The African Development Bank (AfDB) announces the launch of a new fund to support African states' efforts to adopt the circular economy in the face of climate disruption. The current value of the facility is €4 million.
“The African Circular Economy Facility was announced on April 15, 2022. The African Development Bank (AfDB), at the initiative of the multi-donor trust fund thus supports the portfolio of projects on the circular economy in Africa, in response to climate disruption. “The Facility will operate for a period of five years and will receive initial support of €4 million from the Government of Finland and the Nordic Development Fund (NDF),” says the AfDB.
Among the sectors that will benefit from the new financing facility on the continent are smart agriculture, renewable energy, sustainable waste management and water efficiency.
The financing axes
In these sectors, the pan-African bank will finance institutional capacity building to strengthen the regulatory environment for circular economy innovations and practices, private sector support through a business development program, and technical assistance to the African Circular Economy Alliance.
The ultimate goal is to support the achievement of NDCs (nationally determined contributions), which aim to reduce CO2 emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change in each state. The AfDB’s “African Circular Economy Facility” will also move Africa towards the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal 13 (SDG 13) by 2030, which calls for urgent action to address climate change and its impacts.
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With this new initiative, the AfDB is expanding its climate finance portfolio vis-à-vis African countries. From 9% in 2016, the pan-African bank’s overall investments have increased to 35% in 2019. But these investments remain insufficient in view of the continent’s needs to put in place early warning systems and resilient infrastructure, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently reported.
In the third part of its sixth climate report, devoted to the mitigation of global warming, published on April 4, 2022, the scientific body estimates that it will be necessary to multiply by four to eight by 2030, the flow of climate financing to Africa. The goal is to limit global warming to 1.5 by 2100.
Inès Magoum
