Think tank, UK varsity to show Africans how to tap into climate financing
The Africa Centre for Technology Studies and the University of Sussex have entered into a partnership to show professionals and policymakers in Africa how to tap into climate financing. PHOTO | COURTESY
What you need to know:
- Dr Rob Byrne from the University of Sussex said the goal of the model was to ensure that more African countries are able to use it to access climate change funding.
A local climate think tank has partnered with a British university to drive policies to tackle climate change.
The Africa Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS) and the University of Sussex developed a model to enable African countries to tap into the Green Climate Fund (GCF), the global fund for innovators tackling climate change.
The model, dubbed Climate Relevant Innovation-systems Builders (CRIBs), allows professionals and policymakers within the climate change field to develop viable funding proposals.
Dr Rob Byrne from the University of Sussex, who was one of the lead researchers, said the goal of the model was to ensure that more African countries are able to use it to access funding.
“Previously, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) investments favoured the developed countries than the developing nations where climate change has had a huge impact on populations. Africa only got two percent of the clean investments while countries like China took up over 50 percent,” said Mr Byrne.
RECOGNISED MODEL
The CRIBs approach is recognised by the Green Climate Fund board as a mechanism that would enable effective engagement with different stakeholders for climate funding.
“The CRIBs approach for climate financing seeks to build capacity of governments, institutions and policy in Sub-Sahara Africa on climate financing,” said Dr Joanes Atela, the head of climate resilient economies at ACTS.
The CRIBs model has attracted the attention of the African Union and now ACTS and its experts have been invited to help spread the adoption of the model to different regional blocs within the continent.
“In August, a high-level meeting of the AU has invited ACTS to further engage on these discussions,” said Mr Atela.
STEM REJECTIONS
Mr Atela and Mr Byrne were speaking at the end of a two-week regional meeting to train leading climate change experts and innovators from Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
Mr Peter Odhengo, an advisor to the government of Kenya on climate-related policies, said most of the funding proposals for climate change projects are rejected because they lack critical elements stipulated by the GCF board.
“There are six investment criteria that most proposals lack which means they are dead on arrival and thus cannot be funded. Our doors are open for the various stakeholders seeking clarifications on these issues,” said Mr Odhengo.
