Egypt, US announce over $150 million to aid Africa’s Adaptation to Climate Change

A major package of support of over USD$150 million for adaptation has been launched at COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. 

The package was announced at a special session on "Advancing Adaptation Action in Africa" co-hosted by H.E. Sameh Shoukry, COP27 President, and United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John Kerry.  

COP President Shoukry speaking at the events said: “The key challenge for African countries is to access funding for climate action. Recognizing that progress towards adapting to climate consequences and enhancing resilience is crucially needed, we launched a couple of days ago here at COP27 the Sharm-El-Sheikh Adaptation Agenda. This agenda comprises a total of 30 global adaptation outcome targets by 2030 that are urgently needed to address the adaptation gap and increase the resilience of 4 billion people through accelerating transformation across five impact systems: food and agriculture, water and nature, coastal and oceans, human settlements, and infrastructure.”

COP27 President H.E, Shoukry further said: “Egypt as COP27 President and as an African nation, is well aware of the adaptation challenges facing our continent, and we are pleased to have collaborated over the past year with the United States to develop a diverse package of support for Africa in the field of adaptation and resilience.”

As part of the US Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience (PREPARE), has seen the US double its Adaptation Fund Pledge to USD $100 million, and the Accelerating Adaptation in Africa initiative provides USD $150 million in support to accelerate PREPARE’s work across the continent.

The Adaptation in Africa initiative previously announced in June 2022 by President Biden and President El-Sisi has the potential to result in USD $4-10 of benefits for every dollar invested.  It now includes support from the US for:

USD $13.6 million for a Systematic Observations Financing Facility that will help fill weather, water, and climate observation gaps in Africa. 

 

USD $15 million to support the co-development and deployment of early-warning systems in Africa to cut the number of people who need emergency assistance in half by 2030 - and from 200 million to just 10 million by 2050. 

 

USD $10 million to support the capacity building of Africa’s current and future decision makers. This includes USD $10 million to support the launch of a new adaptation center in Egypt – the Cairo Center for Learning and Excellence on Adaptation and Resilience, announced by Egypt, to build adaptation capacity across Africa. 

 

USD $2 million to the Resilience and Adaptation Mainstreaming Program to build the capacity of governments to manage climate risks and access finance.

 

USD $3.5 million in support for the Least Developed Countries Initiative for Effective Adaptation & Resilience, helping African countries like Uganda, Malawi, Gambia, and Burkina Faso to enhance access to adaptation finance for the most vulnerable.

 

Expanding access to risk-based insurance for the most vulnerable by supporting regional risk insurance pools, including contributing USD $12 million to the Africa Disaster Risk Financing Program and USD $12 million to ARC Ltd.

 

USD $25 million to the African Union’s flagship Africa Adaptation Initiative (AAI), which is hosted by the Egyptian government, to launch the AAI Food Security Accelerator, which will dramatically speed- and scale-up private sector investments in climate resilient food security in Africa.

 

Encouraging private sector innovation through USD $3.8 million to CRAFT TA Facility, and USD $2 million to launch an adaptation window of the Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance to help develop new financial instruments and mechanisms to harness private investment in adaptation.

 

USD $100 million in adaptation funding in FY 2022 to support food systems. 

The President of the United States of America also announced the launch of a new initiative to support Egypt in deploying 10GW of new wind and solar energy while decommissioning five GW of inefficient natural gas generation.

 

Special Envoy Kerry said: “We are completely committed to working together with our partners to support vulnerable communities in their efforts to, sadly, have to adapt to the impacts of climate change. Something that everyone whether in developed, developing or emerging economies are impacted by.”

 

Earlier this week in a statement released via the US Embassy in Cairo, Kerry stated that “unprecedented” investment in clean energy is needed to limit warming to 1.5°C and avert catastrophic climate impacts on communities worldwide. His statement added that “annual clean energy investment must triple to $4.2 trillion by 2030” with over half of that investment needed for emerging and developing economies.

 

The "Advancing Adaptation Action in Africa" event was immediately followed by a second event, also jointly hosted by Egypt and the United States, addressing “Accelerating mitigation ambition while ensuring energy security” placing focus on providing support for the Egyptian Nexus of Water-Food-Energy (NWFE) program.

