Heads of State and Government and Global Leaders to attend Africa Adaptation Summit hosted by the Global Center on Adaptation
Rotterdam, the Netherlands, 19 August 2022 – With two months to go until the next global climate summit (COP27) in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, heads of state and government and global leaders will gather in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, for the Africa Adaptation Summit.
The Global Center on Adaptation is hosting the summit in collaboration with the African Union, the African Development Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Africa Adaptation Initiative and the Climate Vulnerable Forum.
The Summit is expected to garner further support and resources for the region’s flagship Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program. The program is realizing the vision of the Africa Adaptation Initiative by mobilizing $25 billion of investments by 2025 for climate adaptation in food security, resilient infrastructure, adaptation jobs and climate finance.
Heads of State and Government attending from Africa include President Macky Sall of Senegal and Chairperson of the African Union; and the outgoing President of Kenya and Global Champion of the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAAP), Uhuru Kenyatta. Others are: President Sahle-Work Zewde of Ethiopia; President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana and Chair of the Climate Vulnerable Forum; President Ali Bongo Ondimba of Gabon and Chair of the Africa Adaptation Initiative; President Félix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of Congo and President Hakainde Hichilema of Zambia.
Invited Heads of State and Government from Europe expected to speak at the summit include Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands; President Emmanuel Macron of France; Prime Minister Metter Frederiksen of Denmark; Prime Minister Sanna Marin of Finland and Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre of Norway. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada is also expected to speak.
Global Leaders expected to speak include United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed; African Union Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki; International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva; World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; President of COP26 Alok Sharma; European Commission Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans; European Investment Bank President Werner Hoyer; Global Center for Adaptation Chief Executive Officer Patrick Verkooijen; African Development Bank Group President Akinwumi Adesina; and the 8th Secretary-General of United Nations and Chair of the Global Center on Adaptation, Ban Ki-moon.
Africa’s vulnerability to climate change continues to increase as the gap between the finance available for climate adaptation and the need continues grows. The latest report from the Climate Policy Initiative and the Global Center on Adaptation reveals that the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) of 51 African countries cumulatively show a need for an estimated $579 billion in investment for adaptation through 2030. This compares to the $11.4 billion in tracked adaptation finance to Africa on average annually in 2019-20. If this trend continues through to 2030, cumulative adaptation finance through 2030 will be $125.4 billion, less than one-quarter of the estimated needs stated in NDCs.
AAAP’s funding is mobilized through upstream and downstream financing facilities endorsed by the African Union. The Upstream Financing Facility—managed by the Global Center on Adaptation—is targeting a capitalization of $250 million to attract billions of dollars of investment in proven adaptation strategies. The goal of this fund is to strengthen the adaptation and resilience components of projects that need the support of multilateral development banks and other development financial institutions. The African Development Bank manages the Downstream Financing Facility through the climate set-aside in the 16th replenishment of the African Development Fund, the Bank Group’s concessional lending arm. To date, this dual financing strategy has enabled the AAAP to rapidly deliver impact at scale by mainstreaming adaptation into projects worth over $3 billion.
