East African countries are receiving only a fraction of the climate financing they require to cope with worsening droughts, hunger, and water shortages, according to a new report by Oxfam and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a regional economic community.
The report reveals that rich, high-polluting countries have only met four per cent of the climate finance needs for eight highly vulnerable African countries — Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda, creating a massive climate finance gap.
These countries are collectively known as the IGAD region.
The Climate Finance Shadow Report for Intergovernmental Authority on Development Regional Economic Community was released ahead of the Second African Climate Summit (ACS2) that took place from September 8-10 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Between 2021 and 2023, several countries in the IGAD region experienced severe climate-induced droughts, which were punctuated by intense rainfall and subsequent flooding. This led to a devastating hunger crisis, with catastrophic impacts on livelihoods, disease, malnutrition, hunger, death and displacement. It also exacerbated underlying challenges and vulnerabilities such as conflict and poverty.
As of 2024, approximately 62.9 million people across seven of the IGAD countries—Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Uganda—faced high levels of acute food insecurity.
At the same time, people experience conflict to varying degrees in Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda and Eritrea and displacement due to both climate and conflict is a major issue, with 25 million people forcibly displaced by mid-2024.
These countries require international support to address adaptation, loss and damage, as well as to transition to low-carbon development pathways.
The report presents an overview of international climate finance flows to the IGAD eight African countries over the period from 2013 to 2022.
It examines the volume, objective and main providers, as well as the gaps in climate finance for adaptation and mitigation within the IGAD countries.
The eight African countries have outlined total conditional climate finance needs dependent on international support of $417.9 billion by 2030, or $41.8 billion each year.
In comparison, over the period 2013-2022, the annual average reported climate-related development finance committed to the region was $2.3 billion per year.
These countries received, on average, $1.7 billion annually, from 2013 to 2022, in grant equivalents, being the true value of climate support after interest and debt repayments.
The amount is also 25 per cent less than the $2.3 billion annually reported by rich countries which includes grants and loans. The loans are worsening the debt crisis which reduce the capacity of countries to cope with climate change impacts.
According to Oxfam’s grant equivalent estimate, the true value of climate finance falls to just 4 per cent of costed climate finance needs, representing a gap of 96 per cent or $40.1 billion per year.
The report emphasises the need for increased grant-based finance for adaptation, which directly reaches local communities and addresses their real needs.