UN calls for Africa's green dawn

Africa has everything it takes to become a "renewable superpower", United Nations head Antonio Guterres said yesterday, as he called for greater investment in green energy across the resource-rich continent.

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Yokohama -

Guterres spoke at a three-day development conference in Japan attended by African leaders, where Tokyo is offering itself as an alternative to China as African nations reel from a debt crisis exacerbated by Western aid cuts, conflict and climate change.

"We must mobilise finance and technology, so that Africa's natural wealth benefits African people, we must build a thriving renewables and manufacturing base across the continent," Guterres said at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD).

"Green power in Africa lowers energy costs, diversifies supply chains and accelerates decarbonisation for everyone."