On Saturday, the 15th of July 2023, Professor Yeong Jae Kim facilitated a webinar organized by the Finance Leadership Forum, a finance and business professional association based in The Gambia, West Africa, for a one-hour lecture on the role of Finance in addressing Climate Change.

The event brought together more than 48 live participants via Zoom and Facebook, mainly youths from The Gambia and other African countries. Professor Yeong Jae Kim, in his lecture, gave key importance to Africa’s efforts in combating climate change. He also used this opportunity to present a research paper, which was published alongside his colleagues Moonwon Soh and Seong-Hoon Cho. The paper is titled 'Identifying Optimal Budget Distributions for the Transition to Low-Carbon Electricity Sources between Emerging and Developed Countries.' 

[https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2022.119967]

To achieve climate change targets, Professor Yeong Jae Kim motivated participants with the following findings from his research paper:

1. Their report finds that the transition to low-carbon electricity generation reduces carbon emissions and meets growing electricity demand more cost-effectively in emerging countries than in developed countries.

2. Second, reducing carbon emissions and increasing the electricity supply is more cost-effective when transitioning to renewable and nuclear energy sources rather than natural gas energy sources.

3. The report's findings also suggest that energy transition in emerging countries is not as difficult in terms of electricity efficiency and carbon efficiency. Furthermore, renewables and nuclear should be prioritized over fossil fuel-based energy sources, including natural gas.

In ending his presentation, he urged the Finance Leadership Forum to raise their voices to ensure funding is available to The Gambia to help mitigate the impact of climate change and contribute to meeting the Paris Agreement. The lecture was followed by a question-and-answer session where participants shared and asked questions about funding mechanisms, transition ideas, and more.

In his closing remarks, Ebrima Sawaneh, the Group CFO and COO for Arise P&L, and also the President of the Finance Leadership Forum (FLF), took the opportunity to thank Professor Kim for taking the time to present on one of the most important topics to a group of young finance professionals in Africa. Ebrima also used this opportunity to present a Certificate of Appreciation to Professor Kim on behalf of FLF.