President, African Development Bank Group, Dr. Akinwumi.A. Adesina, has said the Bank would provide $12.5bn to support the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAAP).
The AfDB boss disclosed this via his verified twitter handle @akin_adesina.
The African Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAAP) is Africa’s own program, supported by African Heads of State, to mobilize more resources for climate change, to advance the objectives of the African Adaptation Initiative. The African Development Bank and the Global Center on Adaptation are mobilizing $25 billion for this program – the largest ever climate adaptation effort globally – to which the African Development Bank has already committed $12.5 billion
“The Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAA-P) is the largest effort globally for adaptation. But we need money. The African Development Bank Group put down $12.5bn out of $25bn so we are not begging. We are saying we didn’t the problem. We have come to the conversation with commitment, meet us halfway” the AfDB said.
Speaking during the recently concluded at the Africa Climate Adaptation Summit held in Rotterdam, Netherlands, Adesina said Africa does not contribute more than 3 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions but suffers disproportionately from its negative consequences.
“Africa does not have the resources to tackle climate change. The continent receives only 3% of global climate financing. If this trend continues, Africa’s climate financing gap will reach $100 billion to $127 billion per year through 2030.The current climate financing architecture is not meeting the needs of Africa. New estimates by the African Economic Outlook of the African Development Bank shows that Africa will need between 1.3 and 1.6 trillion dollars between 2020-2030, or $118 billion to $ 145 billion annually, to implement its commitments to the Paris Agreement and its nationally determined contributions.”
The Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAA-P) is a joint initiative of the African Development Bank and the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA). It aims to mobilize $25 billion, over five years, to accelerate and scale climate adaptation action across the continent.
The AAA-P was endorsed at the Leaders’ Dialogue on the Africa COVID19-Climate Emergency in April 2021. This was the largest gathering ever of African Heads of State and Government solely focused on adaptation.
In Glasgow, the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Summit, held as part of the COP26 World Leaders Summit, was hosted by President Felix-Antoine Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Several global leaders made commitments to support adaptation in Africa, including through the AAA-P. The UK Government announced an important commitment of £20 million to support the upstream work of the AAA-P. No other adaptation initiative has achieved this level of consensus on the continent.
The AAA-P will be implemented through two mechanisms: First, an AAA-P Upstream Financing Facility, housed at the Global Center on Adaptation, to support the evidence-based knowledge, project design and preparation, and policy work needed for the success of AAA-P operations. The AAAP Upstream Facility provides resources to strengthen adaptation and resilience components into multilateral development bank projects in the pipeline.
Second, an AAAP Downstream Investment Facility, to be housed at the African Development Bank. It is being developed under the direct leadership of Bank President Akinwumi Adesina. The Facility is expected to raise $12.5 billion that, together with the $12.5 billion African Development Bank capital, will complete the AAAP investment envelope of $25 billion for the first five years. The Facility will use these resources to unlock financing from African national governments, impact investors, foundations, and other innovative sources, such as resilience bonds and debt for climate adaptation swaps, in a coordinated program.
The AAAP has an upstream facility at the GCA and a downstream facility at the African Development Bank. The upstream facility which needs capitalization of $250 million will help to mainstream solutions on climate adaptation. The downstream facility at the Bank, to be capitalized at $1.75 billion, will help leverage additional adaptation finance by a factor of 4 times, to deliver $7 billion of additional adaptation finance.
GCA and the African Development Bank are already showing very good results on the AAAP. The AAAP upstream facility at the GCA has helped to generate $3 billion of mainstreamed climate adaptation investments by the African Development Bank, from agriculture, to energy, transport, water, and sanitation.
