AfDB Chief Adesina announces $12.5bn assistance to enhance climate change adaptation

Akinwumi Adesina, the President of African Development Bank has recently announced of enhancing funding commitments by USD 12.5 billion to assist the countries in adapting to the effects of climate change between 2020 and 2025. He was present at the 2019 United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

The African Development Bank's Chief opined while addressing the UN talks on climate change adaptation that the Bank was doubling commitments to climate finance to USD 25 billion for the five-year period, half of which would fund climate adaptation.

"This is where the rubber meets the road. Because many of the countries are facing extreme weather patterns, and they can't wait any more, we've decided to launch the Africa disaster risk facility to ensure these countries get the resources they need to insure themselves against catastrophic risk events," Akinwumi Adesina told members of the Global Commission of Adoption.

The meeting, called 'Countdown to the Climate Adaptation Summit' the Launch of the Year of Action, was organised by the Global Commission on Adaptation, which seeks to prepare cities and farmlands for a hotter world. The African Development Bank's project involves building early warning systems so that African governments know of emerging threats and an insurance scheme to provide payouts when drought, floods and other calamities strike. Policy-makers generally take two approaches to climate change. Mitigation involves cutting emissions of heat-trapping gases to limit temperature rises; while adaptation is the process of preparing for a warmer planet.

According to the software tycoon, Bill Gates, who is also the member of the commission, warned that farmers could see their crops dwindle by as much as 30 percent over the next three decades and warned that Africa could be hit hardest. "Look at the world's poorest people, the majority of them are the smallholder farmers. And yet … they are going to be the first and the ones with the worst impacts, which leads to malnutrition and to instability," Gates said.

He talked about boosting crop seeds, developing finance and insurance packages and new agricultural systems and policies could ready farmers for a riskier future. The targets are focused on finance and investment, agriculture and feeding populations, nature-based solutions, water, cities, locally-led action, infrastructure, and preventing natural disasters.