AfDB President Akinwumi Adesina will lead a delegation of senior management and experts to join the African Union Commission, the UN Economic Commission for Africa and the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency as host of the Africa Pavilion at COP27.

The pavilion will provide the space for Africa to meet and strategise on how to defend its common positions and interests at the conference.

The bank will use its presence to enhance strategic partnerships to mobilise new financial resources and shape the global narrative on critical issues such as just energy transition, nature-based solutions, adaptation finance and loss and damage.

Delegates will highlight the bank’s significant commitments towards greening Africa’s growth, including the commitments of the African Development Fund, its concessional lending arm to low-income African countries.

They will also reaffirm the bank’s request for more concessional financing from the IMF Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) to deliver green growth and sustainable development faster and at scale, the statement read.

The bank will also showcase, through an array of its programmes with high returns on investments, Africa’s potential to drive global emissions down and grow sustainably.

The bank noted in their statement that Africa is home to 65 percent of remaining arable land in the world, a young labour force and abundant renewable energy (10 TW solar, 350 GW hydropower, 150 GW wind, and 15 GW geothermal). Meanwhile, the Africa Continental Free Trade Area connects countries with a combined GDP of $3.3 trillion, it added.

Other senior members of the bank delegation will include Kevin Kariuki, vice president for power, energy, climate and green growth; Beth Dunford, vice president for agriculture, human and social development; Kevin Urama, acting chief economist and vice president for economic governance and knowledge management; and Solomon Quaynor, vice president for private sector, infrastructure and industrialisation.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) will also participate at COP27 with a vision to finance climate action.

Egypt has reiterated on more than an occasion that it hopes to turn climate pledges into actions on the ground during COP27, which will be held under the theme “together for implementation.”

Egypt’s vision to advance climate action at COP27 involves collaboration between governments, private sector, civil society and other stakeholders to focus on the issues of adaptation, mitigation, loss and damage and climate finance.

The upcoming climate conference is expected to feature the participation of more than 120 heads of state and over 40,000 other participants, the highest number ever for a climate summit on the continent.

Also, more than 3,000 journalists and media professionals from around the world will cover the conference.