AfDB, Global Centre on Adaption launch African climate adaption initiative
Abidjan, Cote D'Ivoire (PANA) - African Development Bank (AfDB) has launched the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Programme (AAAP) to mobilize US$25 billion to scale up and accelerate climate change adaptation actions across Africa.
The bank said on Tuesday the announcement came during the Climate Adaptation Summit (CAS) 2021, hosted by the government of the Netherlands and the Global Center on Adaptation.
AfDB President Akinwumi A. Adesina, announced the launch.
The AAAP is a joint initiative between the multilateral lender and the Global Center on Adaptation.
It is expected to scale up innovative and transformative actions on climate adaptation across Africa, Adesina said during the inaugural Ministerial Dialogue on Adaptation Action, held as part of the summit, the bank said in a press statement.
“Our ambition is bold: to galvanize climate resilience actions; support countries to accelerate and scale up climate adaptation and resilience; and mobilize financing at scale for climate adaptation in Africa,” the Bank chief said.
Adesina was joined in addressing the summit by Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte, 8th UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, current UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Others were the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, and India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.
World Bank president David Malpass, and IMF Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva, also spoke.
The ongoing COVID-19 crisis formed a backdrop to the meeting, a fact Prime Minister Rutte acknowledged in his opening statement.
The Netherlands has taken a lead role globally in harnessing the energy and entrepreneurship of the youth and developing nature-based solutions.
“I hope that 2021 will be a year of heightened international ambition and action on climate change, after a difficult 2020, and this conference will help achieve that goal,” Rutte said.
Acknowledging the “huge gaps” remaining in financing for adaptation in developing countries, the UN Secretary General called for 50percent of all climate finance provided by developed countries and multilateral development Banks to be allocated to adaptation and resilience in developing countries.
''The African Development Bank set the bar in 2019 by allocating over half of its climate financing to adaptation," he said.
A number of speakers acknowledged Africa’s vulnerability to climate change, as well as Africans’ innovative responses to challenges.
Ghanaian president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said the country was working with the private sector with the assistance of the Green Climate Fund.
''To establish a multi-million-dollar green fund to support our climate adaptation interventions and our efforts to transition to renewable energy,” he said.
Adesina thanked Ban Ki Moon for his role in the establishment of GCA’s regional office for Africa in Abidjan last year, which is hosted by the Bank.
-0- PANA DJ/VAO 26Jan2021
