THE World Bank Group yesterday unveiled a new plan that calls for $16 billion in funding to help Africa adapt to climate change and build up the continent’s resilience to climate shocks.
Titled “Accelerating Climate-Resilient
and Low-Carbon Development,” the Africa Climate Business Plan will be
presented at COP21, the global climate talks in Paris, on Monday.
It lays out measures to boost the
resilience of the continent’s assets-its people, land, water, and
cities-as well as other moves including boosting renewable energy and
strengthening early warning systems.
“Sub-Saharan Africa is highly vulnerable
to climate shocks and our research shows that could have far-ranging
impact--on everything from child stunting and malaria to food price
increases and droughts,” said World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim in
a report made available to the media.
“This plan identifies concrete steps
that African governments can take to ensure that their countries will
not lose hardwon gains in economic growth and poverty reduction and they
can offer some protection from climate change.”
Per current estimates, the plan says
that the region requires $5-10 billion per year to adapt to global
warming of 2°C. The World Bank and the United Nations Environment
Programme estimate that the cost of managing climate resilience will
continue to rise to $20-50 billion by mid-century, and closer to $100
billion in the event of a 4°C warming.
Of the $16.1 billion that the ambitious
plan proposes for fast tracking climate adaptation, some $5.7 billion is
expected from the International Development Association (IDA), the arm
of the World Bank Group that supports the poorest countries.
About $2.2 billion is expected from
various climate finance instruments, $2.0 billion from others in the
development community, $3.5 billion from the private sector, and $0.7
billion from domestic sources, with an additional $2.0 billion needed to
deliver on the plan.
“The Africa Climate Business Plan spells
out a clear path to invest in the continent’s urgent climate needs and
to fast-track the required climate finance to ensure millions of people
are protected from sliding into extreme poverty,” explains Makhtar Diop,
World Bank (WB), Group Vice President for Africa.
“While adapting to climate change and
mobilizing the necessary resources remain an enormous challenge, the
plan represents a critical opportunity to support a priority set of
climate-resilient initiatives in Africa.”
The plan will boost the region’s ability
to adapt to a changing climate while reducing greenhouse emissions,
focusing on number of concrete actions. It identifies dozen priority
areas for action that will enhance Africa’s capacity to adapt to the
adverse consequences of climate variation and change. The first area for
action aims to boost the resilience of the continent’s assets.
These comprise of natural capital
(landscapes, forests, agricultural land, inland water bodies, oceans);
Physical capital (cities, transport infrastructure, physical assets in
coastal areas) human and social capital (where efforts should include
improving social protection for the people most vulnerable to climate
shocks and addressing climate-related drivers of migration).
The second area for action focuses on
powering resilience, including opportunities for scaling up low-carbon
energy sources. In addition to helping mitigate climate change, these
activities offer considerable resilience benefits, as societies with
inadequate access to energy are also more vulnerable to climate shocks.
And the third area for action will
enable resilience by providing essential data, information and decision
making tools for climate-resilient development across sectors. This
includes strengthening hydromet systems at the regional and country
levels and building capacity to plan and design climate-resilient
investments.
“The plan is a ‘win-win’ for all
especially the people in Africa who have to adapt to climate change and
work to mitigate its impacts,” said Jamal Saghir, the World Bank’s
Senior Regional Adviser for Africa.
“We look forward to working with African
governments and development partners, including the private sector, to
move this plan forward and deliver climate smart development.”
The Africa Climate Business Plan
reflects contributions and inputs from a wide variety of partners with
whom the Bank is already collaborating on the ground, in a coordinated
effort to increase Africa’s resilience to climate variability and
change.
The plan aims to help raise awareness
and accelerate resource mobilization for the region’s critical
climate-resilience and low-carbon initiatives.
The plan warns that unless decisive
action is taken, climate variability and change could seriously
jeopardize the region’s hard-won development gains and its aspirations
for further growth and poverty reduction. And it comes in the wake of
Bank analysis which indicates climate change could push up to 43 million
more Africans into poverty by 2030
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