The Yaounde African Youth Call on More than Doubling Adaptation Finance for a Resilient Africa

Yaounde, 18 November 2023

On 16 to 18 November 20023, more than 150 young African leaders met in Yaounde, Cameroon, for the Inaugural Forum on Adaptation Finance in Africa. The forum aimed to unite young activists to call for urgent action from the international community to prioritise and increase climate adaptation finance flows to Africa by more than double, recognising that this is a moral imperative and strategic investment in Africa’s future resilience and prosperity.

The theme of the forum, Empowering Africa: More than Doubling Adaptation Finance for a Resilient Future, acknowledged the undeniable impacts of climate change in Africa, the growing adaptation finance gap, and the risk this poses to climate action in Africa and globally to highlight the urgency of increased ambition.

State of Climate Vulnerability and Impacts in Africa 

Climate change poses a growing threat to Africa, with increasing temperatures, sea levels, changing precipitation patterns, droughts and more extreme weather conditions. These impacts are disproportionate on the region, hitting the least responsible for global warming and the most vulnerable hardest.

The latest assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns that the risks associated with climate change in Africa are becoming more severe. Unless urgent action is taken to mitigate global warming, Africa faces a temperature increase of 3°C to 6°C by the turn of the century, compared to the pre-industrial level, according to estimates of the IPCC. This will result in more frequent and severe climate extremes, even in the best scenarios, which will have significant impacts on agriculture, water resources, and human health. Both increased warming and inaction could result in a reduction of crop yields by up to 50%, an increase in water stress by up to 60%, an increase in malaria incidence by up to 90% and a loss of biodiversity by up to 40%. According to the African Development Bank (AfDB), climate change could reduce Africa’s GDP by 2.8% to 10% by 2050, depending on the severity of the scenario. This could translate into a loss of $68 billion to $259 billion per year. The World Bank has also noted that climate change will increase conflicts and displacements in Africa. Read more here