Naomi Gabriel —
The Vice President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr Kevin Kariuki in a virtual news conference yesterday, in preparation for the bank’s 2022 yearly meeting to be held in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, said the bank will within the next five years double the climate change finance of Africa to $25 billion.
Kariuki said the bank would invest the finance to support African countries to become resilient both in adaptation and mitigation between 2020 and 2025.
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While disclosing that the AfDB had in the last five years spent $13 billion in the same effort toward adaptation and mitigation of climate change in the continent, Kariuki also added that the bank with the Global Centre on Adaptation, had committed to mobilizing a further $25 billion to address adaptation in Africa.
”Cognisance of the fact that Africa’s greatest interest is on adaptation, we dedicate at least 50 per cent of our climate finance budget to adaptation and last year we dedicated 67 per cent, he said.
”This means that we are in total resonance of what people of Africa are complaining about.
”The key thing is to help these countries adapt to the impact of climate change so I think the commitment for us to double our climate change finance to $25 billion is important,” he added.
On supporting energy transition in Nigeria, Kariuki said the bank was committed to supporting the country in its energy transition efforts.
According to him, Nigeria is one of the few countries that has evolved it’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) into a long-term vision, which is a foundational document for developing a long term strategy.
”The long-term strategy is what is translated to the transition plan and we are keen to supporting all African countries in developing their transition plan by translating those plans into viable pipeline of projects.
”We can’t be able to quantify the amount because we do not have a clear view of the projects that will emanate from the strategy,” he noted.
