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Oct 2024, Cali, Colombia – The Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI) Africa Council (SMIAC) today unveiled the “Natural Capital on African Governments’ Balance Sheets” initiative at COP16. Launched last week at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Samoa, this bold SMI initiative aims to align natural capital with national economic frameworks, accelerating the implementation of the African Union’s Nairobi Declaration (Africa’s Green Investment Deal) launched by African Heads of State at the inaugural Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi, September 2023.

The Nairobi Declaration on Climate Change called on global public and private sector stakeholders, to revalue Africa’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by fully recognizing the continent’s vast natural capital and ecosystem services. Africa’s forests, wetlands, and biodiversity play a vital role in global decarbonization, yet remain undervalued in traditional economic models. Unlocking their value will provide new sources of wealth for Africa by integrating natural resource accounting and developing national standards.

Natural Capital: Africa’s Economic Opportunity and the World’s Climate Investment Solution

The Natural Capital on African Governments’ Balance Sheets initiative is an institutional investor-public partnership, led by the SMI Africa Council. This initiative will embed nature as an investable asset class within economic frameworks and investment portfolio’s, to unlock real investments at scale, making natural assets a core component of national balance sheets.

“Africa’s natural capital forms the backbone not only of our economies, but also of global business models and societies,” said Dr Hubert Danso, Co-Chair of the SMI Africa Council. “To protect and expand this value, we must invest at scale in our ecosystems. Through mandate-aligned institutional investor-public partnerships with governments, we can unlock risk-and nature-adjusted returns, that drive benefits for people, planet, and nature—demonstrating that what’s good for Africa and the world, can also create sustainable value for investors.”

Despite the global reliance on Africa’s natural resources, current investments are grossly insufficient. Barriers include the lack of standardized methodologies for valuing natural capital and the absence of market mechanisms that align business and investor incentives with natural capital preservation and regeneration.

Closing the $800 Billion Annual Investment Gap

Globally, there is a potential $800 billion annual investment opportunity in nature-based solutions. However, businesses and investors currently lack the means to invest scalably into the ecosystems they depend on.

For decades, the global economy has benefited from Africa’s “Global Commons”—its forests, wetlands, and biodiversity—without fully recognizing their economic value, leaving fiscally challenged African countries to navigate the difficult balance between driving economic growth and safeguarding, while expanding, their natural capital.

The Terra Carta, SMI’s guiding framework, aligns with the Nairobi Declaration’s goals by recognizing nature as the true engine of the global economy.

In the initiative’s foreword, His Majesty King Charles III, founder of the Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI), stressed, “To build a productive and sustainable future, it is critical that we accelerate and mainstream sustainability into every aspect of our economy. There must be a center of gravity to catalyze this effort and mobilize the resources and incentives required.”

A Global Call for Investment into Africa’s Natural Capital

Commenting on the initiative, H.E. Josefa Leonel Correia Sacko, Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy, and Sustainable Environment at the African Union Commission (AUC), We welcome the SMI Africa Council’s ‘Nature on the Balance Sheet’ initiative. By embedding nature on the balance sheet, we are making a clear statement: Africa’s natural wealth is a strategic asset for both the continent and the world. This approach not only protects biodiversity but also drives sustainable economic growth and resilience.”

Initiative Focus Areas

The SMI Africa Council’s initiative aims to:

  • Develop a portfolio of high-quality, landscape-level natural capital projects in Africa, using latest technology and new institutional investor-public partnership frameworks and market mechanisms.
  • Support African governments and regional institutions in leveraging natural capital projects to attract private investments.
  • Collaborate with the international community to create enabling conditions for scaling natural capital asset classes globally.

The initiative is designed to assist African governments mobilize private capital at scale, reduce their cost of capital and improve sovereign ratings.

A Global Coalition to Align Growth with Nature

The SMI is building a coalition of investors, philanthropies, private sector actors, project developers, and NGOs, to co-create solutions that bring Africa’s natural capital onto the balance sheet.

At the 2025 Africa Climate Summit, the initiative plans to announce partner commitments from international and domestic investors, businesses and philanthropies, to protect and regenerate African landscapes, ensuring nature conservation, economic growth and portfolio resilience go hand in hand.

Join the Movement

This SMI initiative, which brings together institutional, technology, and legal partners such as the African Union Commission (AUC), Africa Investor (Ai) Group, The Great Green Wall of Africa Foundation, AUDA-NEPAD, The Landbanking Group and Mishcon de Reya LLP, offers a transformational opportunity to position Africa as a central player in the global green investment economy.

If you are interested in joining this effort, please register your interest at africa@sustainable-markets.org.

Media Contact:
For inquiries, please contact:
africa@sustainable-markets.org

About The Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI) – www.sustainable-markets.org

Established by His Majesty King Charles III and launched at Davos, The Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI) is the ‘go-to’ CEO-led private sector organisation on the transition to a sustainable future.

About The SMI Africa Council (SMIAC)

The SMI Africa Council (SMIAC) was led by His Majesty King Charles III in recognition of the current realities of the African continent’s 1.3 billion people, and the shared ambition of its 55 countries to establish a common position through the Nairobi Declaration (Africa’s Green Investment Deal) in combatting climate change, biodiversity loss and fulfilling its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and the Sustainable Development Goals (“SDGs”).

Launched in November 2023 in Nairobi, Kenya, the SMIAC champions scalable collective action by business, finance/investment and governments leaders to benefit  people, planet and nature.

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