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African presidents and global leaders support bold action on climate change adaptation for Africa
In a historic and united show of solidarity for a continent that contributes only 5% to global emissions, more than 30 heads of state and global leaders committed to prioritize actions that help African countries adapt to the impacts of climate change and “build forward better.”
Watch the Heads of State and global leaders remarks
Africa now faces the dual onslaught of climate change – currently estimated at between $7 billion and $15 billion each year – and Covid-19, which has claimed 114,000 lives. The African Development Bank expects that the impact of climate change on the continent could rise to $50 billion each year by 2040, with a further 3% decline each year in GDP by 2050.
Speaking Tuesday, during a virtual Leaders’ Dialogue convened by the African Development Bank, the Global Center on Adaptation and the Africa Adaptation Initiative, more than 30 heads of state and global leaders rallied behind the bold new Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program. The program’s objective is to mobilize $25 billion to accelerate climate change adaptation actions across Africa.
President Félix-Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and African Union Chairperson, invited his fellow leaders to: “revisit our climate ambitions and accelerate the implementation of our actions planned under our national priorities. To do this we will need to focus on actions to adapt to the impacts of climate change, these include nature-based solutions, energy transition, enhanced transparency framework, technology transfer and climate finance.”
The Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program is built to address the impacts of Covid-19, climate change, and the continent’s worst recession in 25 years. This is why today’s unprecedented show of support for the financing of African adaptation is so significant.
According to Ban Ki-moon, the 8th Secretary-General of the United Nations and the Chair of the Global Center on Adaptation, “The Covid-19 pandemic is eroding recent progress in building climate resilience and leaving countries and communities more vulnerable to future shocks. Africa must make up for lost ground and lost time. Climate change did not stop because of Covid-19, and neither should the urgent task of preparing humanity to live with the multiple effects of a warming planet.”
President Ali Bongo Ondimba of Gabon, and Chair of the African Union-led Africa Adaptation Initiative, spoke of Gabon’s record in emission reductions. He said that Gabon is one of the few countries in the world that is carbon positive. “We have to insist that equal attention be paid to climate adaptation and mitigation in climate finance. Africa calls on the developed nations to shoulder the historic responsibility and to join the program to accelerate the adaptation in Africa,” President Bongo said.
African Development Bank President Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina said: “With our partners, we intend to mobilize $25 billion in financing for the success of the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program. It is time for developed countries to meet their promise of providing $100 billion annually for climate finance. And a greater share of this should go to climate adaptation. So far, more than 20 trillion dollars have gone into Covid-19 stimulus packages in developed countries. The International Monetary Fund’s plan to issue $650 billion of new Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) to boost global reserves and liquidity will be enormously helpful to support green growth and climate financing for economic recovery. I applaud the leadership of the US government and US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, especially, on this big push.”
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said: “African nations are showing leadership…The Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program, and many other ambitious African initiatives, must be empowered to fully deliver on their goals. “
Guterres added: “Universal access to energy in Africa, a priority in the coming years, could be provided primarily through renewable energy. I call for a comprehensive package of support to meet these dual objectives by COP 26. It is achievable, it is necessary, it is overdue, and it is smart.”
Speaking on behalf of US President Joseph R. Biden, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said: “The United States remains a committed development partner for Africa and a huge supporter of the African Development Bank. Africa contributed the least to climate change but is suffering the worst of its effects. I congratulate the African Development Bank and the Global Center for Adaptation for developing the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program. We support the program… to help ensure that together, we can avoid the worst effects of climate change.”
International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva(link is external) said: “As well as facing the health and economic crisis caused by the pandemic, countries in Africa are among the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Tackling this dual challenge requires putting adaptation at the heart of Africa’s recovery – so countries build resilience to climate change and spur economic activity. This pandemic has shown us the importance of investing in people. And that is so, so very valuable for Africa, which has a fast-growing young population. This begins by improving education, healthcare, and food security, and in that context, I warmly welcome the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program.”
Speaking on behalf of French President Emmanuel Macron, the Chief Executive of the French Development Agency, Remy Rioux said: “Africa is providing solutions to climate change, including the Great Green Wall and the Desert to Power initiative of the African Development Bank to build the world’s largest solar zone in the Sahel of Africa. France fully supports the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program.”
