As part of efforts geared towards tackling the effects of Climate Change, the African Development Bank (AfDB) stated that it has voted the sum of $25 billion to the adoption of climate change.
Nothing that climate change is a game changer, Prof. Kevin Urama, Acting Chief Economist and Vice President for Governance and Knowledge Management, added that the world is undergoing energy transition.
Urama disclosed this at the pre-50th Annual General Meeting virtual Press Conference of the bank held on Wednesday.
The theme of the 2022 AGM, which will be held in Accra, Ghana, on May 23-27 is “Achieving Climate Resilience and a Just Energy Transition for Africa”.
According to Urama, “We intend to double efforts on the position of the amount allocated to climate change initially from $13 billion to $25 billion as we are focusing more on the climate change.
“In the last few years, we have focused on committing 50 percent of the Climate Change funds to adoption. Our principal focus in Africa is on adoption.”
On his part, Prof. Vincent Nmehielle, Secretary-General of the Bank Group, noted that the bank is focusing on how American countries can drive on zero carbon energy.
Nmehielle pointed out that plans on how to tilt towards zero carbon energy across Africa was one of its major concerns, adding that adopting digital economy was also one of the areas that would be focused on at the 50th AGM.
The Secretary-General said that the impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on the youths and women would be discussed at the AGM.
He noted that supporting climate resilience on agriculture and food security would be discussed, stressing that there is massive improvement on the area of food productivity.
Dr. Martin Fregene, Director, Agriculture and Agro-Industry noted that the COVID-19 Pandemic and Russia /Ukraine war did not only increase the price of food items, but also increased the cost of fertilizer and gas.
Fregene said, “We are trying to help American countries find solution to sharp increases in fertilizer prices.
“Countries have to focus on policies that will fix the basic infrastructure, such as rural roads and storage facilities. We have done so much on infrastructure financing this year, and we are thinking of sustainability.
“Countries would be advised on product diversification. Africa is poor in gas investment projects, so ADB will support more projects on gas industry.”
