Page 6 - AfrElec Week 04 2022

AfrElec CLIMATE FINANCE AfrElec

Africa loses out

over access to

climate funding

AFRICA MANY African states are struggling to access The idea that “developed” countries should
money earmarked by global institutional inves- give climate finance to “developing” nations is
tors to prepare them to combat climate change. enshrined in the UN Framework Convention
Many African states are struggling to access on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Many see it as
money earmarked by global institutional inves- an issue of climate justice, based on historical
tors to prepare them to combat climate change. responsibility for global warming.
A study published in the journal Global Envi- A commitment by wealthy nations to give
ronmental Change warned that nearly half of the collectively $100bn in climate finance a year by
world’s most climate-vulnerable nations, from 2020 was a core element of the Paris Agreement,
Haiti to Afghanistan, missed out on the first yet they are not expected to reach this goal until
round of grants for adaptation projects from the 2023.
UN’s Green Climate Fund (GCF). The 2023 date was finally agreed at COP26 in
Overall, the study found that 54% of adap- Glasgow in November.
tation funds in the first GCF allocation period The GCF was established under the
went to small islands, LDCs and African coun- UNFCCC as a key part of this effort. It is man-
tries. This means that, by its own measure, the dated to mobilise funds for cutting emissions
body has succeeded in distributing half of its and adapting to global warming in developing
money to vulnerable states. countries, with a particular focus on those with
The study’s authors, Matthias Garschagen low incomes and high climate vulnerability.
and Deepal Doshi, set out to assess whether the Adaptation projects, such as planting trees
initial round of GCF adaptation funding had to prevent the expansion of deserts or building
succeeded in its goal of helping the most vulner- flood defences, are particularly important for
able nations. global-south nations, which tend to be more
The researchers examined the $2.5bn in vulnerable to climate impacts. So far, adaptation
adaptation finance provided between 2015 and has been severely underfunded.
2019 to 84 of the 154 countries that are eligible
for GCF funds. This is roughly half the total, with Missing countries
the remainder going on projects to cut emis- In their study, Garschagen and Doshi high-
sions, such as installing renewable power. lighted the lack of more detailed prioritisation
African nations were particularly badly as an issue with the GCF’s approach, and try to
affected, with no money going to projects in identify the “most vulnerable” countries in their
13 of the 30 “least developed” states across the analysis.
continent. The researchers analysed recipient nations’
level of vulnerability to climate change in a more
granular fashion, using existing indices, and
GCF their institutional capacity using data from the
The largest fund of its kind, GCF was explicitly World Bank. They then ranked countries on a
created to help the parts of the world that are spectrum of vulnerability from very high to low.
most exposed to climate hazards. It handed out Using this ranking, they found that 16 of the
more than $5bn during its first wave between 37 nations categorised as most vulnerable to
2015 and 2019, contributing to wealthy nations’ climate change had not received GCF project
wider climate finance obligations. funding.
The fund says its portfolio of projects has Among them were countries affected by con-
roughly doubled in value since the new study’s flict, such as Afghanistan and Yemen, and some
cut-off date in 2019 and “huge strides” have been of the lowest-income states in the world, such as
taken to improve access since then. Burundi and the Central African Republic.
Some vulnerable nations are still yet to receive The researchers also found that the share of
adaptation support, Carbon Brief reported, adaptation funds was “surprisingly small” for
because of the lack of resources, data and infra- certain country groupings. Notably, 13 of the
structure continue to restrict access. 30 LDCs in Africa did not receive any project

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 04 27•January•2022