Africa emits only 3% of cumulative carbon emissions, suffers disproportionately – AfDB president – Realnews Magazine

Reporting from Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, by Maureen Chigbo

Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank, AfDB, painted a graphic picture of Africa suffering from climate change at the opening of the bank’s 2023 annual meeting on Tuesday, May 23, highlighting the fact that The continent is suffering disproportionately. from carbon emissions. Adesina made it clear that Africa, which accounts for only 3 percent of cumulative carbon emissions globally, is now suffering “loss and damage” from its negative consequences.

“Across the Sahel, a warming climate is drying up water basins; The Lake Chad basin that used to support the livelihoods of millions of people in Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon has shrunk to 1/10th of its size. In many parts of the Horn of Africa, it has not rained for more than four seasons. And in Malawi, Mozambique, Madagascar, Zambia and Rwanda, cyclones and floods have left behind devastation, with loss of life and destruction of infrastructure. And small island states are affected by rising sea levels, coastal erosion and loss.

“Whichever way you look at it, Africa is being ravaged by climate change. Climate change costs it US$7-15 billion a year, projected to rise to US$50 billion by 2030 ,” Adesina told the audience in the beautiful hall packed to capacity with powerful and influential men and women from all walks of life. Heads of state and governments from Egypt, Zimbabwe, governors of central banks from African countries, the European Union, the African Union, the world Working with multilateral and international financial institutions such as the Bank/IMF Group, the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, environmentalists and media at the Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, meeting site.

According to Adesina, “Here in Egypt, water security has become a national issue. At COP 27, Egypt launched the Nexus on Water, Food and Energy, a bold effort to mobilize USD 14 billion to combat the effects of climate change. The African Development Bank is leading an effort to raise USD 1.4 billion to support desalination and wastewater treatment plants for agriculture. So far, we have helped raise USD 2.2 billion from development partners.”

Finding financial resources to deal with climate change is becoming increasingly difficult for African countries that are still grappling with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, debt and global geopolitical conflicts, and high global inflation. made worse by inflation resulting from a mix of trends. , They said.

The AfDB president said Africa’s cumulative climate financing needs are estimated at US$2.7 trillion between 2020 and 2030. Yet, climate financing resources are only flowing to Africa, as the continent receives only 3% of global climate finance, of which 14% is from the private sector, one of the lowest in the world. There is much to be done to leverage the private sector in climate finance and green development.”

realnews reports that the African Development Bank is playing its part and has exceeded its commitment to provide 40% of its total funding to climate, reaching 45% in 2022. 50%, earning the bank praise from UN Secretary-General António Guterres at the UN General Assembly as a global leader in climate adaptation.

The bank has also launched the African Adaptation Acceleration Program in collaboration with the Global Center on Adaptation to mobilize USD 25 billion for climate adaptation.

However, Adesina made a clarion call for developed countries to provide $100 billion annual commitment in climate finance to developing countries, which they described as “far less than the financing needs”. He added that “public climate financing must be complemented by mobilizing resources from the private sector.

AfDB has launched the African Financial Coalition 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 must incorporate climate financing into all of their operations,” he said.

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