Inclusion of private sector is a critical factor in achieving green growth.

This was highlighted at the world’s largest climate conference organised by the UN and known as COP24.

The Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is taking place in Katowice, Poland.

Rwanda, Gabon, Mozambique, Tunisia, Kenya, Senegal and Morocco were the only African countries at the COP24 summit in Poland. The conference is expected to finalise the rules for implementation of the Paris Agreement on climate change under the Paris Agreement work programme.

The governments must view climate finance not only as concession loans or grants, but rather as the full spectrum of financial instruments and flows. This way of thinking comes from an understanding that governments can’t do it alone.

At the talks Vincent Biruta, Rwanda’s Minister of Environment told delegates that to obtain development goals requires strong legal and policy frameworks as well as institutions that can implement these policies.

“We also need a clear vision that is not only owned by government, but also the private sector and civil society. Rwanda targets to have achieved its vision of a developed, climate resilient nation by 2050,” he said at the dialogue.

Mr Biruta, said Rwanda developed the “Rwanda Green Fund, a national green growth and climate resilience strategy for environment through which climate finance can be channelled.”

Its direct investments have created almost 140,000 green jobs, supported more than 100,000 people, provided close to 60,000 households with access to off-grid clean energy and restored and protected tens of thousands of hectares of forests, land and waterways.