African Development Bank has pledged to boost funding commitments
of about US$12.5bn to help African countries adapt to the effects of climate
change between 2020 and 2025
.
The Revelation was made by the Bank’s President President
Akinwumi Adesina while addressing the UN talks on climate change adaptation;
Adesina said the Bank was doubling commitments to climate finance to $25bn 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,” Adesina told members of the Global Commission on Adaptation.
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| The President of the African Development Bank Akinwumi making speech |
According to the
Statement from the African Development Banks, the banks will invest resources
in projects such as 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.
Other sector to be sponsored by the Bank also include supporting policy makers 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.
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.
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| The president and other participants during the meeting |
Speaking at the same meeting, Bill Gates, the software
tycoon, philanthropist and member of the commission, warned that farmers could
see their crops dwindle by as much as 30 per cent over the next 30 years 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,” said Gates.
Gates, a co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,
said enhancing 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.
Ban Ki-moon, a former UN secretary-general and chair of the
commission, called for action to ready the world’s 300 million small-scale
farmers for land degradation, drought and other impacts of climate change.
“Without urgent action to help the world’s smallholder farmers we risk
undermining our food security for generations to come,” Ban told delegates to
the talks, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