Moderating the Leaders’ Dialogue, Dr. Patrick Verkooijen, CEO of the Global Center on Adaptation, said: “Africa has a unique opportunity to advance its development exponentially if it invests now in a climate-smart adapted future based on a deep understanding of climate risks and solutions that put nature and people at the center.”
Read the Global Call to Action here
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Leaders’ Dialogue on the Africa COVID-Climate Emergency – OPENING VIDEO
Project to Support a Resilient Agriculture Value Chain Development in Congo and DRC (PRAFS)
The Republic of Congo (ROC) and the Democratic Republic of Congo(DRC) are 2 of the 6 countries that make up the Congo Basin – an area with the second largest tropical rainforest in the world. These two countries are therefore, home to a huge diversity of plants and animals that span across a variety of landscapes (including a mosaic of rivers, forests, savannas, swamps and flooded forests). The area has a huge agrosylvo-pastoral and fishery production potential, and is a vector for the promotion of the agroindustry as well as for creating benefit leading to a strengthening of the rural economy.
The objective of this project is to ensure that the existing agricultural landscape is better able to support any potential increase in demand for land and water resources while simultaneously ensuring an effective resilience to climate change. This should minimise the need for expansion of farmland into existing forest landscapes thereby avoiding forest degradation, deforestation, thereby reducing emissions and enhancing forest carbon stocks. The project includes three main components: (i) Enhancing the sustainability of agricultural landscapes; (ii) Capacity building, awareness raising and dissemination; and (iii) project coordination and management.
- Feasibility study on integrating DCAS into agricultural extension and design of the agrometeorological advisory flow and required investments for successful scaling up of advisory to small-scale farmers
- Identification of capacity building and enabling interventions to ensure uptake by of DCAS
- Training of producer organisations in the appropriate use of selected technologies
- Collaborating with ICS producers within the country to train female producer organisations in the production and distribution of improved cooking stoves
- Pilot study undertaken to test the potential of developing smoke-flavored products working with the local fish research institute
- Provision of 15 solar drying systems to 15 improved maize planting material producer groups of to facilitate the post-harvest processing and storage
- Provide 100 cassava producer groups with solar drying systems to facilitate processing and storage and bio
- Training of 60 farmer field school facilitators
- Establishment and running of farmer field schools
- 2 355 000 beneficiaries, which make up 2.5% of the population
- Enhanced abilities of regional and local-level decision-makers to promote appropriate agroforestry-based climate resilient technologies
- Promotion of increased climate resilient agricultural production landscapes using innovative technologies
- Promotion of producers, women and youth’s organizations
- Capacity development of personnel involved at different levels of planning and execution of agroforestry schemes and the farmers
- Strengthened institutional capacities to improve ecosystem services through agroforestry and enhance the climate-resilience of production landscapes
- Local communities, farmers and farmer groups trained in the management of climate-resilient agroforestry landscapes
- Use of energy efficient technologies for post-harvest processing promoted
USD 217.6 Million
Country Digital Agriculture and Adaptation Profile: Benin, DRC, Malawi and Tanzania
Food production in Africa is largely dominated by smallholder rain-fed agriculture and the sector is therefore particularly vulnerable to climate change and variability. The continent is already experiencing more frequent extreme weather events and higher-than-average temperature increases. According to a recent report by the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA), the annual cost of adaptation actions is estimated at US$15 billion, while that of non-action is estimated at US$201 billion.
Digitalization offers the opportunity to help farmers adapt to some of the challenges arising from climate change and could lead to in-depth transformation of the agriculture sector. However, the dissemination of digital technology at the farm level risks widening the digital divide that exists for women and marginalized communities. Further, despite the rapid growth of digital technologies on the continent, youth potential as an asset to foster uptake and scale of digital agriculture is not fully exploited. However, in developing countries where wages are lower and farms generally smaller, digital technologies could help to improve management practices and access to markets.
The overall goal is to create a Digital Agriculture and Adaptation Profile (DAP) for the four countries. The study will respond to the question of how digital climate and advisory services (DCAS) can be mainstreamed in implementing the adaptation options and pathways in the National Adaptation Plan, and for the agricultural sector of selected countries. A gender lens will be applied to the studies.
Specifically, the work will include:
- Overview of the agricultural economy of the country, the main value chains, and key challenges facing each of the value chains.
- Analysis of climate vulnerability of major agricultural value chains.
