Decarbonisation efforts by both public and private sector partners (PPP) are admirable and accelerating but more can be achieved through better PPP cohesion, said Esha Mansingh, who heads up Corporate Affairs and Sustainability for DP World's sub-Saharan region.
Referring to the international treaty on climate change that was signed in Paris in 2016, Mansingh said that it's encouraging that governments in many of the African countries have very specific targets and objectives in line with the Paris Agreement.
“They certainly show up when it comes to various discussions around climate change and the need to decarbonise.”
She added that this was particularly the case with COP Conferences, the 'Conference of the Parties' gatherings, held annually for signatories to the Paris Agreement.
Speaking ahead of the Climate Change Act that President Cyril Ramaphosa signed into law on July 23, Mansingh’s views on increased PPP collaboration had a ring of prescient foresight to it.
“What we need to see more of is how do we bring it all together more effectively. If you take some of the better initiatives and you build on the learnings and good work that is already being done, mitigating the impacts of climate change for the various markets and countries in Africa can be accelerated.”
Mansingh added that it’s important to view sustainability goals through the prism of perspective, especially in determining the supply chain carbon footprint and how this can be mitigated if not entirely decarbonised.
“The private sector has very strict targets to meet in terms of their decarbonisation journey so they need everyone in their supply chain to play a part. Secondly, you can't rely on the private sector alone to make the necessary investments required for decarbonisation.”
As for investment, there is huge scope for improvement, she said, whether it’s in solar power generation, renewable fuel facilities, or infrastructure required to help drive decarbonisation.
“Infrastructure development spend should be a joint commitment from the private sector as well as governments. We need to walk that journey together,” Mansingh said.
Admittedly, funding is often a problem, and foreign direct investment and financing by African banks should be fast-tracked to realise decarbonisation initiatives.
A non-profit research organisation, Climate Policy Initiative, has found that Africa requires approximately $2.8 trillion from 2020 to 2030 to implement its Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement.
However, current annual climate finance flows to the continent are only around $30 billion, highlighting a substantial gap in funding.
- This is the first part of an interview conducted with Esha Mansingh. Next we look at SMMEs and decarbonisation.
