WASHINGTON, November 24, 2015—The World Bank Group today
unveiled a new plan that calls for $16 billion in funding to help
African people and countries adapt to climate change and build up the
continent’s resilience to climate shocks.
Titled Accelerating Climate-Resilient and Low-Carbon Development,
the Africa Climate Business Plan will be presented at COP21, the global
climate talks in Paris, on November 30. It lays out measures to boost
the resilience of the continent’s assets – its people, land, water, and
cities - as well as other moves including boosting renewable energy and
strengthening early warning systems.
“Sub-Saharan Africa is highly vulnerable to climate shocks, and
our research shows that could have far-ranging impact -- on everything
from child stunting and malaria to food price increases and droughts,” said World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim. “This
plan identifies concrete steps that African governments can take to
ensure that their countries will not lose hard-won gains in economic
growth and poverty reduction, and they can offer some protection from
climate change.”
Per current estimates, the plan says that the region requires $5-10 billion per year to adapt to global warming of 2°C.
The World Bank and the United Nations Environment Programme estimate
that the cost of managing climate resilience will continue to rise to
$20-50 billion by mid-century, and closer to $100 billion in the event
of a 4°C warming.
Of the $16.1 billion that the ambitious plan proposes for
fast-tracking climate adaptation, some $5.7 billion is expected from the
International Development Association (IDA), the arm of the World Bank
Group that supports the poorest countries. About $2.2 billion is
expected from various climate finance instruments, $2.0 billion from
others in the development community, $3.5 billion from the private
sector, and $0.7 billion from domestic sources, with an additional $2.0
billion needed to deliver on the plan.
“The Africa Climate Business Plan spells out a clear path to
invest in the continent’s urgent climate needs and to fast-track the
required climate finance to ensure millions of people are protected from
sliding into extreme poverty,” explains Makhtar Diop, World Bank Group Vice President for Africa. “While
adapting to climate change and mobilizing the necessary resources
remain an enormous challenge, the plan represents a critical opportunity
to support a priority set of climate-resilient initiatives in Africa.”
The plan will...
boost the region’s ability to adapt to a changing
climate while reducing greenhouse emissions, focusing on a number of
concrete actions. It identifies a dozen priority areas for action that
will enhance Africa’s capacity to adapt to the adverse consequences of
climate variation and change.
The first area for action aims to boost the resilience of the
continent's assets. These comprise natural capital (landscapes, forests,
agricultural land, inland water bodies, oceans); physical capital
(cities, transport infrastructure, physical assets in coastal areas);
and human and social capital (where efforts should include improving
social protection for the people most vulnerable to climate shocks, and
addressing climate-related drivers of migration).
The second area for action focuses on powering resilience, including
opportunities for scaling up low-carbon energy sources. In addition to
helping mitigate climate change, these activities offer considerable
resilience benefits, as societies with inadequate access to energy are
also more vulnerable to climate shocks.
And the third area for action will enable resilience by providing
essential data, information and decision-making tools for
climate-resilient development across sectors. This includes
strengthening hydro-met systems at the regional and country levels, and
building capacity to plan and design climate-resilient investments.
“The plan is a ‘win-win’ for all especially the people in Africa
who have to adapt to climate change and work to mitigate its impacts,” said Jamal Saghir, the World Bank’s Senior Regional Adviser for Africa. “We
look forward to working with African governments and development
partners, including the private sector, to move this plan forward and
deliver climate smart development.”
The Africa Climate Business Plan reflects contributions and inputs
from a wide variety of partners with whom the Bank is already
collaborating on the ground, in a coordinated effort to increase
Africa’s resilience to climate variability and change. The plan aims to
help raise awareness and accelerate resource mobilization for the
region’s critical climate-resilience and low-carbon initiatives.
The plan warns that unless decisive action is taken, climate
variability and change could seriously jeopardize the region’s hard-won
development gains and its aspirations for further growth and poverty
reduction. And it comes in the wake of Bank analysis which indicates
climate change could push up to 43 million more Africans into poverty by
2030.
