The African Development Bank (AfDB) has announced plans to introduce a Climate Action Window to mobilise between four billion dollars to 13 billion dollars to enable ADF countries to adapt to climate change.
President African Development Bank (AfDB) Dr Akinwumi Adesina, made this known at the Africa Climate Adaptation Summit which took place in Rotterdam, the Netherlands on Monday.
According to the AfDB boss, when mobilised, the fund would be used to support 20 million farmers with access to climate resilient agricultural technologies, 20 million farmers and pastoralists access to weather-indexed crop insurance.
He noted that the fund will also revive one million hectares of degraded land as well as provide renewable energy for about 9.5 million people.
However, he maintained that there was the need for financing to tackle the challenge of climate change in Africa, while also calling on developed countries to provide the 100-billion-dollar annual climate finance as commitments made to developing countries.
“The African Development Fund’s 16th replenishment now presents such a unique opportunity! Never have the stakes been so high for Africa’s low-income and fragile states that depend on the ADF,” Adesina said.
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He further explained that nine of the 10 countries most vulnerable to climate change in the world are in sub-Saharan Africa, adding that all of them are ADF countries. Yet, they do not have access to global climate finance.
He said that commitments made by developed countries to provide 100 billion dollars annually in climate finance for developing countries are long overdue and that the continent can no longer wait.
“This is the time to support the African Adaptation Acceleration Programme. This is the time to support ADF’s 16th replenishment. This is the time to support the Climate Action Window of ADF-16.”
The AFDB boss further stated that Africa received only 3 per cent of global climate financing, adding that if the trend continued, the continent’s climate financing gap would reach $100 billion to $127 billion per year through 2030.
“The current climate financing architecture is not meeting the needs of Africa. New estimates by the African Economic Outlook of the AfDB show that Africa will need between 1.3 and 1.6 trillion dollars between 2020-2030, or 118 billion dollars to 145 billion dollars annually.”
Among the ADF countries are Benin, Burkina Faso. Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger and Rwanda.
Others are Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Ghana, Lesotho, Mauritania, Sao Tome & Principe, Cameroon, Kenya, Senegal, Zambia and Nigeria.
Story was adapted from the Sun.
