Africa may need climate adaptation funding to be upped to $100 billion a year in order to reinforce its infrastructure, enhance weather early warning systems and protect its agriculture, an international environmental organization, the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA), said in a report published on Monday.
"As climate change impacts accelerate globally, adaptation efforts have become an urgent imperative. This is especially true in the most vulnerable regions, including Africa," the center noted in the document.
The report revealed that, in recent years, Africa's receipts for climate adaptation fluctuated around $11 billion, which is far below the annual financing need of $52.7 billion or 2.5% of Africa’s GDP.
However, the authors of the research are convinced that the abovementioned number is also an underestimation of the actual necessity. They believe that, by 2035, Africa may need as much as $845 billion to $1.7 trillion for adaptation. Given the current growth rate of adaptation finance, the continent will gain less than one-tenth of what the region requires, the report said.
According to the study, over 54% of adaptation finance was provided to Africa through loans, which deteriorates the debt situation in some countries of the region. Moreover, the continent's ten states, which are exposed to the most to negative consequences of climate change, reportedly receive only 18% of funding.
The GCA report named Sub-Saharan Africa as the region that benefits the most from the financing, adding, however, that the received money still does not cover the area's needs.
"Sub-Saharan Africa is the largest recipient of international adaptation finance, receiving roughly 25% of international adaptation flows in 2019-2020, however, the adaptation finance flows are nowhere close to the needs of the region in absolute terms," the study emphasized.
In addition, the report called on multilateral financial institutions as well as the private sector to considerably increase adaptation finance.
Further analysis will be published ahead of the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference, commonly known as COP28, according to the document.
In preparation for COP28, Kenya, in cooperation with the African Union Commission, organized the first Africa Climate Summit (ACS), which is taking place in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
The summit is designed to outline a common vision of Africa's eco-friendly future. Along with the leaders of the continent's states, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are taking part in the event.