"Africa is being shortchanged by climate finance. Africa is choking. Africa will need $2.7 trillion by 2030 to finance its climate change needs," Mr Adesina said.
The president of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina, has hinted that Africa will need $2.7 trillion to upscale climate change adaptation by 2030.
Mr Adesina made this known on Monday at the AfDB annual meeting themed:"Mobilising private sector financing for climate and green growth in Africa", held in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.
"Africa is being shortchanged by climate finance. Africa is choking. Africa will need $2.7 trillion by 2030 to finance its climate change needs," Mr Adesina said.
He said Africa, which is the world's lowest emitter of greenhouse gases is "choking" and in dire need of adequate financing to tackle the effects of climate change.
"Anywhere you look in Africa today, climate change is causing havoc. In the Sahel, hotter temperatures are drying up limited water, causing water stress for crops and livestock and worsening food insecurity," he noted.
Losses
The AfDB president said Africa has recorded "loss of people, loss or destruction of infrastructure.
This, he said, has also contributed to the rising numbers of what he described as "climate-induced" refugees.
"Africa loses 7 to 15 billion dollars a year from climate change and that is estimated to rise to $50 billion by 2040 at the current trend. But Africa, which accounts for just three percent of the total cumulative emissions in the world, is now suffering disproportionately from the negative consequences of that," he said.
Mr Adesina explained that if Africa had that($2.7 trillion) money, the Sahel would have electricity and that they would recharge the Chad basin, which has provided livelihoods for millions of people in Chad, Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon.
"Everything will change in all those countries; we will green the Sahel. We will insure every single African country against catastrophic weather events," he said.
The term "adaptation" describes modifications made to systems, procedures, and structures to lessen possible harm or take advantage of opportunities brought on by climate change.
In order to respond to the effects of climate change, nations and communities have been urged to deliberately create adaptation strategies and put them into practice.
African Adaptation acceleration program
Based on the aforementioned concerns, Mr Adesina said the AfDB, together with the Global Center on Adaptation, launched the African adaptation acceleration program.
The programme, he said is to mobilise $25 billion of support for climate adaptation in Africa. We devote 63 percent of our climate finance to adaptation.
He hinted that Africa's climate finance from the private sector would need to increase by 36 per cent yearly, and that about $213 billion in financing is required.
"There is so much gap to be filled in terms of private sector financing. The opportunities of financing climate and also financing green growth events are in Africa.It's not just infrastructure, but quality and green infrastructure. We need to prepare bankable projects for the private sector to invest in,"Mr Adesina said.
Loss and damage deal at COP27
After several days of negotiations at the 27th edition of the Conference of the Parties(COP27) in Egypt last year, parties finally created a facility to respond to the devastating impacts of climate change in vulnerable communities.
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In what many dubbed a historic moment, especially for Africa and other developing nations, parties at the COP27 conference agreed to establish a "loss and damage fund" as part of the Sharm El-Sheikh Implementation Plan on climate change.
Loss and damage' only narrowly made it into the list of the agenda for the conference for the first time after African negotiators asserted their influence.
Following the development, the new fund will see donors contribute to a global fund to save lives and livelihoods from climate change-related disasters.
The agreement saw Parties recommit to keeping the 1.5°C target for global temperature rise intact and significant progress made across the board on climate issues.
This report is produced in fulfilment of the UNESCO & CIJ London Climate Change in News Media project facilitated by CJID.
