Africa is losing 5% to 15% of its per capita economic growth due to the effects of climate change and is facing a gaping climate finance shortfall, the African Development Bank (AfDB) said.
Africa has been hit disproportionately hard by the fallout from climate change, which has aggravated droughts, flooding and cyclones across the continent in recent years. African nations received around $18.3 billion in climate finance between 2016 and 2019, Kevin Urama, the AfDB’s acting chief economist, said on Tuesday. But they are staring down a nearly $1.3 trillion climate finance gap for the 2020 to 2030 period.
“Investing in climate adaptation in the context of sustainable development is the best way to cope with the impacts of climate change impacts,” Urama said.
In a related development, the World Bank has revealed that the Lagos State government loses between $3.1 billion to $5.8 billion, about 8.1 percent of the state GDP yearly to air pollution, Particulate Matter (PM 2.5). The bank said it derived its projection by using “the value of a statistical life (VSL) approach, which considers how much society is willing to pay to reduce a small risk of death, the costs are estimated at US$3.1–5.8 billion (4.2 to 8.1 percent of Lagos’ GDP).” In Lagos, PM 2.5 exposure is estimated to cause between 16,000 and 30,000 premature deaths per year, with about half of these being infants under 1 year.
“Air pollution is also estimated to cause 180,000 to 350,000 acute lower respiratory infections (ALRI) per year, primarily cases of pneumonia in children under 5,” the report added.
Africa faces the challenge of developing within the constraints of doing so while being climate responsible. The continent’s location makes the effects of the climate crisis disproportionate, compared with the global North. Although rising sea levels have contributed to floods in several parts of Europe as well as wildfires in the low countries of Southern Europe.
The continent (Africa) accounts for the smallest share of global greenhouse gas emissions, at just 3.8%, in contrast to 23% in China, 19% in the US, and 13% in the European Union. For other continents that have developed over the last two centuries, these were not present constraints, allowing them to develop rapidly even while doing significant damage to the planet that has led us here.
This challenge presents a unique opportunity to Africa and the world at large – to implement a development framework paradigm that is climate responsible, sustainable and does not do damage to the planet. Africa offers the perfect real-world lab to test these ideas, but the rich world has to put its money where its mouth is. Rich nations promised in 2009 to deliver $100 billion in climate financing to the developing world. But that pledge has only ever been partially met and is due to expire in 2025. Collectively, African countries received only $18.3 billion in climate finance between 2016 and 2019.
Given the effect of the war in Ukraine on energy supplies in the European Union, many EU states, especially Germany, are faced with the temptation of returning to more crude forms of energy which have been responsible for climate change. On the other hand, many are looking to copious sums of subsidies to whittle the effect of the coming winter of discontent and as long as the war continues and energy uncertainty remains, it is uncertain that the money from the global North from where this funding gap is expected to be filled will come through within the expected deadline.
In the short term, a failure to support the implementation of this new paradigm will lead Africa down the well-worn path. It is therefore a critical challenge that the whole world must come together to face. Unless that is done, ultimately, it would very much be an ‘all man for himself’ situation for the foreseeable future.