OREANDA-NEWS. The global conference on climate change, COP21, opened on Monday, November 30 in Paris, with the participation of a large delegation from the African Development Bank (AfDB) led by its President, Akinwumi Adesina.

Defending the interests of Africa and Africans

The AfDB is firmly committed to defending the interests of Africa and its citizens, who are among those who suffer the most from climate change around the world. The message it will deliver and the urgent situations it wishes to discuss as part of the COP21 agenda are set forth in detail in this position paper.

In order to achieve these goals, several bilateral meetings will be held by Adesina and several of the Bank’s Vice-Presidents and Senior Staff. An African Pavilion has been organized by the AfDB in cooperation with its partners, the African Union/NEPAD and the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).

The African Pavilion will feature a photography exhibition of photographs showing the effects of climate change across the African continent and will organize more than 100 events over the two weeks of the conference.

A program full of highlights

One of the highlights of the first day of the conference is the meeting of the presidents of multilateral development banks on climate-related funding – i.e. the financial resources allocated to fighting climate change. The African Development Bank, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the European Investment Bank will take part. This meeting follows two others, the International Conference on Financing for Development in Addis Ababa last July, and the World Bank-IMF Annual Meetings in Lima, Peru, in October. In Lima, President Akinwumi Adesina unveiled the Bank’s plan to nearly triple its annual climate financing to reach $5 billion a year by 2020.

Tuesday, December 1 is Africa Day. At noon Paris time (GMT+1), the African Pavilion will officially be opened by AfDB President Akinwumi Adesina, the African Union Chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, and ECA Executive Secretary Carlos Lopes, in the presence of French President Fran?ois Hollande. It will also see the launch of the New Deal on Energy for Africa, which Adesina hopes will receive wide international support.

COP21 runs for two weeks. The program is packed, with numerous events dedicated to Africa and the continent’s specific challenges in the face of climate change.