Climate change: AfDB mobilises $13bn for 20m African farmers

President, African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has said that the African Development Fund (ADF) would introduce a Climate Action Window to mobilise between $4 billion and $13 billion for climate adaptation for ADF countries.

The AfDB president said the fund mobilised would be used to support 20 million farmers with access to climate resilient agricultural technologies, 20 million farmers and pastoralists access to weather-indexed crop insurance.

He added it would revive one million hectares of degraded land, and provide renewable energy for about 9.5 million people.

Adesina said this at the Africa Climate Adaptation Summit which took place in Rotterdam, Netherlands on Monday.

The ADF countries are Benin, Burkina Faso. Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger and Rwanda.

Others are Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Ghana, Lesotho, Mauritania, Sao Tome & Principe, Cameroon, Kenya, Senegal, Zambia and Nigeria.

He, however, stressed the need for financing to tackle the challenge of climate change in Africa and called on developed countries to provide the $100-billion annual climate finance as commitments made to developing countries.

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“The African Development Fund’s 16^th replenishment now presents such a unique opportunity! Never have the stakes been so high for Africa’s low income and fragile states that depend on the ADF.

“Nine of the 10 countries most vulnerable to climate change in the world are in sub-Sahara Africa and all of them are ADF countries. Yet, ADF countries do not have access to global climate finance,” he said.

Adesina stated that Africa received only three per cent of global climate financing, adding that if the trend continued, the continent’s climate financing gap would reach $100 billion to $127 billion per year through 2030.

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“The current climate financing architecture is not meeting the needs of Africa. New estimates by the African Economic Outlook of the AfDB shows that Africa will need between $1.3 trillion and $1.6 trillion between 2020 and 2030, or $118 billion to $145 billion annually.

This will enable the continent to implement its commitments to the Paris Agreement and its nationally determined contributions.

“The African Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAA-P) is Africa’s own programme, supported by African Heads of State, to mobilise more resources for climate change, to advance the objectives of the African Adaptation Initiative.”

He further said the bank and the Global Centre on Adaptation were mobilising $25 billion for the programme, to which the AfDB had committed $12.5 billion.

The Star