With less than one week until COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, the Global Center on Adaptation is gathering global leaders to discuss expected outcomes from COP27 and to present the findings of its flagship report “State and Trends in Adaptation in Africa 2022” (STA22).
STA22 is the most comprehensive guide to assess progress on climate adaptation in Africa and provide guidance and recommendations on best practices in adapting to the effects of a changing climate and building resilience to climate shocks. The report highlights successful adaptation initiatives from the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAAP) which have the potential to be scaled up and replicated. It also presents key policies, skills and finance gaps that must be addressed if adaptation is to be effective and reach those who need it the most.
At COP26 in Glasgow last year, the global donor community promised to double finance for adaptation from the current rate of up to a quarter of climate financial flows earmarked for the developing world. It is expected at COP27 that significant progress will be made on climate finance including the delivery of the promised $100 billion a year to assist developing countries.
This year’s report found 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). 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 the private sector. This is significantly less than the $52.7 billion annually to 2030 it is estimated African countries will need.
To increase the volume and efficacy of adaptation finance flows to Africa over the coming decade, the report makes a number of recommendations:
• Financial institutions must mainstream resilience into investments they are making.
• Policy makers and other stakeholders must build an enabling environment for adaptation investment.
• Financial innovation for adaptation must match country-level policy and market conditions.
The Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) is an international organization which works as a solutions broker to accelerate action and support for adaptation solutions, from the international to the local, in partnership with the public and private sector. Founded in 2018, GCA operates from its headquarters in the largest floating office in the world, located in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. GCA has a worldwide network of regional offices in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire; Dhaka, Bangladesh and Beijing, China.