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Parts of this site were translated using AI. Accuracy may vary.
Wednesday, 20 August 2025 | By Climate High-Level Champions
As Africa gears up for a pivotal Africa Climate Week - known as ‘CW2’ - and the second Africa Climate Summit, in Addis Ababa this September, the continent is stepping into a new era of climate leadership.
Reitumetse Molotsoane, Africa Director for the Climate Champions Team, believes the continent can deliver innovation in the real economy through deep-rooted systems knowledge. Born and raised in the South African township of Alexandra, Reitumetse’s early experiences shaped her belief that development and equity must go hand in hand. With a background in environmental science and a Master’s in Applied Ecology from Imperial College London, she has worked across science, government, business, and civil society to drive systemic, inclusive solutions.
We spoke to Reitumetse about her personal journey, her vision for Africa’s role in global climate leadership, and what to expect at CW2 in September.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Africa’s opportunity is immense. While there are longstanding structural barriers to economic growth that must be broken, African countries aren’t locked into legacy infrastructure and ways of thinking, which creates space to leapfrog directly into more inclusive, resilient, and sustainable models.
But to realise Africa’s potential, equity and inclusion must be at the core. That means procedural justice - recognising and involving people in decision-making - and restorative justice, which is redressing past harms and ensuring fair distribution of benefits as new systems are built.
African economies are growing rapidly. If we ensure everyone can participate in and benefit from the green transition, we can build the momentum and political will to sustain it over the coming decades. That also means having a shared vision of the future, clearly communicating what that future could look like and ensuring people have a seat at the table to co-create it. Africa has the ability to not just respond to climate impacts; but reimagine the kind of societies its people want to live in and empower them to build that.
We need to prioritise the real economy - particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) - as that’s where livelihoods, innovation, and economic opportunity sit. Often, transformational innovation happens faster and more flexibly outside of central governments or big institutions. To foster this, we must make delivery models and technical assistance available to smaller businesses, which make up the majority of enterprises on the continent. Too often, climate finance is available only at a scale that’s out of reach for most of these actors, SMEs need the right level of support at the right time to allow them to scale incrementally and sustainably.
I led the National Business Initiative (NBI)’s delivery of the Climate Finance Accelerator, a technical assistance programme funded by the UK government to unlock finance for climate projects. We implemented the inaugural programme in South Africa, which went on to become the largest globally. The level of innovation among participating companies was remarkable - and importantly, these were not theoretical models. Many of them were already in operation, demonstrating proof of concept and commercial viability.
But we saw a gap between their potential and the size or type of available finance. Many climate projects and entrepreneurs can’t immediately absorb multi-million-dollar funds. That’s why the Climate Champions Team launched the Regional Platforms for Climate Projects to mobilise finance for climate ventures and communities in emerging economies, such as the Kenya-based financing firm, BasiGo, which is deploying clean transport across African cities. Another initiative launched by the Climate Champions team, the Climate Proofing SMEs Campaign, places small and medium-sized enterprises at the forefront of transformative climate action. Both are vital campaigns which I hope to see grow significantly.
(Image: A BasiGo E9 Kubwa Electric Bus)
Across Africa, many businesses operate in informal settings - with inadequate infrastructure and outside of legal and regulatory frameworks. To enable the vast informal economy to fully participate in a green industrial revolution, we need to think creatively about how to support the enterprises at its core. That means embedding the right technologies, services, and processes, at the right scale, to make them accessible, inclusive, and scalable. That’s how we unlock broad-based prosperity and real impact on the ground.
Energy access is still a huge challenge across the continent. But beyond that, we must realise opportunities across the continent like increasing the decentralisation of energy systems, accelerating deployment of renewables and energy storage and fostering Africa’s burgeoning green hydrogen economies.
Take South Africa, despite being the continent’s most industrialised economy, it still suffers from rolling blackouts. This creates an opening for decentralised, modular clean energy systems, which are faster and cheaper to deploy and lower risk for governments and communities. These systems also create space for small businesses and innovative service models to thrive. This is already happening on the continent, we just need to accelerate and expand uptake of these products and services.
Africa is central to global supply chains for critical minerals that underpin the transition to clean energy technologies, including cobalt, lithium and platinum. But to fully benefit, we must strengthen governance, enforce environmental protections, and invest in domestic processing and beneficiation - to push African economies up the value chain, rather than just exporting raw materials.
