The United Nations claims that Africa needs $200 billion a year to adapt to global warming if the planet only warms by two degrees Celsius by 2070. Such costs could soar to $350 billion per year if warming exceeds the two degree limit.
UN officials warn that even limiting warming to two degrees Celsius would disastrous for the African continent. The UN has been trying to compel rich nations to live up to promises made in 2009 to give $100 billion annually to poor countries by 2020 to prepare for the impact of global warming.
“Missing the 2°C window will not only cost governments billions of dollars but will risk the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people on the African continent and elsewhere,” said UN Under-Secretary General Achim Steiner.
“Even with a warming scenario of under 2°C by 2050, Africa’s undernourished would increase 25 — 90 per cent,” Steiner added. “Crop production will be reduced across much of the continent as optimal growing temperatures are exceeded. The capacity of African communities to cope with the impacts of climate change will be significantly challenged.”
Poor finances and slow economic growth over the past few years mean rich nations are reluctant to hand over money for climate causes.
Canada and Australia have opted not to support a “green capital fund” to help poorer African nations adapt to global warming. Australia’s conservative government has embarked on a mission to scale back its climate policies because of their unpopularity and economic consequences.
“The fiscal reality of the United States and other developed countries is not going to allow it,” said Todd Stern, the U.S. State Department’s climate envoy. “This is not just a matter of the recent financial crisis. It is structural, based on the huge obligations we face from aging populations and other pressing needs for infrastructure, education, health care and the like. We must and will strive to keep increasing our climate finance, but it is important that all of us see the world as it is.”
Five countries — Germany, Japan, Norway, Britain, and the U.S. — gave $27 billion in climate aid between 2010 and 2012. However, only about $5 billion of that went towards actually helping poor countries prepare for the impacts of global warming, like droughts and heat waves.
The Washington Post notes that most of the aid to poor countries was not new aid, but repackaged foreign aid that was already on the books — meaning that they just reclassified already existing aid as funds for global warming.
The UN says that the world has already given about $1.2 billion to Africa in climate aid between 2010 and 2011, but to meet the full cost of adaption annual funding to the continent would have to increase 10 percent to 20 percent per year.
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