Energise Africa at London Climate Action Week

London Climate Action Week 2022 took place In venues around London and virtually from 25 June To 3 July. It was a global moment, seeking to find answers to the burning questions of how we can collectively deliver the promises of COP26 in the context of a global recovery and shape ambition and adaptation action towards COP27.

This year,  the focus of LCAW was on how we can deliver on our shared Glasgow promises in a time of crisis with a particular focus on the links between climate action and the Russia-Ukraine war, the cost of living crisis and rising inflation.

The week had four overarching themes, which cut across sectors to encourage collaboration, but for the first time, this year, there was also a focus on a region outside of London and with COP27 approaching in Egypt, LCAW 2022 worked with African partners to support global diplomatic efforts.  

The Africa focus at LCAW was in recognition of the fact that African countries are disproportionately affected by climate change and African voices are crucial for driving green, fair and resilient development globally. With 12 events planned for Africa@LCAW this year, we saw this as an ideal opportunity to host a panel discussion on the power of UK retail investment in Africa’s low carbon future.

The Energise Africa event was held on 30 June as an interactive webinar, where an excellent panel, including representatives from Good Energies Foundation, African Venture Philanthropy Alliance and MyAgro joined Energise Africa for an insightful discussion and to take questions from the audience. You can watch a recording of the event here.

During the webinar, the panel discussed how a blended finance investment model is fundamental to helping catalyse funding into some of the emerging low-carbon sectors in Africa and that there is a huge unmet demand for this type of model. We also spoke about the need to innovate and learn quickly about potential blended finance instruments in order to mitigate currency and credit risk to maximise investment into these vital sectors.

The Energise Africa platform uses blended finance to leverage retail capital and accelerate investment in renewable energy and sustainable development across the region. And the panel discussed how this innovative model is helping achieve the SDGs in Africa and the ways this success can be replicated for other sectors and markets. 

As the talks progressed, a very interesting statement was made, that many countries in Africa are now reaching a “crisis of success” where traditional donor models are no longer seen as relevant, and while commercially viable solutions to Africa's development challenges are emerging, they need more patient capital and innovative financing solutions if they are to succeed.

We heard from Stephanie from Good Energies Foundation, which has been at the forefront of innovation and de-risking of investment through grants and match-funding to help crowd in private capital, but she highlighted how the funds they provide are limited. This means that it is really time that the big players, and especially DFIs to start to engage with what needs to be done to channel more of the £billions in the UK alternative finance market into climate and SDG finance solutions in Africa.  

Shah from Energise Africa explained how we have successfully blended finance from investors and institutions to leverage retail capital and accelerate investment in renewable energy and sustainable development. We discussed how this innovative model is helping achieve the SDGs in sub-Saharan Africa and the ways this success can be replicated for other sectors and markets. 

The discussion was a great opportunity for us to showcase the successful model Energise Africa has pioneered to mobilise retail investment from people across the UK to support sustainable businesses that are tackling climate change and improving lives in sub-Saharan Africa and beyond. 

We very much enjoyed this worthwhile discussion as part of London Climate Action Week and were pleased to have a good turnout and plenty of engaging questions from our audience. Here is the link to watch the recording and we hope you enjoy it too. 

When investing with Energise Africa, capital is at risk and returns are not guaranteed.