Africa suffers US$15bn loss from climate change annually

AFRICA, besides being the least emitter of greenhouse gas emissions, suffers between US$7 and US$15 billion per year in losses to climate change, the Africa Development Bank has said, with losses projected to rise to US$40 billion per year by 2030.

The continent, of 54-nations, accounts for only 4 percent of all global carbon emissions.

Yet, the continent suffers disproportionately from the negative impacts of climate change, including increased frequency and intensity of droughts, cyclones, and floods.

“Their ‘Africans' lives are affected every day by climate change, majority of them women,” AfDB president Dr Akinwumi Adesina told on Tuesday during bank's annual meetings in Accra, Ghana.

“Many of their lives are affected by lack of electricity, from a kid struggling to read with candles or lanterns, or the occasional street-light in the neighbourhood, to a mother who straps her baby on her back, using fuel-wood and charcoal to cook, yet exposing herself and her child to effects of fumes that endanger their lives.”

Dr Adesina said Africa had no choice but to adapt to climate change. To support the continent in doing so, the AfDB has doubled its financing for climate to US$25 billion by 2025, making its share of climate finance dedicated to adaptation, at 67 percent, the highest among all multilateral development banks.

“The bank is also supporting countries to insure themselves against extreme weather events, through its Africa Disaster Risk Insurance Facility. Today, the facility is helping nine countries to pay for insurance premiums to protect themselves from effects of climate change. In Madagascar, our support of US$ 4 million to pay for full insurance for the country, allowed it to get US$12 million in payouts to compensate over 600 000 farmers, when cyclone Batsirai hit the country,” he said.

The bank was leading on securing Africa's food supplies in the face of climate change.

“Six years ago, I launched the Feed Africa strategy of the bank. Our goal was to deliver climate-resilient agricultural technologies at scale to farmers, and feed Africa.

“We are achieving incredible success. Our Feed Africa work has already benefitted over 76 million farmers with access to improved agricultural technologies.

“Our flagship programme, Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) has delivered climate-smart seeds to 12 million farmers in 27 countries in just two years.”

Combined, Africa will need to invest around US$200 billion per year by 2025 and close to US$400 billion per year by 2030 to enable it to adapt to the growing impacts of climate change and to ensure that its future development path is consistent with the goal of limiting global warming to no more than 1.5°C, Amar Bhattacharya, senior fellow-Global Economy and Development, Center for Sustainable Development said.

“In order to meet the scale and urgency of the challenge, Africa must be prepared to do its part,” Bhattacharya said.

“It must put in place robust institutional structures to set ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions and translate them into tangible investment programs and pipelines of projects.

Country platforms, such as the one that South Africa launched for its just energy transition at COP26, can be adopted by other countries to give impetus to scaling up transformative investments.

Africa must also make concerted efforts to boost domestic resource mobilisation to ensure the long-term sustainability of the necessary investments.”