- Evaluation of the landscape of digital agriculture/adaptation (infrastructure, tools, enabling environment, institutions, policies, services).
- Mapping of existing and promising initiatives related to DCAS in the country.
- Identifying key players (public, private, non-profit, international community) across value chains, in digital agriculture and DCAS in the country as well as their roles and solutions.
- Assessing the challenges, barriers and opportunities to the investment, adoption and scaling of DCAS.
- Developing a business case for DAP in relation to investment operations.
- Identifying and prioritizing promising digital climate adaptation solutions that are applicable to help producers in adapting to climate change and in building better resilience across value chains.
- Through the DAP, an assessment of the readiness of the four countries for digital agriculture.
- A holistic review of digital transformation articulated around six topics: the extent of climate challenges and adaptation potentials, digital infrastructure, digital penetration, policy and regulation, business environment, human capital and agro-innovation.
- An opportunity for investment banks to make informed decisions in the planning of ongoing and future projects.
- Developing a DAP can help to identify how to best harness the digital-agriculture-adaptation nexus to facilitate decision-making.
- The results will be used by countries and their partners in implementing DCAS (short-, medium- and long-term investments).
- In supporting the development of DAP, GCA is working with partners to plug the gaps in the information needed to provide contextual understanding of background issues, and to ensure that investments in climate adaptation projects are designed and founded on sound and robust information that provide adequate context of focal/selected countries.
Technical Assistance
African Development Bank Group approves $379.6 million Desert to Power financing facility for the G5 Sahel countries
The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group has approved the Desert to Power G5 Sahel Financing Facility, covering Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger. The Bank envisages to commit up to $379.6 million in financing and technical assistance for the facility over the next seven years.
The Desert to Power G5 Financing Facility aims to assist the G5 Sahel countries to adopt a low-emission power generation pathway by making use of the region’s abundant solar potential. The facility will focus on utility-scale solar generation through independent power producers and energy storage solutions. These investments will be backed by a technical assistance component to enhance implementation capacity, strengthen the enabling environment for private sector investments, and ensure gender and climate mainstreaming.
The facility is expected to result in 500 MW of additional solar generation capacity and facilitate electricity access to some 695,000 households. Over the lifespan of the project, it is expected to reduce carbon emissions by over 14.4 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.
The Board of the Green Climate Fund approved $150 million in concessional resources in October 2021 for the facility, which is expected to leverage around $437 million in additional financing from other development finance institutions, commercial banks and private sector developers. The Global Center on Adaptation is providing technical assistance to strengthen adaptation and resilience measures undertaken in the facility as part of the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program in partnership with the African Development Bank.
The African Development Bank’s Vice President for Power, Energy, Climate Change and Green Growth, Dr. Kevin Kariuki said: “The innovative blended finance approach of the Desert to Power G5 Sahel Facility will de-risk, and therefore catalyze, private sector investment in solar power generation in the region. This will lead to transformational energy generation and bridge the energy access deficit in some of Africa’s most fragile countries.”
Dr. Daniel Schroth, the Bank’s Acting Director for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency, added: “The facility will also support the integration of larger shares of variable renewables in the region’s power systems, notably through the deployment of innovative battery storage solutions and grid investments.”
The facility will be implemented as part of the broader Desert to Power initiative, a flagship program led by the African Development Bank. The objective is to light up and power the Sahel region by adding 10 GW of solar generation capacity and providing electricity to around 250 million people in the 11 Sahelian countries by 2030.
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The Desert to Power G5 Sahel Financing Facility
The Sahel region faces more challenges to achieving sustainable development in the face of poverty, insecurity and climate change than perhaps any other. The region also includes five of the ten poorest nations in the world (Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger). Together these form the G5 Sahel, where more than three quarters of the 86 million people who live there have no access to electricity.
This region also has some of the highest solar energy irradiation and photovoltaic potential in the world, though economic development is constrained in part by the energy supply gap. To take advantage of this opportunity, the Desert to Power G5 Sahel Financing Facility aims to tap this ‘free’ resource by increasing solar power generation and electricity access, while addressing structural challenges in the energy sector.
The overall aim is to assist G5 Sahel countries to adopt low-emission solar power generation through independent power producers and energy storage solutions. Investments are to be supported by technical assistance, gender and climate mainstreaming, and encouraging private sector buy-in.
- Add 500 MW of additional solar generation capacity, and connect 695,000 households to an electricity supply.
