and sustainably use."

The speech had gained extra significance when Manuel, a former finance minister, became in recent days a surprising candidate for the head of the International Monetary Fund. If elected he would be the first African head of the organisation.

Mr. Manuel’s speech highlighted Africa’s potential for financial growth under a changing climate policy regime.

World Economic Forum | Flickr