Africa is set to receive a massive financial windfall courtesy of the world’s largest developmental banking organization.
In addition to the $200 billion that it has already pledged towards fighting climate change, the World Bank Group is stepping up its support for Africa by committing $22.5 billion between 2021 to 2025.
The funding, which more than doubles their commitment to climate-related projects over the last five years, is part of the group’s 2025 Targets to Step Up Climate Action which they launched in December 2018.
This announcement comes in tandem to the United Nations’ third One Planet Summit (OPS) earlier this month. The summit brought together international government leaders and representatives from the private sector, including entrepreneurs, donors, organizations and other global stakeholders to discuss collaboration on climate action.
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In the wake of the most recent climate report from the IPCC, the World Bank, along with the rest of the international summit leaders, view 2019 as a pivotal year to plan accelerated climate action – and this year’s summit narrowed its focus on ways to accelerate and step-up climate action in Africa.
The additional funding from the bank builds upon its ongoing African Climate Business Plan (ACBP), which has financed over 176 conservational projects across the continent and become a critical support mechanism for countries to institutionalize climate action that meet their contributions submitted under the historic Paris Climate Agreement.
The bank is now collaborating directly with eight countries – Rwanda, Mali, Cote d’Ivoire, Namibia, Uganda, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Kenya – on climate adaptation and mitigation.
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Since the creation of the ACBP, the partnership has delivered stunning results across the continent. In 2018, for example, the World Bank Group approved an investment package of $794.5 million for hydropower projects in Cameroon. It is estimated that once this project is completed, it will increase the nation’s electricity-generating capacity by 30% and provide clean energy; economic opportunities; and agricultural stability to disadvantaged communities.
“This investment in clean energy is key to lowering the cost of electricity and ensuring that Cameroon’s economy is competitive,” said Elisabeth Huybens, World Bank Country Director for Cameroon. “[This project] is one of the very few public-private partnership hydropower projects in Sub-Saharan Africa that will accelerate Cameroon’s realization of its development goals, including poverty reduction.”
Additionally, the campaign has helped to create agricultural plans to improve food security for rural poor people; natural disaster management systems for catastrophes in Kenya; and one of the most successful electrification programs in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Plant Some Positivity By Sharing The Good News To Social Media – Photo by Arne Hoel / World Bank