Lord Stern to Open Africa's Green Economy Summit in Cape Town

When delegates gather in Cape Town from 23 to 26 February 2027 for Africa’s Green Economy Summit, the conversation they hope to shape is one that touches farmers, workers, households and investors across the continent: how to turn years of climate promises into projects that change daily life. Giving the opening keynote will be Professor Lord Nicholas Stern, one of the world’s foremost authorities on the economics of climate change.

Stern, the IG Patel Professor of Economics and Government and Chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science, will speak in a session titled “Ready for the World: Financing and Delivering Africa’s Sustainable Future.” He is best known for leading the landmark Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, which set out the profound economic risks of inaction and argued for investment in a transition to a low-carbon economy.

For Emmanuelle Nicholls, Group Director: Green Economy at VUKA Group, which created the summit, the timing matters because the continent’s story is changing. “COP32 is an opportunity for Africa to change the narrative from a continent seeking climate finance to a continent offering some of the world’s most compelling green investment opportunities. AGES 2027 is about making that opportunity tangible by connecting capital with projects, policy with implementation, and ambition with delivery,” she says.

Ethiopia will host COP32 in 2027, putting the global climate spotlight on Africa at a moment when, as the summit’s organisers see it, attention is shifting from ambition and commitments towards implementation: mobilising capital, building investable projects, strengthening resilience, and making sure the green transition supports economic growth, industrialisation and jobs.

That shift runs through the newly released AGES 2027 programme under a cross-cutting theme, “Road to COP32: Africa’s Implementation Agenda.” The opening programme also includes a dedicated discussion on Africa’s adaptation and resilience agenda on the road to COP32, topics that bear directly on communities facing the realities of a changing climate.

Stern will not be speaking alone. He will be joined by a growing line-up of African and international leaders spanning green growth, climate finance, development finance, trade and investment. Confirmed speakers include Mallé Fofana, Deputy Executive Director and Head of the Directorate for Green Growth Implementation at the Global Green Growth Institute; Satu Kahkonen, World Bank Division Director for South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and Eswatini; Haile Mekonnen, COP32 Climate Finance Representative for the Ethiopian Private Sector and member of UNECA’s COP32 Climate Finance Technical Team; Aakif Merchant, Director and Head of Africa at Convergence; Dave Chalila, Head of Africa and Middle East Investments at GuarantCo (PIDG); and Roslyn Ng’eno, Senior Investment Expert at the African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat.

Behind the names and titles, the summit’s organisers describe a practical marketplace. AGES 2027 is expected to bring together more than 700 delegates, more than 150 investors and 40 investment-ready projects representing a US$2 billion pipeline, connecting African opportunities with the capital, partners and expertise needed to move them forward. The projects on the table touch some of the most immediate questions shaping sustainable development on the continent: energy access and green industrialisation, water security, sustainable agriculture, climate and nature finance, critical minerals, sustainable mobility, carbon finance, digital infrastructure, and the mobilisation of institutional capital.

Meanwhile, new additions for 2027 include a Ministerial and Technical Leadership Roundtable, a closed-door DFI Roundtable and a Green Village, alongside investor roundtables, curated matchmaking and project pitches. The City of Cape Town returns as host city.

For those looking to follow or take part, the full AGES 2027 programme is now available, together with the summit’s new infrastructure and SMME Dealbooks highlighting investment-ready African projects seeking capital and partnerships. The summit’s stated purpose is to support the mobilisation of investment for green projects, helping them scale and industrialise in ways that deliver meaningful impact for environmental sustainability and economic growth across the continent. Whether the road to COP32 becomes a story of delivery, the people gathering in Cape Town next February intend to have a hand in writing it.