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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.