15 Rationale for the Bank’s Strategy: Climate change and Africa The African continent is a minor contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions but is highly vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change, which threaten its economic development. Yet, the continent also has enormous opportunities to build resilience to climate change as well as transition towards low-carbon development. The Bank shares the commitments made by African countries to global climate change and green growth goals. The decade 2021 through 2030 is often regarded as the Decade of Action, due to many countries developing nationally determined contributions (NDCs) with targets for 2030 (updated every five years), and the critical milestones of the UN’s Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) — as well as the fundamental underlying fact that actions are required as soon as possible to prevent the worst potential future climate change impacts (IPCC, 2021). This decade will, therefore, be definitive in the global response to climate change. The global scientific community is in agreement that human influence on the earth’s climate is unequivocal, and that recent changes have had a widespread and unprecedented impact on humans and natural systems (IPCC, 2021). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the international standard-bearer for climate science, has emphasized that future warming will cause further and “long-lasting changes in all components of the climate system, increasing the likelihood of severe, pervasive, and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems” (IPCC, 2014). The IPCC is also unequivocal that “limiting climate change would require substantial and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, which — together with adaptation — can limit climate change risks” (IPCC, 2014). Introduction Block on adaptation. The Bank has also entrenched the mainstreaming of climate change and green growth its projects and 100% of its country strategy papers and regional integration strategy papers were based on Figure 5: Previous Bank’s documents feeding into the current Climate Change and Green Growth Strategic Framework (non-exhaustive) Gender strategy 2021–25 Strategy for Economic Governance 2021–25 Capacity Development Strategy 2021–25 Private Sector Strategy 2021–25 Fragility Strategy 2022–26 CC&GG strategy & action plan 2021–30 & 2021–25 Green Growth Framework 2014 CCAP-II 2016–20 CCAP-I 2011–15 Energy Sector Policy 2012 Other Bank documents (e.g. climate screening manual, sector policy papers, progress reports) AfDB Ten Year Strategy and corresponding High 5s 2013–22 and thereafter Private Sector Development Strategy 2013–17 Capacity Development Policy 2010 CC&GG policy 2021 Previous Bank’s documents feeding into the current Climate Change and Green Growth Strategic Framework (non-exhaustive)
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