NDAMU SANDU
Zimbabwe has a climate-financing gap of about US$500m annually, which has impacted its ability to build climate resilience, a new report by the African Development Bank (AfDB) has shown.
The country’s climate financing has been averaging US$90m annually in the period 2010 to 2020, the AfDB said in its flagship report, African Economic Outlook 2023 released yesterday.
“Zimbabwe received about $990 million in climate finance between 2010 and 2020, averaging $90 million a year. This leaves a financing gap of $440–500 million a year, thus greatly limiting the country’s ability to build climate resilience,” AfDB said.
It said Zimbabwe has prioritised private financing to achieve its climate change targets in transitioning to green and inclusive growth. The country is developing the National Climate Change Fund and Climate Finance Facility to crowd-in the private sector through blended finance and results-based approaches to de-risk markets and scale up investment and boost participation in scaling up climate actions, the bank group said.
The report said Africa has great potential and self-interest to achieve green growth. It said there was political commitment and the presence of its rich natural capital endowment but the continent was lagging behind other regions on many green growth dimensions, in particular on the provision of green economic opportunities.
Progress on efficient and sustainable resource use and on the promotion of social inclusion has not been sufficient to catch up with other world regions, AfDB said.
Africa requires US$213.4bn annually by 2030 to address the climate-financing gap, eyeing the private sector to chip in the wake of “constrained public resources”.
“Africa received $4.2 billion in private climate finance in 2019/2020, 14 percent of total climate finance flows of $29.5 billion. It requires $242.4 billion a year on average until 2030—$2.7 trillion over 2020–30—to implement its climate action expressed in the latest submitted Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs),” AfDB said.
It is estimated that Africa also requires about US$1.3 trillion annually to meet its sustainable development needs by 2030 and achieve green growth.
Most of this financing is projected to come via private finance, AfDB said.
“To meet these needs and given the current levels of public climate finance, private climate finance should increase by about 36 percent each year until 2030,” it said, adding that barriers on the supply and demand sides inhibit reaching the full potential of private investments in climate and green growth sectors in Africa.
The bank has been very active in attracting private financing for climate action and green growth in Africa and in supporting Regional Member Countries to improve the governance of their natural resources, its president Akinwumi Adesina said in a foreword to the report.
“Last year, under the ADF-16, we established a US$429m Climate Action Window, which will allow us to mobilise up to US$13bn for climate adaptation for 37 low-income and fragile states, the worst impacted by climate change,” Adesina said.
