Climate change offers $23 trillion in investment opportunities

At a time when the world is struggling with measures to mitigate Climate Change (CC), the International Finance Corporation (IFC) says the subject offers massive opportunities that would yield up to $23 trillion in investments.
The invested amount should thus enable the promotion of growth, creation of jobs and accelerate  the transition to low-carbon development.
The IFC country representative for Tanzania, Mr Frank Ajilore, said at an event in Dar es Salaam yesterday that CC was one of the greatest global challenges of the 21st century. Its impacts vary among regions, generations, age, classes, income groups and gender. Left unchecked, he said, CC will push 132 million people into poverty over the next 10 year but if well utilized it could bring economic growth.
“Our research shows that climate businesses can generate $23 trillion in investment opportunities, create 213 million cumulative jobs, and achieve 4 billion tons of CO2e reduction in developing countries. These opportunities exist in a wide range of sectors, including climate-smart agriculture, urban infrastructure, renewable energy and more,” he said.
Officiating the event, which was held as part of celebrations to mark this year’s International Women’s Day, the Minister for Investment Industry and Trade, Ms Ashatu Kijaji urged private sector players and government institutions to see CC as an investment opportunity for economic and social improvement efforts.
“Opportunities have no gender. The most important is for the country to identify them and invest in them so that we can have a positive contribution to CC,” she said. She said the effects of CC were well known. “We have seen a lot of women concentrate on agriculture and when there is change in weather, children and the entire family get affected,” she said.
She said it was also an open secret that women were the ones trading fruits on roads and thus when temperatures change, they [women] fail to move around properly and in the end their businesses get affected.
She said that it was good that the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE) has come up with an initiative to ensure all listed companies incorporate sustainability in their reports. This, she said, could also be adopted by other countries to mitigate climate change. According to Mr Ajilore, the IFC was helping its clients tap into the opportunities. It was also working with a number of partners to catalyze finance for climate action.
In 2021, IFC delivered 32 percent in own-account climate finance and mobilised $3.6 billion for climate.
DSE chief executive officer Moremi Marwa said they have introduced an initiative to ensure all listed companies and banks come up with sustainability and environment reports.

Source: The Citizen