Tannuka Juneja
Rich countries have said they will spend around $25 billion by 2025 to boost Africa’s efforts to adapt to climate change, officials said at a summit on the weather in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, on Monday.
The summit is the first to bring together leaders from many governments and institutions, such as the World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund, to discuss climate adaptation strategies for Africa.
The pledged money was touted as the world’s largest climate adaptation effort.
African Development Bank President Akinwumi A. Adesina told DW that Africa is not only being affected by climate change but “distressed” by it.
Africa is the most climate-protected continent in the world, according to the latest United Nations assessment.
The summit is important as it comes before the 27th annual summit of the Conference of the Parties (COP27) to be held in Egypt in November.
The Africa Adaptation Summit comes just weeks after the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said rich countries had failed in their 2009 pledge to spend $100 billion a year by 2020 to help developing countries adapt to global warming.
The OECD said rich countries gave $83.3 billion to poor countries in 2020, the highest amount on record, but still lower than the original amount.
African countries produce less than 3% of all greenhouse gas emissions, but they face an “avalanche of problems”.
Adesina added that Africa “loses between $7 billion and $15 billion a year due to climate change.”
