Rich countries have agreed to spend about $25 billion by 2025 to boost Africa’s efforts to adapt to climate change as the continent grapples with drought, cyclones and extreme heat.
The amount (around €25.178 billion), pledged by the Africa Adaptation Accelerator Program: a joint initiative between several nations and organizations – was presented this day as the largest adaptation effort ever made in the world, official sources said during a summit in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Half of the amount is pledged by the African Development Bank, with representatives from Denmark, the UK, France, the Netherlands, the International Monetary Fund and others also offering their support for the initiative.
The African continent is responsible for just 3% to 4% of emissions, despite being home to almost 17% of the world’s population, but experts say it is particularly vulnerable to climate change as it has less capacity to adaptation.
African nations hope to use the funds to improve their resilience to extreme weather events such as droughts or floods, increase tree cover and protect biodiversity, as well as expand their renewable energy capacity.
The summit comes just weeks after the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) found that rich countries had failed to keep their promise to spend $100 billion (100.7 billion euros) a year in 2009 to help developing countries to adapt to global warming. heated.
The organization said that 83.3 billion dollars (83.892 million euros) were delivered to the poorest countries in 2020the highest sum in history, but still lower than the original amount.
If the funds pledged at the Rotterdam Summit are delivered, the decades-long goal will finally be achieved, but African nations warn this will not be enough.
“Africa does not have the resources to deal with climate changeAkinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank, told the summit. “The continent receives only 3% of total climate finance,” he noted.
Africa will need between $1.3 billion and $1.6 billion this decade to implement its commitments to the Paris climate agreement, an annual cost of between $140 billion and $300 billion, Adesina said. She added that the costs of adapting to climate change are expected to rise by 2050, as the effects of global warming become more severe.
Ghanaian President Nana Akufo Addo said his country will push for funds allocated to adapt to a warmer climate to be doubled at the next United Nations summit in Egypt in November.
After decades of developed countries failing to deliver on their funding promises, many African nations are skeptical that the funds will ever reach the continent.
The UN High-Level Champion on Climate Change in Egypt, Mahmoud Mohieldin, said the existing global climate finance framework is “insufficient and ineffective”especially for Africa.
Source: Observadora
