Aid will be used for Africa’s development and adaptation to climate change
US and Egypt announced that they will donate $150 million for Africa’s adaptation to climate change, 27th Conference of Parties (COP27) presidency announced on the 11th of November 2022.
During, COP27 to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the support package was announced at a special session on ‘Advancing Adaptation Action in Africa’ co-hosted by H.E. Sameh Shoukry, COP27 President, and United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John Kerry.
According to the announcement, $13.6 million will be used for a Systematic Observations Financing Facility that will help fill weather, water, and climate observation gaps in Africa.
In addition, $15 million will support the co-development and deployment of early-warning systems in Africa to cut the number of people who need emergency assistance in half by 2030 – and from 200 million to just 10 million by 2050.
Around $10 million will be used to support the capacity building of Africa’s current and future decision makers.
‘This includes $10 million to support the launch of a new adaptation center in Egypt – the Cairo Center for Learning and Excellence on Adaptation and Resilience, announced by Egypt, to build adaptation capacity across Africa,’ the announcement read.
Commenting on the latest financial aid, the US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John Kerry, stated that US is completely committed to working together with the partners to support vulnerable communities in their efforts to adapt to the impacts of climate change.
‘Climate change is something that everyone whether in developed, developing or emerging economies are impacted by. ‘unprecedented’ investment in clean energy is needed to limit warming to 1.5°C and avert catastrophic climate impacts on communities worldwide,’ he said.
He also added that ‘annual clean energy investment must triple to $4.2 trillion by 2030’ with over half of that investment needed for emerging and developing economies.
COP President Shoukry speaking at the event said that the key challenge for African countries is to access funding for climate action. Recognizing that progress towards adapting to climate consequences and enhancing resilience is crucially needed, we launched a couple of days ago here at COP27 the Sharm-El-Sheikh Adaptation Agenda.
“This agenda comprises a total of 30 global adaptation outcome targets by 2030 that are urgently needed to address the adaptation gap and increase the resilience of 4 billion people through accelerating transformation across five impact systems: food and agriculture, water and nature, coastal and oceans, human settlements, and infrastructure,” he added.
COP27 President H.E, Shoukry further reported that Egypt as COP27 President and as an African nation, is well aware of the adaptation challenges facing our continent, and we are pleased to have collaborated over the past year with the United States to develop a diverse package of support for Africa in the field of adaptation and resilience.
As part of the US Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience (PREPARE), has seen the US double its Adaptation Fund Pledge to USD $100 million, and the Accelerating Adaptation in Africa initiative provides USD $150 million in support to accelerate PREPARE’s work across the continent.
The Adaptation in Africa initiative previously announced in June 2022 by President Biden and President El-Sisi has the potential to result in USD $4-10 of benefits for every dollar invested.
in a nutshell, the support from USA will cover but not limited to/for:
- USD $13.6 million for a Systematic Observations Financing Facility that will help fill weather, water, and climate observation gaps in Africa.
- USD $15 million to support the co-development and deployment of early-warning systems in Africa to cut the number of people who need emergency assistance in half by 2030 – and from 200 million to just 10 million by 2050.
- USD $10 million to support the capacity building of Africa’s current and future decision makers. This includes USD $10 million to support the launch of a new adaptation center in Egypt – the Cairo Center for Learning and Excellence on Adaptation and Resilience, announced by Egypt, to build adaptation capacity across Africa.
- USD $2 million to the Resilience and Adaptation Mainstreaming Program to build the capacity of governments to manage climate risks and access finance.
- USD $3.5 million in support for the Least Developed Countries Initiative for Effective Adaptation & Resilience, helping African countries like Uganda, Malawi, Gambia, and Burkina Faso to enhance access to adaptation finance for the most vulnerable.
- Expanding access to risk-based insurance for the most vulnerable by supporting regional risk insurance pools, including contributing USD $12 million to the Africa Disaster Risk Financing Program and USD $12 million to ARC Ltd.
- USD $25 million to the African Union’s flagship Africa Adaptation Initiative (AAI), which is hosted by the Egyptian government, to launch the AAI Food Security Accelerator, which will dramatically speed- and scale-up private sector investments in climate resilient food security in Africa.
- Encouraging private sector innovation through USD $3.8 million to CRAFT TA Facility, and USD $2 million to launch an adaptation window of the Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance to help develop new financial instruments and mechanisms to harness private investment in adaptation.
- USD $100 million in adaptation funding in FY 2022 to support food systems.
The President of the United States of America also announced the launch of a new initiative to support Egypt in deploying 10GW of new wind and solar energy while decommissioning five GW of inefficient natural gas generation.
“We are completely committed to working together with our partners to support vulnerable communities in their efforts to, sadly, have to adapt to the impacts of climate change. Something that everyone whether in developed, developing or emerging economies are impacted by,” said Special Envoy Kerry.
Earlier this week in a statement released via the US Embassy in Cairo, Kerry stated that “unprecedented” investment in clean energy is needed to limit warming to 1.5°C and avert catastrophic climate impacts on communities worldwide. His statement added that “annual clean energy investment must triple to $4.2 trillion by 2030” with over half of that investment needed for emerging and developing economies.
The “Advancing Adaptation Action in Africa” event was immediately followed by a second event, also jointly hosted by Egypt and the United States, addressing “Accelerating mitigation ambition while ensuring energy security” placing focus on providing support for the Egyptian Nexus of Water-Food-Energy (NWFE) program.
At COP27, Egypt signed partnerships for its NWFE program to support the implementation of climate initiatives with investments worth $15 billion. This includes an energy project worth $10 billion and eight food security, agriculture, irrigation, and water projects.
This article has been published with support from MESHA/IDRC grant for coverage of COP-27 by African science journalists