November 13, 2024
COP29 | Green climate technology, local innovation, and youth employment: Opportunities and challenges in Africa
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Event Details:
November 13, 2024
16:00 – 17:30
IGAD Pavilion, Blue Zone
Hosts:
APRI, SYND, and Mastercard Foundation
About the event
Africa is particularly vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change, affecting agriculture, water resources, and livelihoods. With the continent’s rapid population growth—where over 60% are youth—there is a significant opportunity to harness green technologies, foster local innovation, and drive sustainable employment for young people. Green climate technology can strengthen Africa’s resilience against climate threats while enabling job creation and economic growth through sustainable industries. The impact of climate change is expected to be higher in the East African region due to limited adaptive capacity, technologies, and information, and significant development is still required. Furthermore, a significant percentage of the region’s working-age youth (15-35) is unemployed.
However, across Africa and the East Africa region, the youthful population, innovative potential, and emerging green technologies in the tech start-up sector present unique opportunities to tackle climate challenges. Nonetheless, harnessing these startups to address the technology gap and youth unemployment will require targeted support because of existing barriers such as financing deficits, skills mismatches, gender disparities, and regulatory hindrances. So, how do we overcome these barriers? And what forms of targeted and supportive legal, policy, finance and infrastructural frameworks are needed to foster green technology development and adoption?
To this end, APRI – Africa Policy Research Institute and SYND – Strategic Youth Network for Development, in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, are convening a COP29 side event to deliberate on the challenges above and share insights on how to scale innovation in green technology in ways that generate jobs for the youth. In line with COP29’s focus on empowering youth in green innovation, this event will emphasise the specific needs for innovation and youth employment needs and priorities of the East Africa region, the existing policy framework and the policy responsiveness of such policies to the needs and priorities of young people with the view of enhancing current efforts at scaling local innovation in green technology. The event will be a panel discussion and a Q&A session, creating space for stakeholders to engage on pathways to bolster youth employment through green technology, particularly in the East African context.
CATF speaker
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Lily Odarno, Director, Energy and Climate Innovation, Africa |
