Africa has faced its first economic recession in 25 years due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) said in a report.
The March 2021 report, Building Forward for an African Green Recovery Report, highlighted Africa’s bold post-Covid-19 pandemic recovery strategy.
It seeks to bolster the continent’s valiant quest for the realisation of the sustainable development goals (SDGs), attainment of the Paris Agreement’s climate change targets and achievement of the prosperity objectives articulated in Africa’s Agenda 2063.
The impact of the pandemic is compounded by climate impacts on economic output projected to cause annual losses of between three and five percent of GDP by 2030 under a business-as-usual scenario, according to the report.
It called for the uptake of nature-based solutions at national, regional and continental levels to inspire policies that preserve global commons.
‘For us to build back better, we need a lot of energy. The conversation in Africa is about substituting expensive bad fossil fuels with something that is cleaner and cheaper’, UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Secretary of the UNECA, Vera Songwe, said.
‘We have to replace fuel-based energies with green and sustainable ones’.
Songwe noted that with the impact of Covid-19 and its associated economic contractions and impact of the climate crisis, Africa’s focus on recovery was even more essential.
According to Songwe, there is an urgent need to roll out financial aid packages and invest in sustainable infrastructure to cushion the expected transition into the green and blue economy.
Songwe further underscored the need for a paradigm shift from resource-heavy and inefficient models of production and consumption that incentivise overexploitation, to models that are centred on sustainable use of resources.
In his remarks, African Union’s Commissioner for Trade and Industry, Albert Muchanga, welcomed the launch of the report.
‘The launch of the report and case studies has come at an opportune moment as the AU will work together with the ECA and other partners in fulfilling the objective of an African post-pandemic green recovery’, the AUC commissioner said.
‘Africa has immense renewable energy potential to boost its economic growth through adoption of cleaner energy pathways which are a boost to adaptation and climate mitigation’.
Source: UNECA
Photo source: UNECA