World Bank announces $16bn climate plan for Africa

The World Bank Group has announced a new plan for $16 billion in funding to help countries across Africa adapt to climate change and enhance their resiliency to extreme weather events.

The initiative is called Accelerating Climate resilient and Low-Carbon Development, the African Climate Business Plan and was initially presented at the COP21 climate summit in Paris on 30 November.

The plan includes measures to improve the resiliency of people, land, water resources, and cities.

It also includes improvements to renewable energy infrastructure and strengthening of early warning systems to cope with extreme climate events.

World Bank Group President Dr Jim Yong Kim said: "Sub-Saharan Africa is highly vulnerable to climate shocks, and our research shows that could have far-ranging impact - on everything from child impact stunting and malaria to food price increases and droughts."

Dr Kim added: "This plan identifies concrete steps that African governments can take to ensure that their countries will not lose hard won gain in economic growth and poverty reduction, and they can offer some protection from climate change."

According to the plan the World Bank estimates that the region needs $5-10 billion per year to adapt to global warming.

The World Bank and the United Nations Environmental Programme have estimated that the cost of managing climate resilience will continue to rise to $20-50 billion by 2050 and closer to $100 billion if average global temperatures rise by 4°C compared to pre-industrial times.