Across the African continent, communities continue to suffer the adverse effects of climate change with a level of disproportionate burden, experts say, to their minimal contribution to global emissions.
Looking ahead to the African Climate Summit (ACS) 2.0 to be held in Addis Ababa next month, the continent’s leaders used the environmental ministerial conference (AMCEN ) to spotlight Africa’s widening adaptation gap. Dr Richard Muyungi, Africa’s Group of Negotiators chairperson and Tanzanian climate envoy, remarked that the “continent’s readiness and resilience against climate change is severely hampered by a widening gap in climate adaptation funding.”
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) 2024 Adaptation Gap Report warns of a widening gap between the estimated global adaptation financing needs and actual financial flows. The report reveals that the “adaptation finance gap” now ranges from USD 187-359 billion annually.
Multiple studies show that Africa’s vulnerability is particularly acute, with 17 out of the 20 countries most threatened by climate change being on the continent.
Scientists, like Patricia Nying’uro, a climate scientist and the IPCC Focal Point for Kenya, said during the launch of Climate impacts in Kenya that “adaptation is urgent….because we have already seen the impacts of climate change.”
Yet, money matters. For every five dollars invested globally to fund climate adaptation yearly in 2021-2022, Africa got only a dollar, according to the Climate Policy Initiative. This translates to USD 13 billion, against an adaptation demand of USD 53 billion, leaving a USD 40 billion funding gap. Additionally, this share stood for only 36 per cent of the total climate financing allocated to the continent, down from 39 per cent in 2019-2020. This pales in sharp contrast to mitigation support, which accounts for USD 1.1 trillion.
This widening adaptation gap reflects years of underinvestment and global inattention to the realities faced by vulnerable regions. The fact that adaptation is now firmly on the climate agenda is itself a hard-won milestone, especially for African countries demanding climate justice.
Initially, the focus on the global climate talks was largely on mitigation, as adaptation was largely seen as a failure to mitigate.
The Cancun Adaptation Framework, established during COP16 in 2010, became the turning point. The Framework, as stipulated within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), established the National Adaptation Plans, inviting countries to develop and prioritise long-term adaptation needs.
In 2015, the Paris Agreement elevated adaptation to the same level as mitigation, setting a Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA). The last few COPs have focused on operationalising the GGA. This work is intrinsically linked to the Global Stocktake (GST), the process by which countries review progress toward the goals of the Paris Agreement every five years. The first-ever Global Stocktake concluded at COP28.
The UAE Framework for Global Climate Resilience set out specific global targets for adaptation, with the final set of these indicators expected to be agreed upon at COP30 in Belem, Brazil, in November this year. This process is known as the UAE-Belém Work Programme on Indicators.
A new study by the World Resources Institute (WRI), which analysed 320 adaptation and resilience investments adaptation and resilience investments across 12 countries, reveals that for every one USD invested in adaptation and resilience, it generates more than USD 10 across 10 years.
“One of our most striking findings is that adaptation projects aren’t just paying off when disasters happen — they generate value every day through more jobs, better health and stronger local economies,” said Carter Brandon, Senior Fellow, WRI. “That’s a major mind shift: policymakers don’t need a disaster to justify resilience — it’s simply smart development.”
But challenges persist. A majority of the adaptation financing to Africa is in the form of loans rather than grants, a practice that African leaders are vociferously against. They point out that this approach punishes Africa twice: first by the impacts of climate change, and then again by the fiscal strain of having to finance its response.
While giving his keynote speech at the Global Centre for Adaptation groundbreaking event in Nairobi, GCA President and CEO Prof Patrick V. Verkooijen captured the essence of the approach, emphasising that “adaptation is not charity.”
The sources of this adaptation finance are a critical part of the story. The majority of funding originates from multilateral development institutions such as the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the World Bank Group. For instance, the World Bank has committed to a renewed push for adaptation, with a focus on regional programmes that strengthen water management, improve early warning systems, and invest in resilient infrastructure.
The Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAAP) by the Global Centre on Adaptation (GCA) and the African Development Bank, which was endorsed in 2021 by African Heads of States, targets mobilising USD 25 billion to promote climate resilience among the youth, infrastructure, innovative financing and smart-agriculture across the continent. African governments, despite numerous fiscal challenges, invest 19 per cent of the adaptation financing, as opposed to 11 per cent by bilateral development finance institutions and three per cent by private sector players.
Further, the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF) established in 2001 by the United Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and managed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) has offered support to over 30 African countries enabling them build up climate resilience in the fields of disaster risk management, climate-smart agriculture, flood resilience water and infrastructure.
The Green Climate Fund assists developing nations to achieve their nationally determined contributions through grants and concessional loans, with over 40 countries having received training on readiness to undertake climate-resilient water investments and access climate financing.
At ACS 2.0, African leaders are keen to leverage the summit to spotlight African-grown solutions in what is seen to be a move from “ victim of climate change” to a continent of solutions. Abas Mohammed, Co-chair of the Content and Program Committee of ACS2 and CEO, Environment and Climate Change Policy, Strategy Analysis and Mainstreaming, Ministry of Planning and Development, Ethiopia avers that “The Second Africa Climate Summit is built on scalable climate finance as its foundation and will spotlight homegrown, African-led solutions—especially in adaptation and resilience—that are already delivering real impact.”
