‘Debt distress’ contributing to Africa’s transition finance gap, academics warn

International markets will need to increase grants and other concessional sources of funding if Africa is to meet its climate goals, says a briefing by Cambridge University researchers

African markets’ hesitancy to take on large amounts of expensive market-rate debt from foreign countries is limiting their ability to meet transition finance goals, according to a business briefing by Cambridge University’s Institute for Sustainability Leadership. It found that “while African states will have to increase domestic resource mobilisation for climate spending, the international funding community needs to provide far more finance, and on far more concessional terms, than they are at present”.