As the COP27 is winding down in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, German State Secretary for Economic Cooperation and Development, Jochen Flasbarth, at a ministerial panel for climate-vulnerable countries and champions of adaptation finance said Germany had committed €40 million to the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group’s Climate Action Window.
Flasbarth commended the AfDB Group for its relentless commitment to help Africa mitigate and adapt to climate change and lauded the bank’s reputation and said the contribution by Germany was part of its efforts to balance parity in funding between climate mitigation and adaptation.
According to him, “All our countries have challenges to get the right balance between adaption and mitigation, but we want to do that.
“We want to look at the quality of adaptation finance, and we must look at the accessibility to climate finance, specifically for developing countries’ nationally determined contributions.”
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Speaking after the announcement was made, AfDB Group President, Dr Akinwumi Adesina said, “the climate action you are putting your money in will enable 20 million farmers, including pastoralists, to access weather-indexed insurance.
“It will provide 20 million farmers with climate-resilient agriculture technologies and regenerate a million hectares of degraded land.
“It will also allow for investment in 840 billion cubic meters of water for 18 million people, and provide renewable energy for 10 million people,” he said.
“Africa is choking, Africa is suffering, and Africa is in great distress because of climate change which it did not cause. So, we don’t have a choice but to adapt to it,” Adesina said.
The panel included ministers from Africa, Europe and the Caribbean, all of whom are backing up calls for increased increased financing for climate adaptation in Africa and called on industrialised countries to deliver on their $100 billion-a-year pledge without further delay.
The contribution is to support climate adaptation in fragile African states, a statement issued by the Communication and External Relations Department of the AfDB reads.
Story was adapted from Environ News Nigeria.
