Blair backs Africa to develop fossil fuels

FORMER UK prime minister Tony Blair said on Monday it was critical Africa be allowed to focus on fossil fuels in order to grow while the primary responsibility for renewable power development was with developed economies.“The immediate priority for Africa is to develop. And to develop, you need energy. Africa didn’t create the climate change problem,” BusinessLive cited Blair as saying at the Standard Bank Africa Capital Markets conference held in Stellenbosch.“I am in favour of Africa doing everything it can around renewable energy, and it has a lot of potential in that space,” Blair added.“You can’t say to an African country that has significant gas reserves to ignore those reserves and not develop those. My view on climate change … is that it is time you took the climate change debate out of the hands of campaigners and put it in the hands of policymakers,” Blair said.“In the end, the only solution to climate change is through technology and getting flows of finance to the developing world to invest in renewables. Ultimately, the solutions to climate change are not going to come from believing we can strike down fossil fuels,” he said.Standard Bank, one of the largest renewable funders in SA, aims to raise at least R250bn in sustainable finance origination by 2026, with a focus on renewable energy projects, said BusinessLive.Since the launch of its climate policy in March 2022, the group has been tracking ahead of its target to raise R250bn-R300bn for sustainable finance by the end of 2026.The post Blair backs Africa to develop fossil fuels appeared first on Miningmx.Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com