As African leaders meet in Nairobi to discuss how the continent and its 1.3 billion people should engage on a climate crisis of which they are bearing disproportionate harm but did little to cause, new reports show banks worldwide are dumping trillions of dollars into heavily polluting industries in the Global South. This year, for the first time, global investments in solar energy outstripped oil, but just 2% of global renewable energy investment is in Africa. Leaders at the African Climate Summit, which kicked off Monday, “Are not here to catalog grievances,” Kenyan President William Ruto told the AP.
“We have an abundance of clean, renewable energy and it’s vital that we use this to power our future prosperity. But to unlock it, Africa needs funding from countries that have got rich off our suffering,” Power Shift Africa’s Mohamed Adow said before the summit. Meanwhile, a report released Monday by ActionAid finds major international banks plowed $3.2 trillion into fossil fuel expansion in the Global South. “They say that money makes the world go round, but money is making the world go backwards,” Teresa Anderson, global lead on climate justice for ActionAid International, told reporters. Outside the Summit’s meeting hall in Nairobi, activists marched carrying signs demanding, “Stop the neo-colonial scramble for oil and gas in Africa,” with a particular focus on the East African Crude Oil Pipeline. (African Climate Summit: AP [additional coverage below — Ed.]; Disproportionate harm: Reuters; 2%: New York Times $; Banks: The Guardian, Common Dreams)