COP27: Germany pledges €40 million to the African Development Bank Group’s Climate Action Window initiative for fragile African states | African Development Bank

Germany has pledged €40 million to the African Development Bank Group’s Climate Action Window, Germany’s Secretary of State for Economic Cooperation and Development Jochen Flasbarth has announced. The contribution is to support climate adaptation in fragile African states.

Flasbarth made the announcement at a ministerial panel for climate-sensitive countries and adaptation finance advocates on the 27^e Session of the UN Conference on Climate Change (COP27) in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

The High Ambition Coalition hosted the session titled, Highlighting good quality adaptation finance at COP27.

The Climate Action Window is an initiative of the African Development Fund, the African Development Bank Group’s concessional lending window to low-income African states. It is mobilizing some $13 billion for climate adaptation for some 37 vulnerable low-income states, which have been most affected by climate change.

Flasbarth praised the African Development Bank Group for what he said was its unwavering commitment to helping Africa mitigate and adapt to climate change. “The African Development Bank has a very good reputation,” he said.

The secretary of state said Germany’s contribution was part of its efforts to balance equity in funding between climate mitigation and adaptation, despite current global economic challenges.

He stressed: “All of our countries have challenges in finding the right balance between adaptation and mitigation, but we want to do that. We want to look at the quality of adaptation finance, and we need to look at the accessibility of climate finance, especially for developing countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions.”

The panel consisted of ministers from Africa, Europe and the Caribbean. They supported calls for increased funding for climate adaptation in Africa and called on industrialized nations to meet their $100 billion a year pledge without further delay.

Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank Group, thanked Germany for its faith in Africa and for trusting the Bank Group.

Adesina assured Secretary Flasbarth that the money would be put to good use. He said: “The climate action you put your money into will enable 20 million farmers, including pastoralists, to access weather-indexed insurance. It will provide 20 million farmers with climate-resilient agricultural technologies, regenerate one million hectares of degraded land, enable investment in 840 billion cubic meters of water for 18 million people and provide 10 million people with renewable energy.”

The head of the African Development Bank highlighted various measures and initiatives initiated by the Bank Group to reduce the climate impact in Africa, particularly on food production. He specifically mentioned the Africa Disaster Risk Insurance Facility, which protects farmers against exogenous disasters.

He called on other industrialized countries to contribute to the Climate Action Window to stimulate climate adaptation in Africa.

Although Africa contributes only about 3% of greenhouse gas emissions, the continent is most affected by climate impacts, including droughts, floods, cyclones and damaged infrastructure, resulting in debt across the continent.

“Africa is suffocating, Africa is suffering and Africa is in great distress because of climate change that it did not cause… So we have no choice but to adapt to it,” Adesina stressed.