Africa has 45pc global clean energy potential

IN a speech at the 29th Conference of the Parties (COP 29), Dr Akinwumi Adesina, President and Chairman of the Boards of Directors of the African Development Bank Group, highlighted Africa's vast natural capital.

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Entitled "Measuring the Green Wealth of Nations: Natural Capital and Economic Productivity in Africa," he said Africa had over 40 per cent of the world's clean energy potential, 65 per cent of the world's uncultivated arable land, 25 per cent of global biodiversity, and 20 per cent of the world's tropical rainforest area.

The Congo Basin is the second largest carbon lung in the world after the Amazon forest, storing 29 billion tons of carbon and absorbing about 1.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year. Africa's forests account for 26 per cent of all carbon sequestration in forests worldwide.