The African Development Bank and the World Adaptation Center are joining forces to mobilize an additional $25 billion to accelerate Africa’s adaptation to climate change.
The AfDB (African Development Bank) will implement its Acceleration Program for Adaptation in Africa (AAAP) intended to mobilize 25 billion dollars. The aim is to step up measures to adapt to the effects of climate change on the continent.
The announcement was made by AfDB President Akinwumi Adesina during the 2021 edition of the Climate Change Adaptation Summit, organized by the Government of the Netherlands and the Global Adaptation Center (GCA).
The AAAP is, moreover, a joint initiative of the ADB and the GCA. “It should help to step up innovative and transformative measures taken in favor of adaptation to climate change in Africa,” President Adesina commented during the Summit.
“Our ambitions are great. This involves boosting resilience measures in the face of climate change, helping countries to accelerate and intensify adaptation measures and resilience to climate change and mobilize funding to meet Africa’s needs by adaptation.”
Speaking at the Summit, the United Nations Secretary-General recognized the “huge gaps” that remain in adaptation finance in developing countries. This is why António Guterres has called for half of the funding for the fight against climate change, granted by developed countries and multilateral development banks, to be allocated to adaptation and resilience in developing countries.
He recalled that the AfDB had set this standard in 2019 by allocating more than half of its financing devoted to the fight against climate change to adaptation.
Ghana’s President Nana Addo Akufo-Addo, for his part, said his country was working with the private sector, with the help of the Green Climate Fund, “to create a multi-million dollar green fund for support our measures to adapt to climate change and our efforts to transition to renewable energies”.
An undisputed commitment!
Akinwumi Adesina thanked former UN boss Ban Ki-moon for his role in establishing the GCA Regional Office for Africa, which is hosted by AfDB in Abidjan. The Global Adaptation Center is a conduit in providing solutions to accelerate and support climate change adaptation actions around the world. To salute its commitment to climate finance, the Bank was chosen in 2020 by development partners to house the regional office.
The President of the AfDB attended three sessions of the Dutch Summit and presented various initiatives, including the “Desert to Power” project costing $20 billion; which aims to create, in the Sahel, the world’s largest solar energy production area. “Our flagship program for youth adaptation will unlock $3 billion for youth, help 10,000 youth-led SMEs in climate resilience, and build the capacity of a million young people in terms of adaptation,” he said.
For its part, the Bank-led TAAT initiative mobilized $450 million to equip 19 million farmers in 27 countries with climate-resilient agricultural technologies, resulting in a 60% increase in average yields.
Akinwumi Adesina praised the support of John Kerry, United States Special Envoy for the Fight Against Climate Change, taking note of the tenant change in the White House. “With you in charge and with the strong and visible leadership of President Biden, we find new life to lead the global agenda to fight climate change,” he said.
In recent years, AfDB resources allocated to finance adaptation to climate change and resilience have quintupled, from $ 338 million in 2016 to $2 billion in 2019.
Reference: https://www.afrik21.africa/en/africa-afdb-to-mobilize-us25-billion-for-climate-change-adaptation/
