The African Development Bank (AfDB) President, Donald Kaberuka, will join other distinguished personalities at the second meeting of the High Level Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing scheduled to take place from 12-13 July 2010 in New York.

The event will be the second meeting of the High Level Group and it will consider reports from Working Groups which examined a range of potential public and private sources of finance The Copenhagen Accord sets out the objective of mobilizing $100 billion per year in additional resources by 2020.

The United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon established a high-level advisory group on climate change financing to identify potential sources of new and additional resources to finance mitigation and adaptation action in developing countries.

Mr. Kaberuka was appointed to the Group chaired by Ethiopian Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, and Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, in his personal capacity.

These financing issues are important Africa. The costs of adapting to a warmer and more volatile climate are already evident. For example, in reduced food security, water scarcity, and changes in land use. It has raised the cost for Africa of meeting the MDGs.

Whilst adaptation therefore remains a primary concern, Africa also faces an acute energy shortage; for instance in sub-Saharan Africa less than 30 per cent of people currently have access to electricity. As Africa has abundant sources of renewable energy there is the opportunity for it to chart a new lower carbon development path.

The Group will meet again later in the year to agree a report which will be submitted before the next UNFCCC Conference of the parties in November in Mexico.

Contacts

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