Kenya President Uhuru Kenyatta has warned that Africa’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) may go down by up to 30 percent in the near future if African leaders do not take pragmatic steps to implement the climate change adaptation measures by 2050.
According to the President, it is evident that climate change will have a serious impact on the global economy in general and Africa in particular and called on the leaders on the continent to take the necessary action immediately.
He also called on global public to churn out intervention that can mitigate the devastating impact on the continent.
The African leader sounded the caution when speaking in a pre-recorded video at a conference organised by the University of Nairobi in partnership with the Global Centre on Adaptation (GCA) to mark the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Day, in preparation towards the United Nations Climate Change Conference to be held in Glasgow, Scotland.
President Kenyatta said Kenya needed more external support to enable the country fully implement its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), though the state has made significant investment in climate adaptation programs in recent times.
He said the country plans to invest about US8 billion dollars in its Nationally Determined Contributions in the next ten years and therefore asked for additional support from the country’s foreign partners.
Uhuru Kenyatat urged the continent to consider adaptation as smart economics which relatively demands individual state worked towards achieving even in the face of fewer and limited resources.
The Kenyan President observed that the 30 billion dollar global funding for climate change adaptation as witnessed in 2017 in a clear indication that climate financing challenges is not limited to just Africa.
Mr Kenyatta pointed out that Covid-19 worsened the funding situation forcing countries around the world committing over 20 trillion US dollars in fighting there pandemic therefore decreasing resource allocation to combat climate change.
