Browsing: Climate change

Reducing greenhouse emissions will reduce the impact and costs associated with climate change, but the world must also plan for, finance and implement, climate change adaptation measures or face serious costs, losses and damages. 

This is according to a recent report released by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The study highlights some of the challenges faced by countries that are likely to slow down the reduction of greenhouse emissions.  …

The third cohort of the One Planet Fellowship has been announced. The fellowship under investing in the next generation of African scientists, African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) targets high potential scientists in a career acceleration process.

According to a statement from the firm, the US$19.2 million One Planet Fellowship seeks to invest in over 630 agricultural scientists, fostering their leadership expertise, strengthening their research skills, including integrating gender into their work, and catalyzing partnerships in Africa and between Africa and Europe. Since launching the inaugural call in 2019, AWARD has received over 2400 applications and, to date, 89 outstanding scientists from 14 African countries have been offered the One Planet Fellowship.

Selected candidates participate in an intensive, three-year non-residential, career acceleration process and those who complete it will become One Planet Laureates. “The One Planet Fellowship has made me appreciate the critical role of women in science …

Ethiopia is incentivising investors developing minerals used in agriculture such and construction minerals.…

Africa is suffering the worst from the effects of global warming. The continent is the least prepared to respond to adverse weather changes brought about by global warming.

The devastating effects range from unpredictable weather that is causing floods and famine across the continent. The economic impact for agriculture dependent Africa is huge. This is why Joe Biden’s win is very important for Africa.

Biden is clearly for action against global warming the least of which not been his outright statement that his administration will bring America back into the Paris Climate Deal. The Paris Agreement is a direct response to climate change in which countries from around the world have agreed to cut down their green house gas emissions to check global warming.

The US was part of the deal, that is until Donald Trump came into the picture and pulled the US out of the deal.

If Trump …

Potential presidential elect, Joe Biden, took to Twitter to express his administration’s desire to rejoin the Paris climate agreement as soon as he gets into office. The announcement comes on the heels of the official exit of the US from the agreement. While Trump announced his exit from the agreement years ago, the actual process took much longer.

As part of his campaign, the Democratic candidate submitted a plan involving $1.7 trillion costs to see the US becoming a net-zero carbon emitter by 2050. The US is currently the second-largest emitter of carbon in the world

What is the Paris Climate Agreement?

To keep global warming on the planet below 1.5 °C, emissions of carbon around the world have to go down to net-zero by 2050. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), even a 0.5°C increase in temperature could lead to devastating effects such as droughts, …

Salesforce Ventures has announced a second impact investment fund amounting to $100 million dollars. Salesforce Ventures is the investment arm of Salesforce, a company involved in customer relationship management. The fund is the second to come from the company after an initial $50 million impact fund which was launched in 2017.

The funds are earmarked for supporting start-up companies mainly in the technology sphere and cloud-related services. Within this grouping, the focus on the fund is on companies showing a measurable impact on social arenas such as education. The funds also serve start-ups with an environmental impact.

Salesforce ventures drive to promote values of sustainability and social responsibility is expected to see it investing in companies that provide solutions to the challenges affecting the world. Acknowledging the unprecedented nature of the challenges impacting the world including COVID-19, climate change, and racial injustice, Salesforce Ventures said it will continue to invest …

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects debt-to-GDP ratios to go up significantly to 65 per cent in emerging markets, 50 per cent in low-income countries and around 125 per cent in advanced economies.

This is according to IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, speaking during the World Bank’s annual meetings which were organized virtually.

“Today we face a new Bretton Woods moment. A pandemic that has already cost more than a million lives. An economic calamity that will make the world economy 4.4 per cent smaller this year and strip an estimated $11 trillion of output by next year. And untold human desperation in the face of huge disruption and rising poverty for the first time in decades. Once again, we face two massive tasks: to fight the crisis today—and build a better tomorrow,” she said.

Georgieva said that prudent macroeconomic policies and strong institutions are critical for growth, jobs and …

The African Development disbursed $5.6 million to Niger to implement its Africa Disaster Risk Management Funding Programme (ADRiFi).

The funds are from the African Development Fund (ADF-15) as technical and institutional support to strengthen the country’s resilience and response to drought-related disasters.

The project will be co-financed by the Bank’s group concessional rate loan window and the Pan-African mutual managed fund, a risk contribution of $1 million and by the Nigerien government $1.4 million.

Africa Disaster Risk Management Funding Programme (ADRiFi) aims to strengthen Niger’s resilience and response to climate shocks by improving its disaster risk management and adaptation to climate change.

ADRiFi will therefore provide financial and technical support to the Niger’s government through capacity building in terms of drought risk assessment, prevention of drought-related food crises and development of contingency plans. It will also support through transfer of sovereign risk through the subscription of insurance against drought risks …

Nature hurts economies, and if such economies are not well equipped to handle the aftermath of flooding, famine, water scarcity, or food insecurity—the more shocking realities are bound to come.

Climate change is real and it hurts African economies, and the region is being slapped with a heavy price to pay, amid its struggle to mark sustainable development.

According to a 2018 report by The Conversation, in the same year—almost 10,000 homes were wiped off the ground by floods, displacing nearly 2 million people in Africa up to September 2018.

In East Africa, Tanzania losses nearly $2 billion in damage from floods according to a report published by Nature Climate Change in 2017.

As the least emitter of greenhouse gases, Africa stands to lose a lot in this battle, with climate action funding coming in short and countries such as the United States of America and China tiptoe on taking …

The African Development Bank climate finance continuous to gain ground as the bank in 2019, committed 3.5 billion across the continent to finance climate change mitigation and adaptation projects.

This is according to the Multilateral Development Bank (MDB) Climate Finance Report 2020, which noted that AFDB’s climate financing mostly targeted renewable energy and resilient agriculture sectors.

According to the report, the climate financing represents 35 per cent of the total the 2019 approvals of projects worth US$ 10.2 billion, representing an increase of 0.3 per cent over 2018 and 26 per cent over 2016.

“As African economies face the devastating effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, relaxing action or redirecting financial resources away from climate change will further exacerbate these impacts in diverse and complex ways,” said Anthony Nyong, AfDB Director for Climate Change and Green Growth.

The pan-African financial institution in its report on climate finance published in 2019 pledged …