A nation’s climate action goals and economic ambitions can work in tandem for greater prosperity. This, according to President Cyril Ramaphosa, who spoke during a fireside chat at the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week 2026, held in that country.
“In fact, countries that have embarked on climate action strategies, have found that those interventions do finally yield economic growth. So therefore, one needs to see climate action as a driver and an enabler for economic growth.
“The more we embrace clean energy, the more new technologies come about, new opportunities open up and we find that there are new sub-sectors of the economy that are established and where we might close certain sub-sectors, new ones open.
“Therefore, it’s not a binary question. It’s a mutually inclusive and reinforcing approach,” President Ramaphosa said.
He warned that focus on one side could be detrimental to the other.
“If we focus on economic growth, to the detriment of climate taking climate action, you’ll find that in the long term, you have economic stagnation or reversal. If you focus on the other only, you’ll find that your economy may grow but it will not grow well.
“A dual approach, focusing on both, can actually drive the economy forward,” the President added.
Reflecting on South Africa’s drive to raise financing for the Just Energy Transition, President Ramaphosa noted that government went about setting its own climate plan and agenda.
“One of the advantages [to this] was, we were able to raise finance smartly, we were able to raise fairly good, blended finance initiatives, grants, concessional financing…so the blended finance architecture was quite good and innovative.
“We were first from the starting blocks and we’re very pleased that a number of countries from the global south have followed in the wake of what South Africa did. We now have attracted, particularly in the Northern Cape… more than R110 billion in investments.
“That has happened because it was South Africa designed and we got the financiers to work with us. There was nothing imposed on us like it has happened in the past. In the past, financiers have focused on what they could get out and we have focused on cooperation. A cooperative process has now been followed and both of us are involved,” he explained.
Turning to the Africa’s potential role as an exporter of green energy, President Ramaphosa highlighted the continent’s endowment of vast amounts of sun, wind power and hydropower as areas of opportunity for investment.
“A combination of all three, as well as our minerals, gives rise to great opportunities where we can generate energy.
“[Some] 600 million people on the African continent, still lack electricity. That, in itself, rather than being a challenge, we see it as an opportunity… that we can utilise all these endowments – our minerals – instead of exporting rock, soil and stones. We should now beneficiate, add value to our minerals so that they are properly utilised in the energy generation.
“Africa is the centre where green hydrogen can [also] be greatly utilised. We can use our solar, wind and in doing so, Africa can become an exporter of energy. This is where we invite financiers, investors to come to the African continent.
“We’ve got great opportunities for generating energy…and infrastructure development in Africa is going to explode by leaps and bounds and on the back of energy generation and good financing, we will be able to see higher levels of growth. I invite you… to come to the African continent and invest there. That is where the future is,” President Ramaphosa concluded. – SAnews.gov.za
