European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen spoke today at the Africa Climate Change Summit in Nairobi, Kenya.

Von der Leyen pointed to Africa’s “huge potential for renewable energy and clean hydrocarbons, your critical raw materials, your incredible nature and biodiversity and your young workforce”; and the resulting potential to “help clean up global energy systems and supply chains, while creating good jobs here and economic opportunities”.

She thinks climate action “can be one of the main drivers of Africa’s growth” – as an example speeding the transition to solar and wind power, both for local use and for export.

These projects need massive investment to occur.

In addition to the EU’s EUR 150bn Global Gateway investment plan for Africa, the EC president spoke about using Green bonds to bring private capital at scale for climate change investments in Africa.

The EU’s Global Green Bond Initiative is allocating EUR 1 billion to crowd-in and de-risk private investments in emerging markets – and this program can be used to help grow private capital for green bonds in Africa. The EU says that this EUR 1 billion program could help attract up to EUR 20 billion in sustainable investment.