• Many African Developing countries still face challenges in accessing financial resources.
• African Governments are already spending huge proportions of their national budgets.
• In Africa, adaptation is an absolute necessity and means a difference between survival and starvation.

Green Economy and Environment Minister says public finance still remains critical in increasing financial action for green and sustainable development in the quest to continue unlocking opportunities to mobilize institutional and private investments for greening developing economies.

Speaking when he represented the African Group of Negotiators at a High Level Political Forum on the sidelines of the Stockholm +50 summit in Sweden, Collins Nzovu said many African Developing countries still face challenges in accessing financial resources from various accredited entity of the financial mechanisms and called for simplification of modalities for accessing adaptation funds.

Mr. Nzovu noted African Governments are already spending huge proportions of their national budgets towards adaptation or responding to climate related disasters adding that there is enough scientific justification for the requirement for increasing financial resources for adaptation needs, as outlined in the recent reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

He stated that in Africa, adaptation is an absolute necessity and means a difference between survival and starvation for most of people, especially in rural communities.

“While we do appreciate and acknowledge that there is a role for private sector in scaling up financing, we are mindful of the limitations, especially as it relates to adaptation funding,” Hon. Nzovu noted.

“We all know the primary motivation for the private sector, although admittedly, they are increasingly factoring climate change in their programming, but there are still limits in how far their altruistic motivations can go,” the Minister added.

The Minister of Green Economy and Environment was part of a High Level Political Dialogue on ways to support partner countries in the implementation of their adaptation priorities.

The discussion themed “concrete ways to collectively accelerate the delivery and mobilisation of finance for resilience and adaptation” was also attended by the Minister for International Development Cooperation for Sweden, Hon. Matilda Ernkrans and other Ministers of Environment and Finance from other countries as well as other representatives of the financial mechanisms of different multilateral Environmental Agreements.

Mr. Nzovu was attending the summit following an invitation extended to the Zambian Government by the Swedish Government through its Swedish Ambassador to Zambia Her Excellency Ms. Anna Maj Hultgård.