Environment
By Maureen Chigbo, reporting from Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt
A graphic picture of how Africa suffers from climate change was painted by Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank, AfDB, at the opening of the 2023 annual meetings of the bank on Tuesday, May 23, highlighting the fact that the continent suffers disproportionately from carbon emissions. Adesina made it clear that Africa which accounts for only 3 percent of the cumulative carbon emissions globally now suffers “loss and damage” from its negative consequences.
“Across the Sahel, hotter climate is drying up water basins; the Lake Chad Basin which used to support livelihoods of millions of people in Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon, has shrunk to 1/10th of its size. In several parts of the Horn of Africa, rains have not fallen for over four seasons. And in Malawi, Mozambique, Madagascar, Zambia and Rwanda, cyclones and floods have left devastation in their wake, with loss of lives and destruction of infrastructure. And the small Island states are buffeted by rising sea levels, coastal erosion, and losses.
“Whichever way you look at it, Africa is being devastated by climate change. It loses USD 7-15 billion every year due to climate change, which is projected to rise to USD 50 billion by 2030,” Adesina told the audience in the beautiful hall filled to capacity with smartly dressed powerful and influential men and women from all walks of life, including heads of State and governments from Egypt, Zimbabwe, governors of Central Banks of African countries, those working with multilateral and international financial institutions such as European Union, African Union, World Bank/IMF Group, Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, environmentalists and the media at the Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, venue of the meeting.
According to Adesina, “Right here in Egypt, water security has become a national issue. At the COP 27, Egypt launched the Nexus on Water, Food and Energy, a bold effort to mobilize USD 14 billion to tackle the effects of climate change. The African Development Bank is leading the effort to mobilize USD 1.4 billion to support desalinization and wastewater treatment plants for agriculture. So far, we have helped mobilize USD 2.2 billion from development partners.”
Finding the financial resources to tackle climate change is increasingly difficult for African countries that are still reeling from the effects of Covid-19 pandemic, now exacerbated by climate change, debt and inflation arising from a mixture of global geopolitical conflicts and the high global inflationary trends, he said.
The AfDB president said Africa’s cumulative climate financing needs are estimated at USD 2.7 trillion between 2020 and 2030. “Climate adaptation costs are estimated between USD 249-407 billion over the same period. Yet, climate financing resources are only flowing to Africa in trickles, as the continent receives only 3% of global climate finance, of which 14% is from the private sector, the lowest in the world. There is much to do to leverage the private sector into climate finance and green growth.”
Realnews reports that the African Development Bank is playing its part and has exceeded its commitment to provide 40% of its total financing to climate, reaching 45% in 2022. “We committed 63% of our total climate finance to adaptation, exceeding the global target of 50%, earning the bank praise from Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary-General at the UN General Assembly as a global leader in climate adaptation.
The bank has also launched the African Adaptation Acceleration Program, together with the Global Center on Adaptation, to mobilize USD 25 billion for climate adaptation.
However, Adesina has made a clarion call to developed countries to provide $100 billion annually commitment it made to developing countries in climate finance which he described as “miniscule compared to financing needs.” He added that “Public climate financing must be complemented by mobilization of resources from the private sector.
The AfDB has launched the African Financial Alliance for Climate, to bring together all financial institutions, stock exchanges in Africa, to green the financial ecosystem to mobilize more private sector climate financing for Africa. “Financial institutions should incorporate climate financing into all their operations,” he said.
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Tags: AfDB Akinwumi Adesina Maureen Chigbo
