As part of global solidarity towards building sustainable resilience against the effect of climate change in the world, especially in Africa, the African Development Bank has announced a $12.5 billion climate fund to support climate financing in Africa.
President of the AfDB, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, made this announcement at the online International Climate Adaptation Summit (CAS) 2021. The Climate Adaptation Summit (CAS), which is hosted by the Netherlands, is aimed at accelerating, innovating, and scaling-up the world’s efforts in adapting the global societies and economies to the inevitable effects of climate change over the coming decade.
Dr. Adesina who reemphasized AfDB’s commitment to partnering Africa in her effort towards delivering climate adaptation said that the bank would increase its climate financing by 400%, rising from 38% of its total financing in 2019.
He also added that Africa needed collective actions to take the climate fight seriously and adapt to ecological changes.
According to the AfDB President: “We expect to reach 40 per cent in climate finance this year. “To do more for Africa, we are building strategic partnerships”.
“The AfDB and the GCA-Africa have launched the ‘Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program’ to mobilise 25 billion dollars in new climate finance for Africa—and to scale up innovative and transformative actions on climate adaptation across Africa,” he added.
Adesina further disclosed that The Bank launched the Desert-to-Power initiative — a $20 billion initiative — to build the world’s largest solar zone in the Sahel, also citing the Digital Agriculture Flagship will leverage $2 billion to deliver digital climate advisory services to reach 300 million farmers by 2030.
Recall that AEC quarterly reported that AfDB had earlier pledged its support of $6.5 billion to the Great Green Wall initiative, aimed at helping countries in the Sahel and Sahara regions mitigate and adapt to climate change.
