• The World Bank and the African Development Bank will both pull resources to the tune of more than $47 billion by 2025 to help African countries tackle the effects of climate change. Both made the pledge in a yet more strategic effort to mitigate the effect of climate change on the continent. 

    African countries are certainly not doing enough and it is predicted that most of the conflicts in decades to come could be due to issues relating to climate change. An example is the incessant conflicts between pastoralists and farmers in many parts Africa.

    Perhaps, the concern of both banks will not be about curbing climate change. Many believe change in itself is a constant in evolution. Protecting the environment is going to be the key here.

    There's no doubt that countries closer to coastal areas are the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change such as rising sea levels and coral reef deterioration. Others are prone to more frequent droughts, desertification and floods.

    The World Bank said in a statement it had pledged $22 . 5 billion for 2021 - 2025, while AfDB said it had committed $ 25 billion to climate finance between 2020 and 2025. AfDB said the funds would be used to increase investment in renewable energy projects like solar power plants.

    “The share of our portfolio that was in renewable energy generation between 2013 and 2015 was 59 percent but from 2015 to 2018 we moved from that to 95 percent,” AfDB president Akinwumi Adesina told reporters on the sidelines of a U.N. environment meeting.

    The World Bank said some of the beneficiaries of its funding would include projects in Ethiopia, Rwanda and Kenya. Although, details of the funding remain sketchy, the political will to execute successfully such projects becomes herculean if proper monitoring is not in place. Currently, more awareness still needs to be done to stop age long practices and norms that affects the environment. No physical project can make meaningful impact if the orientation to life is not changed. The real danger is the danger of the mind and not much about the dollars.

    Header Image Credit: Telegraph