African Development Bank to help boost climate change adaptation funding to $12.5bn

African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina pledged to boost funding commitments by $12.5bn to help countries adapt to the effects of climate change between 2020 and 2025.

Addressing UN talks on climate change adaptation, Adesina said the Bank was doubling commitments to climate finance to $25bn for the five-year period, half of which would fund climate adaptation.

“This is where the rubber meets the road,” Adesina told members of the Global Commission on Adaptation. “Because many of the countries are facing extreme weather patterns, and they can’t wait anymore, we’ve decided to launch the Africa disaster risk facility to ensure these countries get the resources they need to insure themselves against catastrophic risk events.”

The meeting, called: Countdown to the Climate Adaptation Summit: the Launch of the Year of Action, was organised by the Global Commission on Adaptation, which seeks to prepare cities and farmlands for a hotter world. The Bank’s project involves building early warning systems so that African governments know of emerging threats and an insurance scheme to provide payouts when drought, floods and other calamities strike. Policy-makers generally take two approaches to climate change. Mitigation involves cutting emissions of heat-trapping gases to limit temperature rises; while adaptation is the process of preparing for a warmer planet.

Original source: AfDB
Published on 25 September 2019