Climate Finance Has Failed Africa Twice Over. Here's How To Fix It.

"The effects of climate change are no longer a future risk for Africa. They are a present crisis. Floods are destroying infrastructure that took decades to build. Droughts are collapsing harvests and displacing communities. Extreme heat is eroding labour productivity and straining health systems. Coastal communities are losing ground to rising seas and storm surges."

"The case for massive investment in adaptation and resilience is overwhelming. In the infrastructure, agriculture, water systems and coastal protections that help communities survive a climate that has already changed. But adaptation only buys limited time. Only deep, rapid cuts to the greenhouse gas emissions warming the planet can prevent those impacts from escalating beyond the reach of any response."

"Africa is receiving less than US$14 billion per year in adaptation finance against an estimated need of more than US$100 billion. And more than half of what does flow arrives as interest bearing loans."

"Resilience becomes increasingly ineffective as emissions and temperatures continue to rise. We cannot adapt to many extreme events, or their impacts on food systems, livelihoods and health. Tipping points are irreversible."

Climate change impacts devastate Africa through floods destroying infrastructure, droughts collapsing harvests, extreme heat reducing productivity, and rising seas threatening coastal communities. While adaptation and resilience investments are essential for survival in an already-changed climate, they provide only temporary relief. Deep, rapid greenhouse gas emission reductions are necessary to prevent impacts from becoming unmanageable. Africa receives less than $14 billion annually in adaptation finance against estimated needs exceeding $100 billion, with over half arriving as loans. Growing adaptation focus has overshadowed urgent decarbonization imperatives. Resilience becomes ineffective as temperatures rise, with many extreme events and their cascading effects on food systems, livelihoods, and health becoming unadaptable. Irreversible tipping points threaten.

Read at State of the Planet