The World Bank Group has provided 1,224 billion dollars to three African countries in support of various countries climate related actions.
Beneficiary countries are Nigeria, Morocco and Malawi.
The amount is part of World Bank Group’s 31.7 billion dollar new Climate Finance target for the 2022 fiscal year.
This is captured in a feature article published on the World Bank Group website dated September 7, 2022.
According to the document, this exceeds the climate co-benefits target set out in the Group’s 2021-2025 Climate Change Action Plan.
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The 31.7 billion comprises the total share of financing directly tied to climate action of all World Bank Group projects.
As countries face rising inflation and staggering recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Bank sees investment in climate change as top priority.
Climate impact keeps pushing millions of people into poverty as 2022 ranked among top ten warmest years in record, the article observed.
In West Africa, the funding investment is expected to help some 3.4 people in Nigeria adopt to impacts of changing climate.
Millions of households in the country are under threat by worsening food insecurity due to severe drought and water stress agriculture in the face of climate change.
A 700 million sustainable landscape management approach is targeted to help local communities adopt to the changing water stress conditions.
The World Bank says, 88 percent of the project financing focuses on building climate resilience and adaptation.
The Agro-Climate Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes Project aims to develop 20 watershed management systems in the entire country.
The project seek to prioritize investments that slow desertification and support natural resource based livelihoods.
The project is structured to ensure community level participation, capacity building and enhanced coordination between groups.
In North Africa, the dual effects of the COVID-19 and climate related agriculture plunged Morocco into a deep economic recession in 2020.
These caused some 3.3 percent shrink in the country’s GDP.
Despite swift response to the COVID-19 and well-structured institutional reforms by government, climate change still threatens socio-economic development in Morocco.
Apart from economic challenges, there is also a significant health risk impact associated with global rising temperatures and heat waves.
World Bank Group is executing the Morocco Health and Social Protection Reform Project worth 500 million dollars.
The project is in support of government’s efforts to improve health risks and poverty related human capital losses especially during childhood and old age.
It supports the expansion of health insurance to 11 million people, climate resilient health service delivery and adoptive social protection system.
The project is also expected to sustain local climate and disaster and risks management and develop insurance mechanisms that protects vulnerable farmers against floods and droughts.
The World Bank climate action 2022 budget also captures Malawi’s first solar plus utility-scale battery project.
The country has the lowest electricity access rate in the world, with just 11.2 percent national coverage as at 2019.
Malawi government is committed to expanding the country’s electricity coverage to 30 percent by 2030.
As part of efforts to achieve the projected target, MIGA earlier this year issued 24 million dollar investment guarantees for a 20-megawatts solar photovoltaic plant.
The plant which includes a battery energy storage system is the first of its kind in Malawi.
The photovoltaic pant, supported by MIGA is the second independent power producer the country.
It is estimated that, the plant will help reduce CO2 emissions by 45,000 metric tons over a 15 year period.
The World Bank Group has also announced a new core report: the Country Climate and Development Report(CCDRs) for all Group countries.
The CCDRs report analyzes how countries are working towards achieving the development goals while mitigating and adapting to impacts of climate change.