 

At COP27, Egypt signed partnerships for its NWFE program to support the implementation of climate initiatives with investments worth $15 billion. This includes an energy project worth $10 billion and eight food security, agriculture, irrigation, and water projects.

 

“I wish to thank the United States for the extremely constructive collaboration we have had over the past year in developing this package, which demonstrates the commitment of both Egypt and the United States to the cause of adaptation in Africa, and is indeed an exemplary representation of the COP27 mantra of implementation and action,” concluded COP27 President H.E. Shoukry.

 

 

Why African climate campaigners are unhappy with John Kerry

African climate campaigners have slammed US Climate Envoy John Kerry for showing a lack of comprehension of the magnitude climate change portends on the African people.

Addressing the African Ministerial Conference on Environment (AMCEN) taking place in Dakar, Senegal, John Kerry cautioned against investing in long-term gas projects in Africa as countries in the region wrestle with how to power their development with clean energy.

 

He said the viability of long-term gas projects could become a problem beyond 2030, the target date many developed nations have set to move to mostly renewable and curb the need for gas.

 

But “Africa is disappointed that John Kerry came to AMCEN without coming out strongly to deliver a bold commitment that would offer hope to families in the Horn of Africa, Sahel and the rest of Africa whose livelihoods have been turned upside down by a problem they have very little to do with, said Mithika Mwenda, the Executive Director of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA).

 

In his speech, Kerry denied that the West and developed nations bear responsibility for climate change and urged every country to bear the burden of its impacts. Further, he rubbed the Africans the wrong way by stressing the need for mitigation. Africans tend to favour a focus leaning towards adaptation.

 

Mithika said African CSOs consider it a mockery to the people on the continent when a top US diplomat spews out what Africans have heard over the years without telling them why his country continues to churn out tonnes of carbon emissions across the Atlantic and on its failure to honour its commitments on climate finance.

 

“A COP in Africa, undoubtedly, should recognize what has united all of us; special needs and circumstances on the continent that personify the impacts the climate crisis has condemned on humanity,” said Mithika.

 

Africa at the crossroads of taking climate action

 

A report by the United Nations University – Institute for Natural Resources in Africa (UNU-INRA) has identified climate change as a key driver to asset stranding in Africa’s natural resources sector, which contributes substantially to export revenues of a majority of African countries.

 

The research, Africa in the age of stranded assets, argues that managing the risks associated with asset stranding will be fundamental to sustaining government revenues from extractive resources.

 

As the urgency to act on climate change grows, international climate policies and the advent of low-carbon technologies are reducing the demand for, and value of, fossil fuels.

 

It is estimated that 60-80% of coal, oil and gas reserves could be classified as unburnable if the world is to avoid disastrous climate change.

 

This puts Africa at risk of asset stranding, especially in mineral resource-rich countries.

 

The report stands on deep contextual research from eight African countries; Angola, Ghana, Namibia, Nigeria, Niger, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia and offers voices and insights from the continent often missing from the global conversation on resource use and climate change.

 

Africa’ Special Needs and Circumstances

 

The African continent emits less than 4% of the global greenhouse gas emissions, but remains most vulnerable to climate change, according to science and reality.

 

The common position of Africa going to COP27 is the push for parties to acknowledge Africa’s special needs and circumstances, as countries are compelled to invest 2-9percent of their annual budgets to local adaptation projects.

 

Augustine Njamnshi, Chair, the Technical and Political Committee, PACJA, wants the US to stop dilly-dallying and avail to African people its fair share of climate finance to build their resilience.

 

“We take note of his [Kerry’s] acknowledgement of the current devastation occasioned by floods in South Africa, Mozambique, and Uganda, which have killed hundreds and displaced tens of thousands and the Horn of Africa countries which are on their fourth year of drought, with more than 18 million suffering food insecurity as a result,” he said adding that mere acknowledgement does not help if the largest GHGs emitter fails to honour its historical commitments and pay its climate debt.

 

The CSOs asked African governments to avoid carrot dangling and manipulations from the US and other reluctant rich countries, which want to advance their selfish interests in the name of climate action. 

 

According to Mamadou Barri, an activist from Senegal, Africans had expected Kerry to commit to supporting its agenda for the 27^th Conference of Parties (COP27) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change set for Egypt in November.

 

“Chief of our agenda in COP27 is recognition of Africa as a region of special circumstances and circumstance,” he said.

 

By Kofi Adu Domfeh