Looking ahead, green hydrogen and clean fuels - especially for sectors like maritime transport - could be game-changers. Africa has both the renewable potential and labour force to lead, but only if we invest now in skills, infrastructure, and cross-sector coordination.
While the energy space is complex, Africa’s choice is simple: accelerated deployment of renewable energy is the key to increased investment, inclusion and impact. It must remain a central pillar of the continent’s development strategy.
Securing clean, reliable water is essential not just for health and agriculture, but also has clear commercial value for industry, and urban growth. Every USD 1 invested in climate-resilient water and sanitation returns at least USD 7 for African economies, according to the International High Level Panel on Water Investments for Africa.
The Champions Team has strong expertise in both nature and finance, and we’re seeing increasing momentum to connect these pillars - not only to fund more water solutions but to anchor them in climate resilience. Water can also serve as a powerful entry point for implementation. Many local governments and communities are already leading initiatives, such as the Scaling Urban Nature-based Solutions for Climate Adaptation in Sub-Saharan Africa (SUNCASA) project. Through restoring and reforesting upstream watershed areas in Ethiopia, Rwanda and South Africa, SUNCASA aims to protect over two million people from flooding risk over the next five years. With the right support, these types of models can be scaled across the continent.
Whether we’re talking about energy, water, or land use, we must stop treating adaptation and mitigation separately. Climate-proofing must be embedded across every sector.
While at the NBI, I was part of the team leading business engagement on South Africa’s climate plan - or ‘Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC)’. We brought together business, government, and civil society to co-create ambitious but realistic, sectoral pathways to a just, inclusive, equitable and net-economy and society
To ground the discussion, we analysed the carbon intensity of South Africa’s key exports and exposure to climate-related trade risk. The findings were stark and universally understood. The emissions of our coal-powered grid makes major exports, like steel, automotive and mining, less attractive to trading partners that are now prioritising low carbon supply chains. Recent research reinforces this: over three quarters of South Africa’s exports go to countries with net zero commitments, which are actively seeking lower embodied carbon products.
This is deeply concerning, but it was also encouraging to see business stepping up to the challenge - not waiting for policy, but actively shaping it, understanding the risks of inaction and the benefits of proactive, deliberate engagement. South Africa has what it takes to pivot, with world-class renewable potential, critical minerals, and seats at influential tables like the G20 and BRICS. With stronger international support, it can accelerate grid decarbonisation, phase out coal, and reorient itself as a strategic, low emissions supplier - increasing employment opportunities and securing long term economic competitiveness.
One of the biggest challenges Africa faces is the cost of capital. Even concessional finance often becomes expensive by the time it’s converted into local financial products - especially when factoring in foreign exchange risk. Sometimes the money just sits idle because it’s too costly to use.
We also see a scale mismatch: the amounts offered are often too large for SMEs and community actors. Many proven business models just need smaller, more flexible investments — not USD five million loans.
To fix this, we need staged financing models matching the growth trajectory of real businesses, aggregated investment platforms, and better risk-sharing mechanisms. Finance must be structured to reach the real economy.
Some Africa-wide matchmaking platforms already exist, but they can’t serve 50+ countries and a billion people on their own. But to achieve transformative change, we need to decentralise and replicate these platforms so that capital is responsive to country-level realities and can be absorbed and scaled effectively.
My biggest hope is that we move beyond declarations to demonstrate real action: and the gathering shows how previous commitments are being implemented through funded projects, and delivering tangible, replicable results.
I also want to see better alignment between the technical conversations at CW2 and the political decisions made at Africa Climate Summit 2. Too often, these happen in parallel. We need to close that loop.
Finally, I hope there’s strong recognition of the role that non-State actors - from businesses to communities - are already playing. CW2’s implementation forums provide an opportunity to showcase practical examples across the partner network, and to reinforce that delivery depends on collaboration across sectors.
Africa has the key elements to lead, with a model that’s inclusive, resilient, and rooted in action. CW2 and Africa Climate Summit 2 are powerful platforms to demonstrate homegrown, innovative climate solutions that are proven and ready to scale across the Global South and beyond.
