By Lateef Adegbite
For much of last June and now, Tony Elumelu, a business mogul and a well-known African Philanthropist has been shuttling between Nigeria and Europe to attend one international conference or the other in the interst of the African Continent.
One of such international conferences which he had attended as a New Global Financing Pact signing summit hosted by President Emmanuel Macron of France in Paris , the Capital. The Nigeria business mogul was said to have used the opportunity of the Summit to meet some of the movers and shakers of the global economy including world leaders and Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The Summit for a New Global Financing Signing Pact , which the Pan African Bank, United Bank for Africa , UBA , Chairman , had participated last June was said to have ‘’laid the ground work for a new financial system suited to the challenges of the 21st century and a system that will boost investments in green infrastructure and create solutions to climate vulnerability’’.
The most recent of such international Conferences attended by the Nigerian innovative investor and Chairman,UBA, was the Climate Finance Mobilisation forum in London, United Kingdom, UK.
Given the goals of the Paris agreement which requires unlocking private sector investments in an unprecedented speed and scale may have informed why he had attended the UK, climate finance mobilisation forum , which was said to have been attended by President Joe Biden of the North American country of the United States, US and other world Leaders.
Elumelu has every reason to attend the global climate Finance Mobilisation forum in UK, because ‘’it will help attract a new generation of capital to combat the world climate change’’. This is because the African Continent comprising of 55 countries and a population of about 1.3 billion people needs a just, fair , equal and a realistic strategy to address the inequalities that exists between the Continent and the rest of the world.
Eumelu , who is the most prominent advocates for equitable climate finance , appears o be leading other African Entrepreneurs , through the Elumelu foundations, according to informed sources is believed working round the clock ‘’to create sustainable climate solutions within the Continent’’.
The Leading African investor was said to have made the world leaders to understand that ‘’Africa has a significant energy deficit and must prioritize the provision of a mix of both traditional and renewable energy resource to address the deficit’’.
According to him, ‘’the emerging economies, particular, in Africa, will require ‘’an additional $1 trillion investment by 2023, to support a fair transition’’.Giving an insider information, he asserted that ‘’to mobilise this large scale of capital, the international Community needs to take bold actions and innovate new partnerships between public, private and philanthropic actors.
He had said that recent trends show a decrease in renewable investments in the emerging African and other developing economies. Elumelu, who could not hide his feelings noted that ‘’African’s green revolution requires an urgent, immediate and significant funding that is larger than the resources available to African governments and the private sector’’.
The UBA ,Chairman, may have repeatedly said it to the hearing of the world Leaders, including Biden of the US, and Rishi Sunak , Prime Minister of Britain, that ‘’African has contributed the least to today’s climate crisis but has continued to suffer an outsized impact of the climate change, which ought not to be.
Themulti-billionaire investor, who had represented the Africa’s private sector , was said to have been invited to the Climate Finance Mobilisation Forum, attended by King Charles III, of Britain, Biden , Sunak and other world Leaders , by Grant Sharps, UK, Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero and John Kerry , the US, Special Envoy on Climate. The invitation, according to diplomatic sources, was said to have come at the instance of the duo, King Charles III and Biden, the US, President.
Many believe that ‘’a net zero conversation on renewable energy that ignores, dismisses or underestimates the continent’s current reality does the people more harm than good’’. This may have informed why lumelu, had said that ‘’Climate Finance investment should deploy capital in a mix of on and off-grid solutions that are required to deliver affordable , reliable and accessible power in Africa’’.
He was said o to have insisted that Africans bear ‘’the harshest effects of the world climate crisis and are the least responsible for creating the crisis in the first place’’.
