GCA CEO’s Opening Remarks at the Adaptation Finance Summit for Africa (COP28)
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limate change is stealing the food from Africa’s table. Africa is Ground Zero of the climate breakdown. But what happens in Africa will not stay in Africa. All of us can win if we invest in Africa.
Two years ago Africa put the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAAP) – the world’s single largest adaptation program – on the table as its homegrown solution.
Two years later, the AAAP is delivering – nearly $7 billion of investments already shaped, 150 million more Africans now climate-resilient, 630,000 new jobs created, more than half the countries in Africa participating. Two short years, a lot achieved – but so much more to be done.
Look around this room. Filled with bold ambition. The fierce urgency of now. Facing the greatest challenge there is.
But this is the bottom line: Africa is doing without 90 percent of the resources it needs to adapt. And let’s not forget. As Bill Gates told us five years ago: adaptation is about growth. It’s about health. I’ts about innovation.
Adaptation is the growth story of the 21st century. But we’re not capitalizing on this opportunity yet.
In a world plagued with multiple crises, the question is this: How can we manage to double down on adaptation? Let me offer three solutions:
One: A doubling of finance flows was pledged. Countries need to follow the trailblazers in this room, and make good on those pledges. African leaders have come here with their Compacts. They are committing, and they offer great investment opportunities for all of us.
The fierce urgency of now
Two: The private sector is MIA in Africa on adaptation. MIA: ‘missing in action.’ This has to change, and I am here to tell you that it can. We have to break the next frontier to bring the private sector in. If private finance can be 40 percent of adaptation flows in Asia, it can be 40 percent – and not 10 – in Africa.
The fierce urgency of now
Three: Access and innovation in finance. Countries need access, communities need access and we have to innovate. Adaptation cannot add more debt to debt-stressed economies. We need debt swaps, not debt traps.
The fierce urgency of now.
And the good news is: We can do all of these things because we already are. Just not at the speed and scale required.
And that’s why we are here today. Because it takes leadership.
And what leadership, ladies and gentlemen, we have with us here today.
