Source: AUN News

African and other world leaders gathered in Rotterdam two months before the 27th global climate summit (COP27) in Sharm El-Sheik, Egypt, to emphasise the necessity of finance for climate adaptation on the continent.

The need for immediate action and funding was agreed upon in the meetings, which were jointly organised by Dr Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank Group, Professor Patrick Verkooijen, CEO of the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA), and Mousa Faki Mahamat, Chair of the African Union Commission.

According to former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and GCA Co-Chair, the globe has a fever. Every day that goes by, it burns hotter and higher. According to statistics, Africa is where the fever is most severe, and the population is most vulnerable.

Feike Sijbesma, the co-chair of the GCA and honorary chairman of Royal DSM, discussed the significance of assistance from the international business community. According to him, the private sector must provide 80% of the funds for adaptation in the developed north and the developing south.

Patrick Verkooijen, chief executive officer of GCA, stressed the catastrophic effects of climate change that are being felt everywhere in the world. However, he claimed that climatic shocks would be most severe in Africa. He contended that Africa remained unwavering in its commitment to economic growth and would not relent. “African adaptation is like scaling a mountain. We have the ideal squad to climb the peak with you today.

“The next conference after today is Sharm El-Sheikh, the Africa COP,” Verkooijen continued. Success in Egypt, however, will depend on whether or not Africa’s requirements are addressed. Africa has the will and the strategy. The Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program is that strategy (AAA-P). It was created and belonged to Africa. The African leaders present today launched it. It serves as the means of carrying out the Africa Adaptation Initiative.

The Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program, established in 2020 by the GCA and the African Development Bank, is at the epicentre of climate action on the African continent. Participants regarded the program’s driving forces as Verkooijen and Adesina’s collaborative efforts.

President Macky Sall of Senegal, Chair of the African Union, President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana, Chair of the Climate Vulnerable Forum, and President Felix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of the Congo all delivered a unified message: the international community must fulfil its commitment to double adaptation finance and scale up adaptation action for Africa.

President Sall voiced dissatisfaction at the lack of leaders from industrialised nations at the summit. The chair of the African Union said that if African leaders could travel to Rotterdam to discuss a topic as necessary as climate adaptation in Africa, they should have at the very least expected their European counterparts, whose nations are among the biggest polluters in the world, to attend the summit as well.

Presidents Akufo-Addo and Tshisekedi, Chair of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, and others agreed with this sentiment. “A bird can only fly with two wings, yet this table’s representation is asymmetrical,” observed Mohammed.

The UN deputy chief continued by saying that considering how little Africa contributes to global carbon emissions, it is not its fault that it is in this situation. She wondered how things would have turned out if the positions had been reversed. Mohammed claimed that if the wealthy world would not follow through on its pledge to provide $100 billion annually for climate action in underdeveloped nations, the COP26 Glasgow deal was in danger of collapse.

Adesina brought up the African continent’s rapid warming during his speech, noting that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has predicted that the continent will experience critical levels of global warming earlier than any other region of the world.

The head of the African Development Bank emphasised that despite the flood, Africa lacks the means to combat climate change. He said that only 3% of global climate funding is allocated to the region. If this pattern persisted, he added, Africa’s climate financing need may increase to between $100 billion and $127 billion annually by 2030.

“The current climate funding framework is not addressing the requirements of Africa,” stated Adesina. According to updated projections by the African Development Bank’s African Economic Outlook, Africa will require between $118 billion and $145 billion annually from 2020 to 2030, or between 1.3 and 1.6 trillion dollars, to carry out its obligations under the Paris Agreement nationally determined contributions.

The head of the African Development Bank claimed that the upstream facility at the GCA for the African Adaptation Acceleration Program had already contributed to $3 billion of mainstreamed climate adaptation investments by the African Development Bank, including agriculture and energy investments, transport, water, and sanitation.

Adesina mentioned the African Development Fund (ADF), the African Development Bank’s concessionary lending arm, as one approach to filling the finance gap for climate change. He claimed that the fund’s 16th replenishment, which is now in progress, offered a unique chance to fully support the $12.5 billion Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program.

The head of the African Development Bank noted that the African Development Fund had established a Climate Action Window that aimed to raise $4 billion to $13 billion for the member nations of the Fund to use for climate adaptation. With this help, 20 million farmers will be able to access climate-resilient agricultural technologies, 20 million farmers and pastoralists will have access to weather-indexed crop insurance, 1 million hectares of degraded land will be restored, and about 9.5 million people will have access to renewable energy.

It has been time, according to Adesina, for affluent countries to commit to giving developing nations $100 billion annually in climate money. Africa can’t wait, he said emphatically. The Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program needs your support now. Now is the time to help the 16th replenishment of the ADF. Now is the time to support ADF-16’s Climate Action Window.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the World Trade Organization director general, added her voice to the request for more money for adaptation in Africa. When discussing the role of trade in climate adaptation, she said that trade policies should be included in global climate action as a driving factor for financing and other climate-related help given to vulnerable economies.

The five-point Communiqué of the summit made clear that Africa was at a turning point. It stressed that the success of COP27 will depend on whether financial support is provided to crucial country-led adaptation programmes like the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program to meet the requirements of Africa, the continent with the greatest vulnerability to climate change.

Feike Sijbesma, the co-chair of the GCA, concluded, “Investments in global climate adaptation cooperation are a massive opportunity for nations like the Netherlands to share some of our best technologies with those who need them most. The AAAP will be a vital tool for encouraging significantly more company investment in environmentally friendly and resilient solutions throughout Africa. The commercial sector, in particular, has a huge role to play. This is a joint effort; we need every industry and contribution to end the climate disaster in Africa.

Analysis by: Advocacy Unified Network