Day: February 26, 2022

The World Food Program warns Madagascar will continue to suffer severe food shortages and acute hunger if it does not tackle the climate crisis.

Madagascar has been buffeted by four powerful tropical storms in as many weeks. The toll from the recurrent cyclones has been huge. The full impact of the last storm, Tropical Cyclone Emnati, which made landfall Wednesday, is not yet known. However, the United Nations says Cyclone Batsirai, which hit Madagascar on February 5, killed 120 people, and displaced 143,000.

The WFP says years of severe drought, recurrent storms and other extreme weather events have pushed vulnerable communities to a breaking point.

WFP spokesman Tomson Phiri says many thousands of people are facing extreme hunger because of widespread storm damage to agricultural land. This includes the rice crop that was just weeks away from harvest.

“Now cash crops like cloves, coffee and pepper have also been severely affected. And this is a country where the majority of people make a living from agriculture. An estimated 90% of crops could be destroyed in some areas of affected regions,” Phiri said.

Additionally, he notes a resulting shortage of food in the marketplace is likely to result in soaring prices in the coming months.

The WFP warns weather extremes will trigger runaway humanitarian needs if Madagascar does not address the climate crisis. Phiri says WFP staff is in a race against time to assist those affected.

“Our longer-term climate adaptation work helps communities to prepare for, respond to, as well as to recover from climate shocks and stresses. For example, WFP’s integrated risk management in the districts of Ambovombe and Amboasary last year reached 3,500 smallholder farmers with insurance, savings, and climate-adapted agriculture practices training,” he said.

Phiri says such programs need to be scaled up, especially for communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis. He notes there is little time to lose as forecasts predict another tropical system already is forming in the southwest Indian Ocean.

Source: Voice of America

African countries are having to spend up to five percent of their annual economic output to shield themselves against the impacts of climate change, even though they emit the least greenhouse gases in the world, a report released Saturday said.

The findings, published by the Nairobi-based think tank Power Shift Africa, focus on the costs of warding off climate impacts by strengthening transport infrastructure, shoring up communications, building flood defences and other

preventative measures.

The threat is forcing nations to divert “already stretched” resources to climate self-defence, the report said.

The survey focused on seven countries from around the continent.

Ethiopia — which is also fighting a brutal war in its northern region — was the hardest-hit, spending up to 5.6 percent of its GDP to ward off climate-related disasters, it said.

Conflict-wracked South Sudan, which has been reeling from heavy rains and flash floods affecting more than 850,000 people, is on track to spend up to 3.1 percent of its GDP every year, the report said.

In West Africa, meanwhile, Sierra Leone will be spending as much as $90 million a year — 2.3 percent of its economic output — on climate adaptation, even though its citizens on average generate 80 times less carbon than US residents.

“This report shows the deep injustice of the climate emergency,” said Mohamed Adow, head of the Power Shift Africa.

“It is simply not acceptable for the costs to fall on those people who are suffering the most while contributing the least to climate change.”

Adow said African nations needed a “massive” amount of help to withstand the onslaught of climate change.

African economies have long struggled to find funds to limit emissions while also adapting to climate change.

A study published last November warned that the world’s 65 most vulnerable nations will see GDP drop 20 percent on average by 2050 and 64 percent by 2100 if the world heats up by 2.9 degrees Celsius (5.2 degrees Fahrenheit).

That research, commissioned by Christian Aid, found that eight of the top 10 most affected countries are in Africa, with the remaining two in South America.

All 10 countries would see their GDP fall by 40 percent even if global temperature rises are capped at 1.5C, in keeping with the most ambitious Paris Agreement goal, the study said.

To date, Earth’s average surface temperature has risen 1.1C compared to late 19th-century levels.

The next COP27 climate summit will be held in Egypt, seeking to build on gains made at the previous conference in Glasgow last year.

Pledges were made at COP26 to phase down coal-fired power, curb methane emissions and boost financial aid to developing countries.

Rich countries have also vowed to muster $100 billion annually in climate aid for poor nations.

But only a part of that funding promise has so far been earmarked for adaptation, as opposed to measures to mitigate carbon emissions.

A report last year by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) found that developing countries will need to spend up to $300 billion a year on adaptation measures by 2030, and up to $500 billion annually by 2050.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

The Africa Investment Forum will host virtual boardroom sessions, a key component of the Africa Investment Forum market days, next month, following a postponement late last year, representatives of the initiative announced.

The boardrooms will be held virtually from March 15 to 17 this year to discuss and advance deals in the 2021 pipeline.

The third edition of the Africa Investment Forum was due to be held in a hybrid format in Abidjan in December 2021 but was postponed due to the emergence of the Omicron variant of the Covid-19 virus.

Forty-five deals worth $57.4 billion have been curated for the boardroom discussions.

The announcement of the March event followed a meeting of the founding partners of the Africa Investment Forum, a multi-stakeholder, multi-disciplinary platform that advances private and public-private-partnership projects to bankability, raises capital, and accelerates deals to financial closure.

In an open session, the Africa Investment Forum provided progress updates and previewed five deals. These included: an investment to develop over 220 km of electric transmission lines under a long term public-private partnership agreement; a project with a ten-year goal to roll out broadband infrastructure to over 800,000 residential and small business customers; and a project for the establishment of a biomedical and pharmaceutical hub.

The 45 boardroom deals are projected to create a total of 3.8 million jobs, both direct and indirect; of these, one million jobs will go to African women and women entrepreneurs and another one million to youth.

The 160 participants in the meeting, representing investors and project preparation organizations, included Sarah Whitten of the United States Trade and Development Agency, Preeti Sinha, the Executive Secretary of the UN Capital Development Fund, and Omar Ezzat of the Multilateral Cooperation Center for Development Finance.

The eight founding partners are the African Development Bank, which is also the host; Africa 50; the Africa Finance Corporation; the African Export-Import Bank; the Development Bank of Southern Africa; the Trade and Development Bank; the European Investment Bank; and the Islamic Development Bank.

The Africa Investment Forum has brought 10 deals with a value of $3.1 billion to closure, and currently has 136 deals with a total value of $87.52 billion in its portfolio.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK