AFRICA will lose over US$40 billion per year by 2030 due to climate change, up from current US$15 billion, the African Development Bank (AfDB) has said, amid calls to build resilience to shocks.
Officially opening the 59th AfDB annual meetings in Nairobi, Kenya, AfDB president Akinwumi Adesina said climate change’s buffeting effects were increasing both in terms of frequency, scale and intensity.
“And therefore, Africa's economy's future is going to depend on building resilience to these particular shocks, because climate change is really devastating the whole of the continent. Let me also say that when you take a look at African economies we all are in the world today where we have a lot of headwinds to global economic growth and development. You have it happening because of a lot of factors. First is climate change. We are right here in Kenya. I just said to you at the beginning, how important that, I mean, how devastating that has been. Africa loses seven to $15 billion a year to climate change. If that doesn't change, that's going to grow to roughly $40 billion a year by 2030. And that means that we are losing a lot of our potential for something we did not cause,” he said.
The 2024 annual meetings are being held under the theme, Africa's Transformation, the African Development Bank Group, and the Reform of the Global Financial Architecture.
Adesina said Africa did not account for more than 3 to 4% of clean energy emissions.
However, he said the continent was suffering today disproportionately from the negative consequences of climate change.
"And so tapping into that economic potential transformation that I talked about is going to hinge on how the global financial system supports Africa to adapt to climate change. And how it supports Africa to build resilience, to recover. I just talked about Kenya from those climate change efforts.So those are going to be very, critical issues that will determine Africa's future.Now, let me talk about the economic issues about Africa, because when we talk about Africa's transformation,you need to have growth, and then you need to have development. So when you take a look at our growth, of course, we're still recovering, as the rest of the world is, from the tapering effect of COVID-19.Those effects are still there. I know individuals talk about lung COVID, which is the one affects your lungs, but it's also economic lung COVID, which is the physical effects continue, even long after the virus itself, it’s gone,” he said
Adesina said Africa was recovering very well from those effects.
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Africa’s real GDP growth rate last year was 3,1% and is estimated to grow to 3,7% this year and 4,3% in 2025, he said.
“So in terms of regrowth rates, Africa is doing well. And most importantly if you want to see how resilient you are, just look at how the rest of the world is, right? Today, 10 out of the 20 fastest growing economies in the world, despite all these headwinds that I've just talked about, are in Africa,” Adesina said.
So African economies are resilient in recovery from the impacts of climate change, but not just climate change, but also geopolitical pressures, risks that have come out of Ukraine, Russia war in Ukraine, that also come out of the challenges of debt that you find many African countries face.”
