About $1.5 trillion has been pumped into climate change research in Africa in the last two decades, research fellow at the Science and Technology Policy Research Institute (STEPPRI) of the Center for Science and Industrial Research (CSIR), Dr Portia Adade Williams has said.
According to her, a study conducted on funding flows for climate change research in Africa showed that between 1990 and 2020, about USD 1.51 trillion in grants from 521 organizations were for climate change.
Dr. Adade Williams, however, noted that only 3.8 per cent of the global funding for climate-change research was spent on African topics – a figure she said was insufficient considering Africa’s share of the world population and vulnerability to climate change.
She again pointed out that institutions based in Europe and North America received 78 per cent of funding for climate research on Africa, while African institutions received only 14.5 per cent of the funds.
She noted that the current trend does not help in battling the fight against climate change on the continent because institutions outside Africa work in accordance to their interest and not specifically to that of Africa adding that seven out of 10 countries in the world affected by climate change are African countries.
Dr Adade Williams made this known during a two-day summit for Young African Leaders (YAL) held at the Accra International Conference Center (AICC) under the theme; ‘African Youth Transforming Vision and Ideas into Action’.
Adding to this, senior research scientist at the STEPRI, Mrs. Justina Onumah, made a passionate appeal to government to commit to research funding.
She mentioned that funding plays a significant role in directing research priorities therefore government should pay attention to that area.