Africa is facing a critical shortfall in funding for climate adaptation, according to the State and Trends in Adaptation in Africa 2022, a new report launched by the Global Center on Adaptation.
The report revealed that cumulative adaptation finance to 2030 will come to less than one-quarter of the estimated needs stated by African countries in their National Determined Contributions unless more funding for climate adaptation is secured.
In 2019 and 2020, an estimated $11.4 billion was committed to climate adaptation finance in Africa with more than 97 percent of the funds coming from public actors and less than 3 percent from private sectors. This is significantly less than the $52.7 billion estimated that African countries will need annually by 2030.
To increase the efficacy of adaptation finance flows to Africa over the coming decade, the report recommended that financial institutions must mainstream resilience into the investments they are making.
It advised policymakers and other stakeholders to build the enabling environment for adaptation investment.
Also, it said financial innovation for adaptation must match country-level policy and market conditions.
Commenting on the report findings, Patrick Verkooijen, a professor and CEO of the Global Center on Adaptation, said: “Adaptation finance is scaling too slowly to close the investment gap in Africa, even as the costs of inaction rise. As we look forward to COP27, we must generate a breakthrough in finance for climate adaptation.”
Verkooijen said the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Programme endorsed by the African Union is the best vehicle available to ensure the adaptation investment shortfall in Africa is met with action from all available sources including the private sector.
Speaking at the launch of the report, Amina Mohammed, deputy secretary-general of the United Nations said: “COP27 must be a turning point where developed countries must put forward credible plans to double adaptation finance to reach $40 billion a year by 2025.
She called for a new business model to deliver adaptation finance by turning adaptation priorities into pipelines of investment for projects.
Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank Group said the Global Center on Adaptation is doing incredible work in mapping out the needs and how to make climate-resilient infrastructure.
‘Already, the upstream financing facility at the Global Center on Adaptation is doing so much analytical work to support countries to build climate resilience into infrastructure, agriculture and to mainstream climate financing into national bodies but also into the financing of large multilateral development banks,” he said.
Josefa Leonel Correia Sacko, the commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture for the African Union Commission said: “Africa’s 1.4 billion people contribute less than 3 percent of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions but find itself on the frontline of this climate emergency with nine out of 10 of the most vulnerable countries in Africa.
Sacko said adaptation to climate change is very crucial to Africa, and that it is adaptation and financing adaptation will be Africa’s priority at COP27.
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Meanwhile, the new report provides policy-shaping recommendations in key areas such as livestock, agriculture, cities, nature-based solutions, blue economy, and coastal erosion.
The report also highlighted successful adaptation initiatives from the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAAP) which have the potential to be scaled up and replicated.
It also presents key policies, skills and finance gaps that must be addressed if adaptation is to be effective and reach those who need it the most.
Commenting on the report’s findings, Ede Ijjasz-Vásquez and Jamal Saghir, co-directors of State and Trends in Adaptation in Africa 2022 said the climate is changing rapidly and Africa needs to adapt.
“It must adapt to rising temperatures, more extreme storms and floods, rising sea levels, more intense heat waves and longer as well as more severe droughts. Our report not only maps out the impacts of climate change, but also the available adaptation solutions. It proves that adaptation is an opportunity for jobs and economic recovery. Adaptation pays,” they said.
The Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program was developed by African Development Bank and the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) to mobilise $25 billion by 2025 to implement, scale and accelerate climate adaptation across the African continent.
AAAP works across four bold interconnected pillars to achieve transformational results: Climate-Smart Digital Technologies for Agriculture and Food Security; African Infrastructure Resilience Accelerator; Youth Empowerment for Entrepreneurship and Job Creation in Climate Adaptation and Resilience and Innovative Financial Initiatives for Africa.
AAAP has already guided over $3.5 billion of upstream investments in 19 countries with every dollar spent influencing $100 downstream.
