GCA CEO’s Statement on the Occasion of the Spring Meetings
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adies and gentlemen, climate adaptation finance is losing the battle. The Global Center on Adaptation’s most recent State and Trends in Adaptation flagship report, prepared with the Climate Policy Initiative, which we are launching today, is giving us the numbers. The situation is alarming.
While we should celebrate the fact that global climate finance doubled in the last two years to US 1.3 trillion annually, global adaptation finance lost ground. It is down to 5% from 7% two years ago.
Let us put this into context. Developing countries need $3.3 trillion in adaptation finance over the next decade to 2035. Adaptation finance must quadruple, not by 2035. Today.
And if we look at Africa, the situation is even more dire. Africa only received 20% of global adaptation finance flows. At this level of financing, Africa will only mobilize $195 billion by 2035. How much does Africa need? Eight times more: $1.6 trillion.
Not only is there not enough adaptation finance in Africa. Of all the climate finance for the continent, only 36% goes for adaptation. And here: the proportion is going down from 39% two years ago.
Our key message from the report is simple: Everybody MUST invest more in climate adaptation globally and in Africa.
The good news is that African governments are doing their part. They are investing from their own budgets more than what they get from bilateral development finance institutions. Almost twice as much!
The bad news is that African governments are forced to borrow for adaptation. More than half of adaptation finance in Africa was channeled through debt.
So where is the private sector? Unfortunately, the private sector has financed less than 3% of adaptation action globally and in Africa, this has been mostly philanthropies, NOT the corporate sector.
Our report also reviewed 60 public financial institutions – multilateral, bilateral, and national. Only 13 have made public adaptation-specific commitments.
So, what’s the remedy? Yes, we need more finance. But we also need more projects that can attract that finance.
We need country investment plans for adaptation.
We need more businesses that provide adaptation solutions and innovations that attract private finance.
We need more adaptation programs at scale.
We need more real partnerships for adaptation action.
And we have good examples that can grow and be replicated. In 2021, GCA, the African Development Bank and the African Union jointly launched the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program with a simple idea: how to bring the best climate adaptation science, policy, and practice to the largest financiers in Africa to show that it makes economic and financial sense; that adaptation can create jobs for the youth.
Since the Glasgow Climate Summit, our partnership has grown and we are now working with the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and its Resilience Sustainability Trust, AFD, IFAD, and the list is growing.
We are working with the CGIAR system to bring their best adaptation science and innovation to Africa’s agriculture.
We appreciate the development partner support of the UK, Norway, Germany, Canada, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, and the Gates Foundation which has made this possible.
What are the results? In less than 3 years, through the AAAP Upstream Facility, we have influenced $9 billion of investments to ensure adaptation is at the core.
Because of that: 13 million farmers, 57 million people and 700.000 jobs are increasing their resilience to climate shocks.
But this is still not enough. The Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program MUST grow exponentially. In fact, it needs to be turbocharged.
We have a model that works at scale and is ready to be replicated. We have adapted the model in Bangladesh and are ready to expand it to the rest of Asia. We are also preparing a similar model for the Small Island Developing States.
We invite you to join in these partnerships.
Because the adaptation revolution that was promised in Glasgow is, indeed, the growth story of the 21st century.
Let us get on with it.
We can do this.
Why? Because adaptation is unstoppable.
And with that, Africa and the rest of the world is unstoppable.
Thank you.
