Global efforts to tackle climate change are intrinsically tied to building new sustainable infrastructure, energy systems and economies. That’s why during last week’s COP22 climate talks in Marrakech, Morocco, the Climate Investment Funds and the African Development Bank partnered to share lessons from their collective experience.
The No Risk, No Reward session focused on the role of de-risking investment to enable groundbreaking renewable energy projects in Morocco and Sub-Saharan Africa. Held in the Africa Pavilion – appropriate given this summit has been regularly referred to as ‘Africa’s COP’ – the event was a standing room only occasion.
As the temperature in the packed room rose and people scrambled to get a seat, the CIF's Mafalda Duarte welcomed the audience and the distinguished speakers including Mustapha Bakkoury, President of MASEN (Morocco’s renewable energy company), Thomas Silberhorn, German State Secretary for Economic Cooperation, Simon Ngure, the Director of KenGen (Kenya’s largest electrical company), Laura Tuck, the World Bank’s Vice President for Sustainable Development and Alex Rugamba, the African Development Bank’s Director for Energy, Environment and Climate Change.
"Global efforts to tackle climate change are intricately linked with building a new sustainable energy future." Mafalda Duarte
“I don’t think I need to tell anyone who is here today that we have a huge challenge ahead of us,” said Mafalda Duarte, inaugurating the session. “2016 marks a year that, once again, broke temperature records. Global efforts to tackle climate change are intricately linked with building a new sustainable energy future.”
Mafalda Duarte also told the audience not to be discouraged by a challenging political environment: “When we started in 2008 with the CIF, it was the year of the financial crisis. Regardless, we worked together and accomplished a lot.”
For a full report of the event, read this article.