African Development Bank (AfDB) has announced its readiness to fund the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Programme (AAAP) with $25 billion.
The AAAP, according to the AfDB, is expected to scale up innovative and transformative actions on climate change adaptation across Africa.
AfDB President Akinwumi Adesina announced the launch of the project during the 2021 Climate Adaptation Summit (CAS), which was hosted by the government of the Netherlands and the Global Centre (GCA) on Adaptation.
Climate change has contributed to a jump in food insecurity, mosquito-borne disease and mass displacement in the past decade.
Also, the rise in sea levels has led to unusual weather patterns such as Tropical Cyclone Idai, which hit Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe in 2019.
Africa, it is understood, has been warming progressively since the start of the last century, and in the next five years, according to the UN World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), northern and southern Africa are likely to get drier and hotter, while the Sahel region gets wetter.
‘Our ambition is bold: to galvanise climate resilience actions, support countries to accelerate and scale up climate adaptation and resilience, and mobilise financing at scale for climate adaptation in Africa’, Adesina said.
Adesina outlined a number of AfDB initiatives, including the $20 billion Desert to Power project designed to create a solar zone in the Sahel.
It is understood that the bank’s Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) initiative has leveraged $450 million and provided 19 million farmers in 27 countries with climate resilient agricultural technologies, raising average yields by 60 percent.
‘Our Youth Adaptation flagship will unlock $3 billion for the youth, support 10,000 youth-led SMEs in climate resilience, and build capacity for one million youth on climate adaptation’, he said.
The Netherlands Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, former UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, current UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and Germany’s Chancellor, Angela Merkel, also attended the event.
Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, his Indian equivalent, Narendra Modi, the World Bank President, David Malpass, and the IMF Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva, also spoke.
Guterres called for 50 percent of all climate finance provided by developed countries and multilateral development banks to be allocated to adaptation and resilience in developing countries.
‘The African Development Bank set the bar in 2019 by allocating over half of its climate financing to adaptation’, he said.
The annual climate summit aims to answer the UN secretary general’s call for more concrete plans to make the world more climate resilient.
Source: AfDB
Photo source: Tom Stahl
