Finance, resilience, action: Three climate keywords for Africa
Africa stands at the forefront of the disproportionate impacts of climate change despite having contributed minimally to global greenhouse gas emissions historically. In September, the first Africa Climate Summit aimed at finding common finance solutions to foster a green and sustainable growth for the continent. The results are summarized in the Nairobi declaration, highlighting the urgency of a strong climate finance strategy, throughout the continent and at an international cooperation level.
Accounting for merely 2 to 3 percent of the world’s carbon emissions, the African continent has suffered the most severe consequences of global warming and climate change, due to the rapidity of its warming trends, its structural and institutional vulnerability, and its difficulty in implementing necessary adaptation and mitigation strategies.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), crucial development sectors in Africa have already faced substantial losses and damages attributable to human-induced climate change, including biodiversity loss and ecosystem disruption, water shortages, reduced food production from crops, fisheries and livestock, loss of lives and rise of diseases from heat and infections, and an overall reduced economic growth.
In this context, climate finance emerges as a key player in enabling climate-resilient development in Africa, especially with an expected rise in intensity, frequency and severity of climate hazards and extreme events. The IPCC report emphasizes the importance of the implementation of adaptation strategies for reducing risks for African countries. Adaptation strategies, together with mitigation and a transition to a low-carbon economy are therefore crucial for granting a climate resilient, inclusive and equal approach to African countries’ development.
According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), despite their efforts to reduce national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change, African countries need significant and sustained climate finance support from other nations.
For example, UNDP highlights that “from 2020 to 2030, the estimated funding required for African countries’ nationally determined contributions (NDCs) is approximately $2.8 trillion, representing more than 93 percent of Africa’s GDP.”
African governments have committed $264 billion of domestic resources to implement the national NDCs, in spite of high debt and the need for funds for development projects. This sum amounts to about 10 percent of the total estimated cost needed: the rest is expected to come from international donors and the private sector.
Since the Paris Agreement in 2015, many international discussions have led to the realization of the need for developed countries to scale up climate finance for developing countries to deliver on an agreed climate finance target of $100 billion annually by 2020. However, trust has been undermined due the failure of developed countries to meet this target.
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