Climate change costs Africa up to 5% of GDP, UN climate head says

Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Simon Stiell speaks at the African Ministerial Conference on Environment (AMCEN), in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, 5 September 2024. Reuters/Luc Gnago

The 54-nation continent, which has borne the brunt of climate change despite releasing far less polluting emissions than the industrialised world, receives just 1% of annual global climate finance.

"The climate crisis is an economic sinkhole, sucking the momentum out of economic growth," Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), told a meeting of African ministers of environment in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

African governments and their climate negotiators are considering various strategies at the pre-COP29, or Conference of the Parties, preparatory meeting in the West African country.

Although the continent has attracted new investors in climate mitigation and adaptation projects in recent years, it gets a very small portion of the $100bn in financing available globally, African government officials say.

That is a drop in the ocean of the $1.3tn required, the officials say, without providing a time frame for by when the amount would be needed.

"Africa's vast potential to drive forward climate solutions is being thwarted by an epidemic of underinvestment," Stiell said.

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The required investments include $4bn annually to eliminate the use of traditional fuel for cooking on the continent, such as wood, which contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, Stiell said.

"Of the more than $400bn spent on clean energy last year, only $2.6bn went to African nations," he said.

Climate change has been blamed for protracted drought and bouts of catastrophic flooding across Africa that have hit food production, driving up commodity prices and worsening hunger.

Stiell said there have been growing calls for Africa to secure more climate financing in the run-up to COP29 in Baku, where nations will be looking for consensus on new international climate finance goals.

"We must use innovative financing solutions for adaptation without exacerbating debt burdens," Hanan Morsy, chief economist at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (Uneca), told a climate finance conference last week.

Such innovations include debt refinancing and swaps as well as carbon markets, she said.