AFDB commits $100million for Malawi, Zim, Moz
The African Development Bank (AfDB) says it will set up a response and reconstruction programme of up to $100 million for Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe to kick-start recovery and rehabilitation following the devastating floods caused by Tropical Cyclones Idai and Kenneth early this year.
Tropical Cyclones, Idai and Kenneth ripped through five African countries — Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and theComoros both within a period of one month.
Speaking during the opening ceremony for the Eighth Conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDAVIII) currently underway in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, James Kinyangi,Chief Climate Policy Officer at the African Development Bank (AfDB), said the devastation left behind by the two cyclones will require at least US$2 billion to mount an effective recovery and the needed rehabilitation efforts.
Kinyangi added that the two cyclones did not only leave the devastation behind but, they also set records in their paths of destruction: Kenneth as the strongest storm ever to make landfall and Idai as the worst ever storm in terms of loss and damages to hit the African continent. More than 1,000 lives lost, US$1billion caused in damages.
“The costs of these emergencies are significant and the longer-term losses are debilitating,” Kinyangi said.
Kinyangi commended the governments and the people of Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and the Comoros for taking bold action towards climate resilience.
Mithika Mwenda, executive director of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance, (PACJA) commended the bank’s response and advised it to encourage sustainable infrastructure development as a way of averting climate change-related disasters.
The second day of the conference, mostly focused on the need for African countries to transition from fossil energy to renewable energy. Various countries gathered at the African Union Headquarters, the venue for the conference, shared their experiences and steps they taking to transition from non-renewable energy to renewable energy.
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa’s (UNECA) Senior Environment Affairs Officer, Linus Mofor, said Africa is endowed with many sources of renewable energy which countries need to leverage and move away from fossil energy.
Mofor, emphasized the need for countries to start thinking beyond their borders and start investing in energy interconnections opportunities.
This year’s CCDAVIII’s theme is: Stepping up action for a resilient Africa, a race we can and must win.
The conference is a special session in preparation for African inputs to the Climate Action Summit, to be convened by the Secretary-General of the United Nations on 23 September 2019.
The CCDAVIII has been convened by UNECA, African Union Commission (AUC), AfDB and PACJA in collaboration with the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.
