Africa Loses 15% GDP Per Capita Yearly Over Climate Change

By Adedapo Adesanya

The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) has said Africa has been losing from 5 to 15 per cent of its gross domestic product GDP per capita growth because of climate change and its related impacts.

This is at it needs about $1.6 trillion between 2022 and 2030 to meet its national contributions, says AfDB Acting Chief Economist and Vice President, Mr Kevin Urama.

Speaking at a panel discussion titled African Countries Ownership in Determining Climate Agenda on the sidelines of the Egypt International Cooperation Forum (Egypt-ICF 2022) in Cairo, he urged developed nations to bridge the climate financing gap on the continent.

Several senior officials represented the bank at the event, notably its vice president for power, energy, climate and green growth, Dr Kevin Kariuki, and its vice president for private sector, infrastructure and industrialization, Mr Solomon Quaynor.

“Collectively, African countries received only $18.3 billion in climate finance between 2016 and 2019,” Mr Urama said. “This results in a climate finance gap of up $1288.2 billion annually from 2020 to 2030.”

The AfDB chief economist added: “These sums reflect how the crisis is. Climate change affects Africa severely, while the continent contributes to only 3 per cent of global emissions.

“The global community must meet its $100 billion commitment to help the developing countries and African economies to mitigate the impacts of climate change and to adapt to it.

“Investing in climate adaptation in the context of sustainable development is the best way to cope with the climate change impacts, adding that gas must remain included in the continent’s plan for the gradual transition to clean energy,” he stated.

Mr Urama highlighted that since the 1850s, countries have managed to transition away from coal, and used gas as a transition to cleaner energy.

He also affirmed that Africa had great potential in terms of green investment opportunities that the private sector, including banks, could tap into.