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The African Adaptation Initiative (AAI) (AfricaAdaptationInitiative.org), the African Union’s flagship initiative to improve concrete adaptation on the ground, has announced that $40 million was pledged at COP27. Pledges included $25 million from the US, €5 million from the EU, €5 million from Germany and $4.5 million from the Open Society Funds (OSF).
US Presidential Special Envoy for Climate, John Kerry, announced a $25 million injection to launch the AAI Food Security Accelerator at COP27, Advancing Adaptation in Africa. The funding will help identify adaptation investments with the overall goal of increasing food security and freeing up private capital to invest in innovative solutions to address the worsening food situation in Africa.
Jochen Flasbarth, State Secretary of Germany’s Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development, pledged 5 million euros ($5.25 million) to AAI during the conference as part of Team Europe Initiatives, which also includes the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and France. and the European Commission. Another €5 million ($5.25 million) was pledged by Germany to promote climate adaptation and resilience in Africa. Ms. Yamide Dagnet, Director of Climate Justice at The Open Society Foundations, pledged an additional $4.5 million by 2025 to support the strengthening of ECOVERSE, AAI’s innovative project on rural communities.
New commitments totaling $230 million were made to the Adaptation Fund at COP27, and the UN’s Permanent Financial Committee on Climate Change will prepare a report on doubling adaptation funding for consideration at the next COP28 conference in Dubai.
HE Lee James Taylor White, Minister of Water and Forests, Marine and Environment of Gabon, commented: “Catalyzing adaptation action on the African continent is now more necessary and urgent than ever. Our priority in the Africa Adaptation Initiative is to continue to emphasize the need to increase adaptation finance across the board. It is critical to provide Africa with meaningful funding and a genuine commitment to help the people who have done little to contribute to global climate change but are currently most affected by its effects.
Commenting on the funding, Ambassador Seyni Nafo, AAI coordinator, said: “We know that Africa is warming faster than any other part of the world. It is estimated that African countries will need at least US$579 billion between 2020 and 2030 to plan and implement the adaptation measures we need, so the urgency of this issue cannot be overstated. We would like to thank all our partners, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Climate Emergency Response Team, the European Union, the German Government, OSF and the United States for supporting our efforts to accelerate adaptation plans and raise awareness of the vast work that will be needed to adapt in the coming years already the devastating effects of climate change on the continent.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of the Africa Adaptation Initiative.
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About the Africa Adaptation Initiative:
The African Adaptation Initiative (AAI) is the African Union’s flagship initiative to promote concrete adaptation on the ground. Over the years, the initiative has ensured strong cooperation with international partners, including: the United States of America, the Federal Republic of Germany, the European Union, the United Nations (UNDP, UNCDF), philanthropies and other key partners.
AAI was launched by HE Abdel Fattah El-Sisi as the Coordinator of the Committee of African Heads of State and Government on Climate Change (CAHOSCC) at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) COP21 in Paris (December 2015).
AAI aims to improve adaptation efforts by building partnerships with institutions and organizations doing relevant work on the continent to scale up and replicate ongoing initiatives and develop proposals for new initiatives.
AAI will also: (i) promote awareness of climate adaptation; ii) promote knowledge management, capacity building and capacity building; (iii) support and facilitate resource mobilization for implementation; (iv) promote cooperation and partnerships (at sub-regional and regional levels) to achieve synergies, scale and increase shared benefits; (v) Track progress by monitoring and evaluating performance.
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