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Ahead of the 27th Conference of the Parties (COP27) held in the Egyptian city of Sharm-el-Sheikh, the Global Centre on Adaptation (GCA) launched a report that painted a bleak future on the funding for climate adaptation in Africa. According to the report, State and Trends in Adaptation in Africa 2022, launched on 3 November 2022, Africa is facing a critical shortfall in funding for climate adaptation and that cumulative adaptation finance to 2030 will come to less than one-quarter of the estimated needs stated by African countries in their National Determined Contributions (NDCs), unless more funding for climate adaptation is secured.

The report reveals that in 2019 and 2020 an estimated $11.4 billion was committed to climate adaptation finance in Africa with more than 97% of the funds coming from public actors and less than 3% from private sectors. This is significantly less than the $52.7 billion annually to 2030 it is estimated African countries will need.

Positive outcomes rekindle hopes for Africa countries

But some of the commitments made at COP27 have rekindled hopes for a number of African countries. Key among these was the launch of the Sharm-El-Sheikh Adaptation Agenda that outlines 30 adaptation outcomes to enhance resilience for 4 billion people living in the most climate vulnerable communities by 2030. Each outcome presents global solutions that can be adopted at a local level to respond to local climate contexts, needs and risks and deliver the systems transformation required to protect vulnerable communities to the rising climate hazards, such as extreme heat, drought, flooding, or extreme weather.

Together, these outcomes represent the first comprehensive global plan to rally both State and non-State actors behind a shared set of adaptation actions that are required by the end of this decade across five impact systems: food and agriculture, water and nature, coastal and oceans, human settlements, and infrastructure, and including enabling solutions for planning and finance.

The 30 adaptation outcomes include urgent global targets related to, among others, transitioning to climate resilient, sustainable agriculture that can increase yields by 17% and reduce farm level greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 21%, without expanding agricultural frontiers. 

We are acutely aware of the fact that climate change poses new challenges to the fight against poverty and sustainability of agrarian livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa, causing considerable crop yield losses thereby adversely affecting smallholder livelihoods in Africa. This challenge can be addressed through the adoption of climate smart agriculture. Innovation can provide an opportunity for agriculture producers to increase productivity while better managing natural resources. This helps to ensure long-term viability and reduce the negative environmental impacts of production, such as pollutants and waste. This is why we at Challenge Works have created  the  ‘Cultivating the Drylands Prize’ challenge, a new prize to accelerate innovative agricultural technologies and practices to support more resilient, intelligent approaches to farming in arid conditions.

It is commendable that focus is being shifted to Africa and at Challenge Works, we welcome the Sharm-El-Sheikh Adaptation Agenda as it also addresses Ocean and Coastal Systems. This is in tandem with Afri-Plastics Challenge, the challenge we are currently running to help communities throughout Sub-Saharan Africa to prevent plastic waste from entering the oceans by finding ways to minimize reliance on plastic and new ways of managing plastic waste.

More adaptation funds on the way

Another crucial outcome is the commitment by the US to double its Adaptation Fund Pledge, as part of the US Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience (PREPARE), that accelerates adaptation in Africa. This includes funds 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. The United Kingdom (UK) also announced a significant increase in its financial support to the poorest African countries that bear the brunt of climate change. The £200 million was channelled to the African Development Bank Group’s Climate Action Window. It will also launch a new Forests and Climate Leaders’ Partnership and confirm more than £150m for protecting rainforests and natural habitats, including the Congo Basin and Amazon.

In addition, the UK committed £65.5 million to support green investment projects, including new and expanded solar and geothermal power plants in Kenya, as well as financial support for Egypt’s flagship COP27 initiative, the ‘Nexus on Food, Water and Energy’. The funding will develop projects including solar parks and energy storage innovations, and is expected to mobilise billions in private sector finance.

Also noteworthy is the announcement that Kenya, Egypt, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia and Tanzania are among the countries that will be collectively receiving more than US$350 million fundraised by Italy, the United Kingdom and Sweden. The funding from Nature, People and Climate Investment programme (NPC), a newly launched initiative by Climate Investment Fund (CIF), will focus on promoting and protecting natural environments integral to climate action, sustainable agriculture and food supply, healthy forests, resilient coastal systems and empowering indigenous people and local communities.

Youth voices now being heard

Above all, COP27 will go down in history as the first climate conference to emphasise that children and the youth are affected by climate change and their voices must therefore be heard. The COP27 Youth and Future Generation Day sought to ensure that young people be part of the conversation. This arose from the realization that the impacts of climate change have significant effects on the health, nutrition, education and the future of young people, while youth stands to be the most impacted by the decisions taken at the climate process.

 It is in this regard that the African Development Bank (AfDB) President Dr Akinwumi Adesina promised to fund a business plan by Kenya’s youngest delegate at COP27, 9-year-old Karen Wanjiru who would like to start a business to make biodegradable bottles.This is akin to the Mombasa Plastics Prize which builds on the work of the Afri-Plastics Challenge, funded by The Government of Canada, that is encouraging innovation and awareness among aspiring entrepreneurs and leaders in Mombasa County, by inspiring the development of solutions that tackle the problem of marine plastic waste mismanagement within informal settlements. 

It is evident from the foregoing that COP27 produced several outcomes whose timely implementation will go a long way in addressing adaptation and mitigation issues, especially in Africa. It is now time to move from rhetoric to action. To ensure increased adaptation financial flows to Africa, financial institutions must mainstream resilience into investments that they are making. But for this to happen, policy makers and other stakeholders must build an enabling environment for adaptation investment.