On Monday, African leaders urged their counterparts in richer, polluting nations to increase funding for projects that will assist them in adapting to climate change.
African countries are attempting to raise $25 billion in investment over the next three years for adaptation projects such as improving agricultural resilience and updating infrastructure.
“If we want our continent to thrive, we must adapt to climate change – and to do so, adaptation financing must begin flowing at scale,” Ghana President Nana Afuko-Addo said on Monday at the Africa Adaptation Summit in Rotterdam.
According to the African Development Bank, it has already committed half of the funds required for the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Programme. They were waiting for the world’s major polluters to intervene.
“Africa contributes less than 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions, but suffers disproportionately from their negative consequences,” Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank, said at the event.
On Monday, the United Kingdom, Norway, France, and Denmark announced new contributions totaling $55 million.
However, Senegal’s President, Macky Sall, expressed disappointment that so few of his country’s leaders had attended the event.
“I cannot help but be disappointed by the absence of leaders from the industrial world,” said Sall, who is also the African Union’s chairperson.
“I believe that if we made the effort to leave Africa and come to Rotterdam, it would make it easier for Europeans and others to come here because they are the main polluters.”
The only European leader in attendance was Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who was joined by heads of state from Senegal, Ghana, Gabon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Ethiopia.
Last year, world powers pledged in Glasgow to double funding for such “adaptation projects” for developing countries to around $40 billion per year by 2025.
They will meet again in two months in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, for the UN climate summit COP27, also known as “the African COP,” with climate finance as a major focus.
