Africa climate change adaptation costs to soar- UN
November 20, 2013, 10:09 am

Dry and barren areas in Africa are expected to increase by four per cent [AP]

Adaptation costs for the African continent could reach approximately $350 billion annually by 2070 should the two-degree target be significantly exceeded, while the cost would be around $150 billion lower per year if the target was to be met.

The report titled, Africa’s Adaptation Gap, was released on Tuesday and endorsed by the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN).

The report cautions that even if the world does manage to get on track to keep warming below two degrees Celsius, Africa’s adaptation costs will still hover around $35 billion per year by the 2040s and $200 billion per year by the 2070s — with total costs reaching one per cent of the continent’s GDP by 2100.

“Additional adaptation funding and technical know-how are imperative if Africa is to move towards a climate-resilient green future path. There is for example a need to develop drought-resistant crops, build early warning systems, invest in renewable energy sources and ensure that the catastrophic impacts of climate change are controlled or, better still, avoided,” said UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director, Achim Steiner.

Dry and barren areas in Africa, which already represent about half of the continent’s land area, are expected to increase by four per cent.

The UN says traceable funding disbursed in Africa for climate for 2010 and 2011 amounted to $743 million and $454 million, respectively, although this figure does not fully account for the funding channelled through development finance institutions such as the World Bank or national development banks.

China has urged developed countries to keep their commitments on climate financing.

“Developed countries should inject funds into the Green Climate Fund as soon as possible to ensure developing countries receive financial support’, said Xie Zhenhua, Deputy Head of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, at a press conference in Beijing.

At the COP15 meeting in Copenhagen in 2009, developed countries promised to mobilise $100 billion per year by 2020 in order to address climate change.

A board meeting of the UN Green Climate Fund in Paris last month disappointed developing countries by failing to agree on a concrete date for donor pledges.

The Fund aims to help vulnerable developing nations adapt to more extreme weather and rising seas in a warmer world, and to put their economies on a low-emission path.

The BRICS Post