The President of African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina has mentioned his outfit’s commitment to mobilize $25 billion to be channelled into supporting climate finance by 2025.
“We have to grow differently,” he said emphasizing that climate change has posed a grave threat to Africans and as such the reason for embarking on this initiative.
Mr. Adesina further asserted that “We have to have growth that is climate resilient. Adaptation must be at the top of the agenda. The risk of actually dying from hunger is higher than the risk of dying from Covid-19”.
These comments were made by Mr. Adesina at an International Economic Forum held under the theme ‘a sustainable recovery for people and planet’. This covered three areas: the current state of affairs with respect to COVID-19 and climate change; stimulus policies and recovery; and the role of the private sector in terms of recovery.
Present at the discussion were Inger Andersen, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as well as Jean Lebel, President of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) who moderated the discussion.
The AfDB president went on to affirm the Bank’s commitment to mobilize $25 billion for climate finance by 2025 as well as a number of the Bank’s initiatives that are addressing climate adaptation, such as Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT), which has provided Sudanese farmers access to heat tolerant maize.
“The other way that one can grow back in a way that is climate resilient is by actually providing the countries with facilities that will allow them to insure themselves against exogenous climate shocks,” including the Bank’s African Disaster Risk Financing (ADRIFI) program, he added.
Inger Andersen in making her submission intimated that “climate change is an existential crisis,” one that the planet must face together. The four largest economies account for 55% of emissions, the brunt of the impact will fall on African countries as well as delta and low-lying small economies around the world.
“Any recovery has to have a degree of solidarity with it,” she added.
Moving away from a linear economy and investing in nature’s infrastructure offered part of the solution, Andersen said, adding that “Companies that jump into circularity, SDG 12, sustainable consumption and production, companies that do that, will save money, resources will be more circular, they will leapfrog, they will have a market edge, and they would have a lesser need for resource inputs. We’re seeing it in some sectors: Plastics, textiles, fashion, and food.”
Touching on the issue of inequality, Mr. Adesina admitted that the pandemic had worsened inequality in many spheres: education, rural versus urban, and the differences between the genders in terms of access to education and to finance.
“You cannot grow economies without focusing on women. Women run Africa. Most of them are in the informal sector. They lack access to finance. There’s a $49 billion financing gap between them and men. That’s why the Bank launched a $5 billion initiative called Affirmative Finance Action forWomen in Africa (AFAWA), so we can close that particular inequality.”
Finally, the AfDB president said Africa must leverage investment to unleash the potential and ingenuity of its youth, its most important asset.
