African leaders: Polluting countries should pay more to help us adapt to climate change

Rotterdam, (ST) – The leaders of several African countries have called on their counterparts from polluting countries to increase their financial contributions to projects aimed at helping their countries adapt to climate change.

“If we want our continent to thrive, we must adapt to climate change, and for that to happen, funding for adaptation projects must begin to flow on a large scale,” Ghanaian President Nana Afoko-Addo said yesterday at the (Africa Adaptation Summit) in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Senegalese President Macky Sall, who is also the chairperson of the African Union, expressed his disappointment at the small number of leaders of industrialized countries who attended the event.”

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte was the only European leader to attend the event, along with the leaders of Senegal, Ghana, Gabon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ethiopia.

The countries of the continent are seeking to raise investments worth $25 billion in the next three years for projects to adapt to climate change, including helping the agricultural sector to cope with the effects of this phenomenon and modernizing infrastructure.

African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina told the conference that the bank had already committed to inject half of the required amount to the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program.

Countries on the continent are looking forward to additional contributions from the world’s most polluted countries.

He said that Africa does not account for more than three percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, but suffers disproportionately from its negative consequences.

Raghda Sawas