The European Investment Bank (EIB), which is the long-term financing agency of the European Union, will triple its worldwide climate adaptation funding by 2025, and Africa will be one of the regions that will benefit. This was announced on Monday at the Africa Adaptation Summit, held in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The summit was organised by the Global Centre on Adaptation (GCA) and was attended by leading figures in governments, businesses and the United Nations. 

“Climate change could wipe out 15% of Africa’s gross domestic product by 2030, which would mean an additional 100-million people in extreme poverty by the end of the decade,” said EIB president Werner Hoyer in his speech at the summit. “A scenario that is particularly unfair towards a continent that has contributed only marginally to climate change.” 

The EIB entered into a partnership with the GCA in September last year. The aim of the partnership is to generate actions in those regions of the world, including Africa, that are especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change. The two bodies are working together in the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Programme (AAAP), which is an initiative of the African Development Bank (AfDB), which seeks to mobilise $25-billion in financing to greatly expand climate change adaptation programmes across the continent. 

“The EIB has been a strong partner of African countries for more than 55 years,” he pointed out. “Through our new development arm EIB Global we are strengthening our presence in Africa and are mobilising private capital at scale for innovative green technologies, such as green hydrogen. We will use this experience to build new partnerships to unlock private finance for adaptation projects, including under the AAAP.” 

The aim of the EIB, GCA and AfDB is, in conjunction with other institutions, to finance projects that fall within the ambit of the AAAP. These include ‘climate smart’ digital technologies for agriculture and food security, infrastructure resilience, and the empowerment of youth by means of entrepreneurship and employment.  

The EIB itself will increase its share of financing for climate change adaptation projects to 75%, worldwide, and to 100% in the least developed, and small island developing, countries. Over the past five years the EIB has provided finance to African countries, for both public and private projects, totalling €18-billion.