February 2015: The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has published a report, titled ‘Africa’s Adaptation Gap 2: Bridging the gap – mobilizing sources,’ which assesses a range of possible options for closing the adaptation finance gap on the continent.

As international climate negotiations accelerate towards a new agreement scheduled to be adopted in December 2015, UNEP’s second ‘Africa’s Adaptation Gap’ report addresses Africa’s increasingly urgent adaptation needs and provides options for addressing those needs at international, regional and domestic levels.

According to the report, due to past global emissions, Africa is already facing adaptation costs of US$7-15 billion per year by 2020. However, so far, financial flows for adaptation have only amounted to US$1-2 billion a year. The report finds that, by 2050, Africa’s adaptation costs could rise to US$50 billion per year if global warming were to remain below 2°C, and up to US$100 billion per year by 2050 for scenarios associated with the global temperature rise of more than 4°C by 2100, which is where the world is currently heading.

The report further shows that, even if the explored avenues for revenue generation were implemented across Africa, only a maximum of US$3 billion per year would be raised by 2020. Rapidly rising adaptation costs would exceed potential revenues raised through levies as early as in 2020. Thus, a “steep and rapid” increase in adaptation funding from developed countries is needed to close the continent’s adaptation funding gap.

The report consists of six main sections on: climate impacts, adaptation costs and damages for Africa; international finance, including a comparison with costs; country-wide solutions, including growth and tax reform scenarios, public debt, tax mix and tax effort, illicit financial flows, tax expenditures, earmarking, funds and facilities, and the private sector; continent-wide solutions, including levies on transactions for adaptation in Africa; and mobilizing the potentials. [Publication: Africa’s Adaptation Gap 2: Bridging the gap – mobilizing sources]