COP27: FG Makes Case for Adaptation Projects Financing

•UK steps up climate finance support with additional £200m for African countries

Bennett Oghifo in Lagos and Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

With increasing level of desertification and perennial flooding causing deaths and destruction of property in the country, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development (FMHADMSD), Sadiya Umar Farouq yesterday appealed to the developed nations to provide more funding for projects that would enable the most vulnerable persons in the society adapt.

The minister made the appeal at the ongoing 27th Conference of Parties (COP27) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

She said leaders of the developed world should use COP27 to implement the Paris Agreement, particularly funding of adaptation projects in developing countries, as determined at COP26 in Glasgow, last year.

The minister charged global leaders, “to move beyond rhetoric to real action,” painting a grim picture of how the impacts of climate change caused untold devastation across the country in recent years, particularly in 2021 and this year.

She said, “While appreciating the efforts of stakeholders and partners, the question still remains how can we speedily, effectively and efficiently mobilise multi-sectoral stakeholders and partners to locate themselves in the humanitarian crisis caused by climate change in developing nations?

“How committed are we to the Glasgow Climate Pact that called for doubling of financial commitment to help developing nations to become more resilient and adapt to the impact of climate change?

“How committed are we to supporting developing nations to effectively and efficiently implement humanitarian principles as it relates to climate change mitigation, resilience and adaptation strategies in a timely manner?”

Farouq said these were some of the areas for real and sincere focus in COP27, stating that she was deeply alarmed that, “because the most at risk is the most affected. When it comes to effects of climate change, the most vulnerable are the poorest of the poor, migrants, refugees, internally displaced persons, the elderly, women and children. These groups bear the most devastating effect of climate change yet they are the least contributors to climate change malpractice.”

She recalled how, last year, “climate change-induced hydrological and drought-induced hazards, coupled with insurgency, ethnic and religious crisis devastated and caused unprecedented humanitarian crisis across the country, leaving behind huge humanitarian disasters translated in loss of lives and properties, forced migration and precarious health emergencies and deadly food crisis.”

Meanwhile, the United Kingdom (UK) government has announced that it would provide additional £200 million to support African countries to adapt to the impacts of climate change.

The UK government made the pledge at the ongoing COP27 in Egypt, which it said would help deal with severe drought and floods across the continent.

UK Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly, in a statement issued yesterday, said the funds would be made available to the African Development Bank’s (AfDB) Climate Action Window (CAW) to countries most affected by the impacts of climate change.

The CAW is a new mechanism set up to channel climate finance to help vulnerable countries adapt to the impacts of climate change, from severe drought in the Horn of Africa to floods in South Sudan.

Cleverly said: “Climate change is having a devastating impact on countries in Sub-Saharan Africa facing drought and extreme weather patterns, which have historically received a tiny proportion of climate finance.

“This new mechanism from the African Development Bank will see vital funds delivered to those most affected by the impacts of climate change, much more quickly.

“Lack of access to climate finance for the world’s poorest countries was a central focus at COP26 in Glasgow. This £200 million of UK funding is helping us to make tangible progress to address this issue.”

On his part, the President of the AfDB, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina commended the UK for the additional funding.

He said, “I applaud the UK government for this major contribution towards the capitalization of the Climate Action Window of the African Development Fund, as it seeks to raise more financing to support vulnerable low-income African countries that are most affected by climate change.

“This bold move and support of the UK will strengthen our collective efforts to build climate resilience for African countries. With increasing frequencies ofnnyym gn nmg droughts, floods and cyclones that are devastating economies, the UK support for climate adaptation is timely, needed, and inspiring in closing the climate adaptation financing gap for Africa.”

Adesina noted that he came to COP 27 in Egypt with challenges of climate adaptation for Africa topmost on his mind, adding that the support of the UK gave him hope.

The Glasgow Climate Pact included a commitment from donors to double adaptation finance in 2025 from 2019 levels.

The Prime Minister on Tuesday had announced the UK would surpass that target and triple adaptation funding from £500 million in 2019 to £1.5 billion in 2025, saying the funding package provided to the AfDB would be part of this commitment.