CALL FOR CLIMATE CHANGE-     Emmanuel Macron, French president challenged delegates attending the One Planet Summit in Kenya, to take action beyond words, as far as tackling climate change is concerned.

President Macron, who is on a two-day state visit in Kenya, attended the summit he launched in 2017, with his host, president Uhuru Kenyatta.

“We need to put biodiversity at the heart of each of our actions. We make new commitments and invent a new model together. Thank you for this One Planet Summit in Africa,” Macron said on Thursday.

“We all must act, Governments must act, Major enterprises must act. Investors must act. Citizens must act. All together.”

The summit, which brought together over 4,000 delegates to Nairobi, focuses on ensuring the preservation and sustainability of forests.

Commitments from Kenya, World Bank and AfDB

On his own part, Kenya’s president pledged goal for an estimate of 10 percent forest cover, as a target for curbing climate change and addressing de-forestation.

“Today we are here to make pledges, today we are here to make commitments, and on behalf of Kenya, our government and our people, I am pledging by 2022, we want to reach a minimum of 10 percent forest cover in our country as a way of ensuring we play our part in combating climate change,” he said.

The World Bank said in a statement it had pledged $22.5 billion for 2021-2025, while AfDB said it had committed $25 billion to climate finance between 2020 and 2025.

AfDB said the funds would be used to increase investment in renewable energy projects like solar power plants.

“The share of our portfolio that was in renewable energy generation between 2013 and 2015 was 59 percent but from 2015 to 2018 we moved from that to 95 percent,” AfDB president Akinwumi Adesina told Reuters on the sidelines of a U.N. environment meeting.

The World Bank said some of the beneficiaries of its funding would include projects in Ethiopia, Rwanda and Kenya.