BUUMBA CHIMBULU writes
THE African Development Bank (AfDB) has launched a mechanism for mobilising new finances for the continent’s climate change.
In the period 2019-2023, the AfDB will implement at least 12 Adaptation Benefits Mechanism (ABM) demonstration projects in Africa, with a focus on vulnerable communities in least developed and low-income countries.
According to the Bank’s Director for Climate Change, Anthony Nyong, AfDB had raised the share of adaptation finance to 49 percent in 2018 from less than 30 percent in 2016, to better respond to the needs of the African continent.
He was speaking from Accra, Ghana last week in the margins of the Africa Climate Week.
“Innovative incentive mechanisms for adaptation are needed to speed up the transition to a low-emissions, resilient and sustainable Africa,” Mr Nyong said
The public sector, he said could not provide enough finance to make African countries resilient to climate change impacts, and funding from the private sector was hard to come by.
He said at the same time, many grass root adaptation initiatives were being developed and some of these were already making a big difference.
