The Africa Financial Alliance for Climate Change

21-25 May 2018. Busan, Korea. Busan, Korea’s second city, hosted the annual meeting of the AfDB’s board of governors, with the focus on the industrialisation in Africa.

The bank’s president Akinwumi Adesina announced that, alongside the Green Climate Fund and the Africa 50 investment fund, it plans to support the development of up to 10 GW of solar across the Sahel region.

• In November 2018, the bank is due to host its inaugural Africa Investment Forum in Johannesburg. This will be an annual platform focused strictly on facilitating business transactions meant to contribute to closing Africa’s huge infrastructure funding gap.
• The 2019 meeting will be held in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea.

Extracts of the programme
May 21, 2018 African Leadership for Agriculture
Leadership for Agriculture (L4Ag) is an African ministerial-level peer-to-peer network with financial and technical support from the Rockefeller Foundation. The network brings together Ministers of Finance and Agriculture with the ultimate goal of spurring agricultural sector growth, economic development, and employment, especially among youth. This is a special ministerial panel aiming to identify key areas of priority and set a clear action-oriented agenda for the network for the next 3 years. It will also discuss specific policies and instruments that African countries might consider as they strive to industrialize agriculture.

Discussed Topics were:

• Sharing best practices for driving agriculture, agribusiness, and job creation in African countries.
• Key policies, instruments, and budgetary allocations for the transformation and industrialization of African agriculture.
• Key areas of priority and a clear action-oriented three-year Leadership for Agriculture agenda.

May 23, 2018 High-Level Panel Sustainable Climate and Disaster Risk Financing.
The impact of climate change on livelihoods around the world, especially in Africa is obvious and appears to be worsening. It influences weather patterns, agriculture and food security, human health, and internal displacement, and heightens risks to national security and ecosystems.

To mitigate these risks, the African Risk Capacity (ARC) was established in 2012 and commenced operation in 2014 as a specialized agency of the African Union (AU). Its main objective is to help member countries improve their capacities to better plan and prepare for and respond to extreme weather conditions, events, incidents, and natural disasters, thus protecting the food security of the African population. This panel will discuss the role of Africa Risk Capacity in helping African countries to improve their capacities to better plan and prepare for and respond to extreme weather incidents and associated natural disasters. It will also focus on the support it provides to member countries in protecting their food security and reducing vulnerability to extreme climate conditions. The Panel also looked at innovative financing mechanisms and options to support the participation of African countries in the ARC insurance scheme.
Related:
At its 53rd Annual Meetings in Busan, Korea, the Bank brought together key continental and global stakeholders for an open dialogue on creating the Africa Financial Alliance for Climate Change.

Seven of the 10 countries in the world most threatened by climate change are in Africa. African economies are already suffering the devastating effects of climate change, further exacerbating their development challenges. In response, the African Development Bank is leading the way on what may be Africa’s most decisive action to ensure that the continent receives adequate climate finance.

“As Africa’s premier development financial institution, the African Development Bank is already taking action. The Bank is leading Africa’s transition to climate-resilient economies. The Bank can not achieve the task alone. The Paris Climate Agreement must be successful in Africa for the world to achieve the requisite reductions of greenhouse gases to keep global temperatures below the required target. This is why the African Development Bank is hosting this open dialogue to initiate the establishment of the African Financial Alliance for Climate Change as a call for us to stand together to mobilize climate finance at scale to meet the needs in Africa.” Akinwumi Adesina, African Development Bank President

“The Alliance is a fundamental step towards meeting the climate change challenge in Africa. There has to be an African solution to the challenge that we face and this initiative presents the opportunity to mobilize that.” Howard Bamsey, Green Climate Fund CEO

The Alliance brings together Africa’s financial sector, including Ministers of Finance, Central Banks, insurance and reinsurance companies, sovereign wealth and pension funds, stock exchanges, and global thought leaders to mobilize climate finance for Africa. It also hopes to come up with concrete proposals to mobilize domestic and international finance for climate-resilient development in Africa.

The launch of the Africa Financial Alliance for Climate Change will take place during the Africa Investment Forum(link is external) in South Africa, from November 7-9, 2018, and will bring together heads of financial institutions.