From Silicon Valley to Silicon Savannah: climate expert Patrick Verkooijen on why this is Africa’s century

Prof Patrick Verkooijen, head of the Global Center on Adaptation and new chancellor of the University of Nairobi, at the Africa Youth Climate Assembly in Kenya. Photograph: Courtesy of GCA

Africa has all the potential to meet pressing climate challenges with innovative solutions, according to one of the world’s renowned environmentalists. With its vast natural capital and youthful population, “this is Africa’s century,” according to Prof Patrick Verkooijen, chief executive of the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA), and the new chancellor of the University of Nairobi.

But Verkooijen emphasises that support and investment from the global north is essential, highlighting that 65% of the world’s uncultivated land is in Africa, a continent with immense promise in its population, set to make up one in four people globally by 2050.