Africa needs $2.8 trillion to fight climate change-report
Africa will need approximately $2.8 trillion to implement its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) by 2030, according to the African Union Commission and the UN Economic Commission for Africa report adduced during the Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi, Kenya.
However, the African Development Bank (AfDB) has doubled its climate finance to $25 billion by 2025, and devoted 67 per cent of its climate finance to adaptation.
However, the joint report adds that several negative factors caused by climate change in Africa have been projected to range between $290 billion and $440 billion, depending on the degree of warming, according to the UNECA’s African Climate Policy Centre.
The report indicates that more than 110 million people in Africa were affected in 2022 either directly or indirectly by weather, climate and water-related hazards, which led to more than $ 8.5 billion in economic damages.
There were a reported 5,000 fatalities of which 48 per cent were associated with drought and 43 per cent associated with flooding, according to the Emergency Event Database. The report noted that this could be likely much higher because of under-reporting.
Meanwhile, the Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment at the African Union Commission, Josefa Sacko, said Africa, like other regions, has come to terms with the reality that climate change is already happening.
“Given Africa’s high exposure, fragility and low adaptive capacity, the effects of climate change are expected to be felt more severely.”
“People’s health, peace, prosperity, infrastructure, and other economic activities across many sectors in Africa are exposed to significant risks associated with climate change,” she added.
Africa’s agricultural productivity growth has declined by 34 per cent since 1961 due to climate change, the report states.
“In Somalia, almost 1.2 million people became internally displaced by the catastrophic impacts of drought on pastoral and farming livelihoods and hunger during the year. A further 512 000 internal displacements associated with drought were recorded in Ethiopia,” the report stated.
“The Southern Africa region was hit by a series of tropical cyclones and tropical storms in the first months of 2022, leading to flooding and population displacement. There was little time for recovery between shocks in nations like Madagascar.”
The reports also mentioned that many parts of the Sahel experienced significant flooding during the monsoon season, with Nigeria, Niger, Chad and the southern half of Sudan particularly affected.
The report was the contributions from African National Meteorological and Hydrological Services, WMO Regional Climate Centres and specialized United Nations agencies.