- Ensure low-emission development to mitigate effects of climate change, by directly reducing emissions by 14.4 Mt CO2e over 25 years.
- Strengthen regional grid management capacity by building human, social, and institutional capital.
- Create harmonized gender-responsive regulatory frameworks for the electricity sector to lower investment barriers and promote gender-responsive approaches.
- Contribute to improving the quality of life of women and men through more sustainable, reliable and affordable energy access by households and workplaces, and supporting productive uses of electricity, industrialization, and basic public services such as health and education.
- Expand opportunities for manufacturing and industries to provide employment and build prosperity.
The Facility is a part of the broader Desert to Power Initiative, that by 2030 aims to light up and power the Sahel region by adding 10 GW of solar generation capacity and provide electricity to 250 million more people in 11 countries from Senegal to Djibouti.
- Rapid climate risk assessment of transmission systems to provide insights to the location of solar plant
- Upstream capacity building through a regional Masterclass on Climate-Resilient PPPs
- Climate risk assessment to quantify impacts of climate hazards on assets, services, and people
- Adaptation and resilience investment options appraisal, to identify and prioritize adaptation and resilience options and present recommendations of investment for each project;
- Advisory services for results and evidence-based planning, management and M&E of interventions
- Improved investment climate and a sustainable market for independent solar power producers created.
- knowledge and technology transfer facilitated to create opportunities for SMEs in the value-chain.
- Environmental co-benefits driven to increase access to electricity and reduce the need for firewood, reduce deforestation and build resilience to climate change.
- Countries in the Sahel region enabled to transform desert areas into an opportunity to meet their energy needs using clean technologies while delivering multiple adaptation co-benefits.
- Strengthened capacity of national institutions in G5 Sahel countries to ensure long-term sustainable ilitydevelopment of their national renewable energy sectors.
- Reliable environment for private sector solar project financing created.
AfDB investment USD 379.6 million
Total of USD 966.7 million
Amount: AfDB investment of USD 379.6 million, of a total of USD 966.7 million
Reinforcing Resilience to Food and Nutrition Insecurity in the Sahel (P2-P2RS)
The Sahel, which lies between the Sahara Desert to the north and tropical savannas to the south, is one of the largest semi-arid/arid sub-regions globally. As such, the region is highly vulnerable to climate change and other uncertainties. The impacts of climate change may have critical socio-economic consequences for the Sahel, including poor agricultural yields, increased frequency of natural disasters. Already, the number of people in the Sahel suffering from chronic food and nutrition insecurity, poverty and vulnerability to the effects of climate change is rising steadily.
A lasting solution to food and nutrition insecurity in the Sahel requires building resilience to climate change, long-term agricultural sector financing and developing trade and regional integration. Sustained, longer-term investments in household resilience can significantly reduce the cost of emergency assistance, ultimately breaking the cycle of recurring famine. This is the most cost-effective intervention option which meets the basic needs and preserves the dignity of the populations of the Sahel. This idea is central to the Programme to Build Resilience to Food and Nutrition Insecurity in the Sahel (P2RS)
The overall objective of the P2-P2RS is to contribute to the substantial improvement of the living conditions and the food and nutritional security of the populations of the Sahel region.
Specifically, the program aims to i) strengthen the resilience to climate change of agro-sylvo-pastoral producers, including through promotion of climate-smart agricultural technologies in the Sahel and the development of climate intelligent villages; ii) develop the agro-sylvo-pastoral value chains, including through the development and improvement of hydro, meteorology and climate services; and iii) support regional institutions (CILSS, APGMV, CCRS) to strengthen adaptive capacity in the Sahel.
- Design digital adaptation solutions (Digital Climate Advisory Services, DCAS) for the Sahel context
- Investment readiness and infrastructure, institutional and farmer capacity needs for DCAS
- Feasibility study to integrate DCAS into agricultural extension and agrometeorological advisory to smallholder farmers and pastoralists
- 1 million rural households have access to digital or data-enabled climate-smart technologies
- 500,000 smallholders have adopted adaptation practices
- 5 million smallholders have access to climate services;
- Development and improvement of hydro, meteorology and climate services
- The development of climate-intelligent villages
- Promotion of climate-smart agricultural technologies in the Sahel
- Resilience to food and nutrition security built for the targeted populations
USD 300 million