UK contributes £200m towards climate finance for African countries at COP27 summit

BRITAIN'S government has offered £200m to the African Development Bank (AfDB) as its contribution towards climate finance for African countries in response to the recent spate of droughts and floods afflicting the continent.

Announcing the donation on the sidelines of COP27, the global environmental summit currently taking place in Egypt, James Cleverly, the UK's foreign secretary said the money will help deal with severe drought and floods across the continent. He added that the money will be paid into the AfDB’s Climate Action Window (Caw).

Recently created, Caw is a new mechanism set up to channel climate finance to help vulnerable countries adapt to the impacts of climate change. This includes problems like severe drought in the Horn of Africa to floods in South Sudan.

Mr Cleverly said: “Climate change is having a devastating impact on countries in sub-Saharan Africa facing drought and extreme weather patterns, which have historically received a tiny proportion of climate finance. This new mechanism from the African Development Bank will see vital funds delivered to those most affected by the impacts of climate change, much more quickly.

“Lack of access to climate finance for the world’s poorest countries was a central focus at COP26 in Glasgow. This £200m of UK funding is helping us to make tangible progress to address this issue.”

AfDB president Akinwumi Adesina, said: “I applaud the UK government for this major contribution towards the capitalisation of the Climate Action Window of the African Development Fund, as it seeks to raise more financing to support vulnerable low-income African countries that are most affected by climate change. This bold move and support of the UK will strengthen our collective efforts to build climate resilience for African countries.

"With increasing frequencies of droughts, floods and cyclones that are devastating economies, the UK support for climate adaptation is timely, needed and inspiring in closing the climate adaptation financing gap for Africa. I came to COP 27 in Egypt with the challenges of climate adaptation for Africa topmost on my mind.

"The support of the UK has given hope. I encourage others to follow this leadership on climate adaptation shown by the UK."

Last year's Glasgow Climate Pact included a commitment from donors to double adaptation finance in 2025 from 2019 levels. Yesterday Rishi Sunak, the UK prime minister announced the UK will surpass that target and triple adaptation funding from £500m in 2019 to £1.5bn in 2025 and this funding package provided to the AfDB will be part of this commitment.

Prime Minister Sunak also confirmed yesterday that the UK is delivering the target of spending £11.6bn on International Climate Finance. This comes alongside new and expanded solar and geothermal power plants in Kenya backed by British International Investment, UK export financing for Nairobi’s ground-breaking Railway City and a major public-private partnership on the Grand Falls Dam hydropower project, including a $3bn investment led by UK firm GBM Engineering.