By Temitope Ponle
The African Development Bank (AfDB) and the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) have featured two innovative mechanisms for scaling up adaptation action and finance.
This is contained in a statement posted on AfDB’s website, a copy of which was obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
The bank said that the adaptation was reached during a joint event held on Sept. 1, on the sidelines of the Africa Climate Week in Libreville, Gabon.
It said Ludovica Amatucci, a programme analyst at UNCDF, made a presentation on the Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility (LoCAL mechanism).
According to Amatucci, the tool helps local governments and communities to tap into climate finance for locally-led adaptation, contributing to the implementation of the Nationally Defined Contributions under the Paris Agreement.
“Also, the tool helps local governments and communities on National Adaptation Plans and Sustainable Development Goal 13, which states to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.”
Amatucci said that “the LoCAL mechanism supports inter-governmental fiscal transfer systems target adaptation actions at the local level, while reinforcing transparency and reporting through those systems.”
AfDB’s Senior Climate Finance Officer, Kidanua Gizaw, said that the bank was piloting an Adaptation Benefits Mechanism (ABM) as a non-market, results-based finance tool to boost investments that enhanced the resilience of vulnerable communities and ecosystems.
While lnes Josten, Project Manager of the Green Cooling Initiative at the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), explained that higher temperatures arising from climate change meant that traditional potato storage techniques in Kenya were no longer adequate.
It also meant potato crops could be preserved as long as before.
The statement said the first approved ABM methodology “Potato storage using green cooling technology”, presents a means to measure and quantify the benefits of modern, clean energy-based storage solutions in terms of saved wealth.
It said the methodology was developed by Perspectives Climate Group and funded by GIZ.
Accordingto the statement, adaptationof the methodology has become imperative as it reduces risk of rotting of potatoes.
“Applying this methodology to an ABM project would demonstrate better its added value and help to mobilise finance for clean technology to secure the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in Kenya and the region.”
Omar Saleh, the Managing Director of Zephyr Consulting, representing SLAMDAM, a Dutch private sector organisation, presented the new ABM methodology,
“Flood damage reduction using a mobile flood barrier,” based on an ABM demonstration project in Lagos, Nigeria,” Saleh said.
According to the statement, the ABM methodology enables mobilisation of funds by linking adaptation benefits to investments in the mobile flood barrier.
Mr Kouassi Amani, a Project Lead of the “Cocoa Climate Resilience” made an ABM demonstration project implemented by the International Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) in Cote d’Ivoire.
He illustrated how the project could use the ABM to incentivise private sector investment in cocoa agroforestry for climate change adaptation in West Africa.
The moderator, Gareth Phillips, AfDB Manager for Climate and Environment Finance, noted that the current adaptation finance levels were insufficient to meet the needs of developing countries.
Philllips, however, said the private sector and local governments could play a crucial role in filling the gap.
He said the AfDB and the UNCDF could also help to address the lack of credible adaptation metrics and indicators.
He said this could be done by developing and using methodological tools, create incentives to attract a broad range of actors to engage in adaptation, and unlocking new financial streams.
Africa Climate Week, forms part of a series of regional climate weeks being held globally.
Participants came together to outline Africa’s objectives for the upcoming COP27 in Egypt and unify and amplify the African voice to ensure action. (NAN)
