Events

[2020-09-16] GCA Africa on Climate Change

By 2020년 9월 16일 No Comments

On September 15th 2020, an interview with Chairman Ban Ki-moon and CNBC Africa was released. Chairman Ban was asked to speak on the expansion of the Global Center for Adaption to Africa, and its plans on how they will approach climate change regionally.

Source: CNBC Africa website screenshot

Now Africa, as everybody knows is the place hardest hit, while the African countries have contributed the least to the current climate phenomena. But they are experiencing the brunt of climate crisis. Therefore we really want to help them design regional programs for Africa, to help African countries build capacity to address climate phenomena of course with the help of countries.“ Chairman Ban stated.

Chairman Ban spoke on the importance of mitigation and adaptation, underlining the important role of adaptation in dealing with the climate crisis in Africa. “Adaptation means to lower the risks caused by the consequences of climate change. It also means that the large scale interventions and the climate resilient infrastructure building and again the changing our behaviors and wisdom.”

He also elaborated on mobilizing funding, stating that “at least 7-15 billion dollars as of now is necessary with annually 7% increase in their investment” in order to effectively build climate resilience in Africa.

Chairman Ban concluded his interview with a message for all. “I’ve been repeatedly saying that we only have to have plan A, because we don’t have a planet B. This is rhetoric, but I think this is a reality. More critical and wise investment should be made.” He said.

If you would like to view the full interview, please visit CNBC Africa’s website

Below is the full interview from CNBC with Chairman Ban Ki-moon

 

Announcer:

As the Global Center for Adaptation extends its footprint to Africa, Chairman of the Board and the 8th Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon joined Kenneth Igbomor to discuss how the GCA plans to operate in Africa

 

Chairman Ban:

I’m very pleased to be able to officially launch Global Center on Adaptation regional office in Africa to be housed within the African Development Bank. It is a third of such an initiative to develop. First one in Beijing and second one in Dhaka Bangladesh, covering Southeast Asia.

Now Africa, as everybody knows is the place hardest hit, while the African countries have contributed the least to the current climate phenomena. But they are experiencing the brunt of climate crisis. Therefore we really want to help them design regional programs for Africa, to help African countries build capacity to address climate phenomena of course with the help of countries. And address climate change and other health related issues and strengthen adaptive capacities to build back better from all this current crisis.

Now African countries with growing urban populations and lots of international governmental activities, I think they are now being a part of activities of the international community in working together to address our challenges.

I’m sure that the African Development Bank will play a very important role, closely working with their counter partners like IMF, World Bank, European Development Bank, Islamic Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, and also Chinese Asian Infrastructure Bank Etc.

So this is also quite an important initiative that GCA is now doing. Then all the experiences, the records, the data, will be shared with the world leaders next year January when the GCA is going to host an international summit on adaptation to be chaired by Prime Minister Mark Ruther. I’m a co-chair myself. And I really count on African leaders to really actively participate and show their global leadership.

 

Kenneth Igbomor:

Okay but looking at adaptation solutions and how you’re looking to build more climate resilient cities in Africa. But I’m looking to know how GCA is going to work with the public and private sector in Africa.

 

Chairman Ban

Now this adaptation is very important in policy when it comes to climate change mitigation and adaptation. Much has been done on mitigation but not much on adaptation. Now through mitigation and adaptation, we can still deal with this climate change. Adaptation means to lower the risks caused by the consequences of climate change.

It also means that the large scale interventions and the climate resilient infrastructure building and again the changing our behaviors and wisdom, like for example, drought resistant crops will be much much much resilient against the changing climate change.

Then we have to also work to mobilize necessary funding. Africans are still, most of them, belonging to least developed countries, therefore we have to mobilize all the necessary fundings, at least 7-15 billion dollars as of now is necessary with annually 7% increase in their investment, By 2050, they may need at least 35 billion, or even 100 billion dollars by 2070. But these are all calculations but it may change.

African Development Bank has doubled this total share of climate finance in the past 5years, poised to double the current amount to 25 billion between 2020-2025.

Now we need climate resilient infrastructures and we need good early warning systems, like Cyclone Idai and all this recent serious climate event has made the very serious difficulties for African countries. And we also need to have a good data to work with other countries.

There is no comprehensive database reporting flows from donor to agencies and it is, therefore, prerequisite to know with certainty whether fundings and our expertise are adequate to bridge adaptation gap between and among the countries in the region. This is some areas which we are going to focus.

 

Kenneth Igbomor:

Yeah, funding is very critical in driving all of these initiatives, but I would like to know what the working plan is and if you have priority areas that you are looking to focus to get those low hanging fruits.

 

Chairman Ban

There is no plan B in fact.

I’ve been repeatedly saying that we only have to have plan A, because we don’t have a planet B. This is rhetoric, but I think this is a reality. More critical and wise investment should be made.

 

Announcer:

Well that was Ban Ki-moon, chairman of the board and the 8th secretary general of United Nations.