Africa-Press – Angola. The President of the Republic, João Lourenço, chaired this Saturday, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, the High-Level Forum on the Great Green Wall of Southern Africa initiative, with a focus on mitigating environmental phenomena in region.
With the motto “expanding an African ambition to solve the world’s most pressing issues”, the project promotes the integration of member countries on environmental issues, such as the fight against desertification, soil degradation and food insecurity.
In his statement, João Lourenço considered that the region has great potential to contribute to a sustainable and prosperous future, taking into account its growing young population.
He announced that, under the presidency of Angola, in 2024, SADC will invest in human and financial capital, as a catalyst for sustainable industrialization in the southern part of the continent.
Flanked by the President of Zimbabwe, Emerson Mnagagwa, the Angolan Head of State said that with the SADC Great Green Wall initiative the region will gain momentum, as there is great potential to attract investments in favor of the environmental cause.
He recalled that it was approved by the SADC Ministers of Environment and Natural Resources in 2015, and progress had been made in developing implementation strategies for the initiative with most members finalizing their national action plans.
On the sidelines of COP 28, he called on member countries to show a strong political commitment to improving regional integration, with a view to cooperating more in different sectors.
Financing
As acting president of SADC, he asked partners for more funding to trigger concrete actions on the ground before the next Summit of Heads of States.
He made it known that panoramic financing studies indicate that Africa needs around 277 billion dollars annually to meet climate goals for 2030.
He explained that the Southern African region has the largest financing gap in absolute terms, although the case varies from country to country.
African prospects for 2023, he stressed, are terrible, as Angola alone has climate financing needs of US$44 billion for 2021-2025 to stimulate its green growth agenda.
He added that “the indicative US$27 billion for the implementation of the SADC Great Green Wall Initiative is not close to the financing needs in the region, therefore we need to increase our budget”.
In addition to this speech, João Lourenço read his national declaration as Head of State invited to the COP 28 World Climate Action Summit.
Today he met with his Malagasy counterpart, Andry Rajoelina, and received the Prime Minister of São Tomé and Príncipe, Patrice Trovoada, in audience.
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