Closing Remarks by the Director for Infrastructure and Energy
Transcription
Closing Remarks by the Director for Infrastructure and Energy
AFRICAN UNION UNION AFRICAINE UNIÃO AFRICANA P. O. Box 3243, Addis Ababa, ETHIOPIA Tel.: (251-11) 5525849 Fax: (251-11) 5525855 Website: www.africa-union.org Closing Remarks for the Director for Infrastructure and Energy Mr. Aboubakari Baba-Moussa Africa Climate Resilient Infrastructure Summit Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 29 April, 2015 (The Director to give a 10-minute remark) Honourable Ministers; Distinguished Representatives and Delegates from the International, Public and Private Organizations; Distinguished Representatives and Delegates from Development Institutions, Development Partners and Member States; Distinguished Experts; Ladies and Gentlemen: All Protocols Observed: 1. On behalf of the Commissioner for infrastructure and Energy and on behalf of the African Union Commission, I would like to once again express my gratitude to all the participants for attending this special and very important event for Africa - "Africa Climate Resilient Infrastructure Summit”. 2. I would also like to extend my gratitude to Entico Events and all the sponsors and organisers of this important Summit, for all their efforts in ensuring the success of this event. 3. We at the African Union Commission are very happy with the discussions and presentations at this Summit, as we strongly believe that there is a crucial need to ensure climate change resilience in developing Africa's infrastructure. As we are all aware, Africa is currently at the stage of building its infrastructure both at the national and regional levels, which are all geared towards meeting Africa's development agenda. 4. Our vision at the African Union Commission is to ensure the implementation of Sustainable Development in Africa, as stated in the Agenda 2063 vision, which involves addressing Africa's development challenges including poverty reduction and jobs creation, expansion of modern energy and healthcare services, etc. We also believe that developing Africa's infrastructure both at the national and regional levels, will be important in ensuring a Sustainable future for Africa. 5. But at the same time, climate change poses significant risks to the continued development efforts in Africa. The discussions over the last three days have highlighted that climate change is already impacting negatively on key sectors in Africa including agriculture and food security, infrastructure, water supply, transport and energy, amongst others. 6. To address the climate change problem in Africa, there is a vital need to mainstream climate change into development policies, which will provide opportunities for designing climate-resilient and low carbon development pathways for Africa. The benefits of following a low carbon and climate-resilient development in Africa include meeting our development challenges while also adapting to, and mitigating the impacts of climate change at the same time. Distinguished Experts and Delegates: Ladies and Gentlemen: 7. This Summit has highlighted key areas for Africa to strengthen in order to address the twin challenges of infrastructure development and climate change. For Africa, the messages we have for climate-proofing our infrastructure include: i. Integrating climate-change policies into planning and implementation processes. ii. Repositioning current policies to stimulate adoption of climate change strategies and opportunities in our institutional frameworks, and financial and capital markets. iii. Introduction and promotion of innovative and climate financing initiatives as well as mobilising private sector participation. iv. Enhancing technical capacity building that ensures technical innovations, and technology transfer and adoption. v. Informed decision-making through awareness creation, and research and development. 8. Most importantly for Africa, there are huge opportunities to integrate climate change resilience into its infrastructure development plans, since the continent is just beginning to build its own infrastructure. Although we are aware that climate-proofing of our infrastructures will add significant economic costs to our development goals, it provides a cost-effective opportunity in the long-run while also ensuring environmental and social benefits. 9. I believe that this Summit has given us another "wake-up" call to the realities and challenges facing Africa in terms of the impacts of Climate change on its current and future infrastructure. 10. Let me also use this opportunity to extend our gratitude to the World Bank in collaboration with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, for producing this excellent report on "Enhancing the Climate Resilience of Africa's Infrastructure". We believe that the Report underscores the importance of mainstreaming climate change into infrastructure development in Africa, focusing on the power (hydropower) and water sectors. We believe that the highlights of the findings in this work are crucial for developing appropriate measures to address climate change issues in sensitive sectors in Africa. The main conclusions from the work will also be important to the PIDA programme. 11. We hope to continue our collaboration with the World Bank, and other African and International organizations and partners in developing frameworks, mobilizing finances and building technical capacities in ensuring the integration of climate resilience into infrastructure development in Africa. 12. I would like to once again thank everyone here for attending this important Summit, and most importantly for their continuing efforts in addressing Africa's development agenda. 13. I wish you all a pleasant journey back home. I thank you all for your kind attention.