United Nations regional body the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) deputy executive secretary Hanan Morsy has called for investment in climate-smart development for Africa to achieve an economic transformation amid economic and environmental challenges.

“Climate-smart development in Africa is the only development model that will unleash the continent’s potential to achieve its development aspirations,” Morsy commented at the opening of the 2022 African Economic Conference, on December 9, in Balaclava, Mauritius.

The three-day conference is being held under the theme “Supporting climate-smart development in Africa”.

Prefacing her remarks that African economies were facing crises in the form of the Covid-19 pandemic, geopolitical tensions sparked by the war in Ukraine, and climate change, Morsy said Africa risked reversing progress int he achievement of some of the Sustainable Development Goals and the aspirations of the African Union’s Agenda 2063.

Noting that African countries were the most vulnerable to climate change, while also contributing the least to global greenhouse-gas emissions, Morsy remarked that Africa needs to close huge development gaps by investing substantially in climate-vulnerable key sectors such as energy, agriculture, transport, water and cities.

Research shows that the yearly economic costs of extreme weather events in Africa are projected at between $45-billion to $50-billion by 2040.

“The continent needs trillions of dollars to close huge development gaps,” Morsy noted, pointing out that Africa, for example, needs investments of up $170-billion a year for infrastructure development.

Also, nationally determined contributions to climate action (NDCs) submitted by African countries would require close to $3-trillion to implement.

“African countries need support to translate their NDCs into bankable investment plans that can attract financing from the private sector,” Morsy said, emphasising that countries must address the policy and regulatory barriers to enable investments in renewables at the country level.

The ECA says it has supported member countries to realise climate-smart development, through an array of projects like facilitating just energy transition plans, improving mainstreaming of climate resilience into budgetary processes, enhancing debt sustainability, and developing carbon markets.

Officially opening the conference, Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth warned that climate change was a threat to Africa’s socio-economic development with Small Islands Developing States particularly affected.

He cited expected increased climate change impacts witnessed in cyclones, dry spells and floods adversely affecting people’s lives,  livelihoods and national economies.