EU supports Nigeria, other African countries with £15m to tackle climate change

To tackle issues around climate change, combat land degradation, and improve community livelihoods, the European Union has supported Nigeria and other African countries with £15 million.

At the conference of the parties of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP16) recently, the European Commission announced the launch of the second phase of the Regreening Africa programme.

According to the EU, the programme aims to support Nigeria, Somalia, Senegal, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Mali by collaborating with some of the region’s most vulnerable populations affected by climate change.

“Regreening Africa exemplifies the powerful collaboration needed to restore our planet while empowering the communities on the frontlines of climate and degradation challenges,” Jozef Síkela, European commissioner for International Partnerships, said.

He added, “During Phase I of this programme, we helped to restore nearly one million hectares of degraded land and reached over five hundred thousand households across eight countries.”

In the first phase of the programme which spanned March 2017 to September 2023, the EU focused on reversing land degradation across eight Sub-Saharan African countries.

Sikela noted that Phase II of the programme would build resilience and drive sustainable growth across the Sahel Africa.

Also, Jessika Roswell, European Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy, said the European Union would through the investment, support local communities and protect people’s livelihoods by reviving degraded soils.

She said that healthy soils were the foundation of everything—“how and where we live, the food we eat, fresh water, and a stable climate.

At the UNCCD COP16 negotiations in Riyadh and beyond, the EU is committed to working together with international partners to restore and protect land and soils”, said Rosewell.

Regreening Africa is a key programme in the EU’s support of the Great Green Wall, an AU-EU Global Gateway Investment Package Flagship at a regional level.