The African Union Commission has expressed concern that disasters afflicting member states are reversing development gains as most countries are forced to spend funds meant for development on emergencies such as drought, floods, and cyclones.
“In 2022 alone, weather, climate, and water-related hazards in Africa caused more than USD 8.5 billion in economic damages,” said Director of Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment at the African Union Commission Harsen Nyambe at the 9th Africa Regional Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (AfRP-9) held in Windhoek, Namibia.
He noted that pledges of US$792 to the Loss and Damage Fund that were made at COP28 in Dubai during the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change UNFCCC), “are like a drop in the ocean compared to the magnitude of the incidences and amounts required to address loss and damage annually in Africa alone,” said Nyambe and added, “the recent data from Zero Carbon Analytics show that the loss and damage costs in Africa are estimated to range between USD 290 billion and USD 440 billion between 2020 and 2030, depending on the level of warming.”
The Director of Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment said that the combined African countries foreign debt burden continues to climb as most of the resources that would have been used for other developmental projects are diverted to address the ever-increasing impacts of climate change.
“According to the report released in August 2024 by Development Initiatives, close to two-thirds or 64% of African countries are classified among the world’s most vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate change,” he said and added, “The continent also hosts close to 60% of low-income countries either already in external debt distress or at high risk of external debt distress.”
The African Union Commission has developed policy frameworks and programmes aimed at assisting Member States and Regional Economic Communities to build resilience towards the impacts of climate change and disasters, he noted that this will enable countries to work towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 7 of building environmentally sustainable and climate resilient Economies and communities.
While noting that the theme of the meeting, “Act now for the resilient Africa we want” Nyambe said that in order to build the capacity to produce usable early warning information, the Commission has developed that Climate Change and Resilient Development Strategy and its Action Plan for 2022-2032, “The Africa Integrated Strategy on Meteorology, Weather and Climate, and have the Climate Services Programme that is providing weather observation equipment to Member States to improve their weather forecast,” he added.
Among other measures put in place by the African Union Commission is the multi-country programme which was approved by the Green Climate Fund in February this year to finance 15 member states to develop their readiness programmes for water resilience to climate change, “while the Green Recovery Action Plan aimed at improving access to climate finance, building energy just transition, and resilient agriculture,” he said and added, “we have a multi-sectoral approach to building resilience for the Africa that we want.”
He urged member states to develop resilient systems that ensure food security adding that if Africa can feed itself then the continent will be weaned from perennial donations whenever there is a drought, “a situation in which food can be moved from central Africa to relieve hunger in southern Africa, by eliminating trade barriers through the Africa Continental Free Trade Area.”
