November 28, 2019     Accra

Photo: MARCO LONGARI/AFP/Getty Images

As the urgency to act on climate change grows, international climate policies and the advance of low-carbon technologies are reducing the demand for – and value of – some fossil fuels. Substantial proportions of Africa’s carbon wealth could become uneconomic to extract and process: a phenomenon we refer to as stranded assets. Yet recent research by the United Nations University Institute for Natural Resources in Africa (UNU-INRA) reveals that the risk of climate-related asset stranding is
not high on the African policy agenda.

UNU-INRA will launch a research paper at COP25 that discusses Africa’s development in light of potential asset stranding, in the hopes of alerting African governments to the need for effective natural resource planning towards lower carbon economies. The study stands on deep contextual research from eight African countries (Angola, Ghana, Namibia, Nigeria, Niger, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia) offering voices and insights from the continent often missing from the global conversation on resource use and climate change.

The study highlights the associated risks of stranding and impacts on mineral-rich countries in Africa, as well as the opportunities that lie in green transitions and economic diversification.

Date: 3 December, 2019

Time: 11:00-12:30

Venue: Climate and SDG Synergies Pavilion: The Blue Zone

COP25 – @ IFEMA, Feria de Madrid, Avda. del Partenón, 5 28042 Madrid, Spain.

COP25 Starnded Assets (Blurb)

Read the report here