Stating that infrastructure facilities are vulnerable to weather events, by which Africa is most affected, the African Union (AU) has emphasized on the need to consider climate change in designing, building and managing infrastructure on the continent.
Africa’s low level of infrastructure to adequately adapt to the impacts of a changing climate, is one of the major reasons for highly vulnerability of the continent, the pan-African bloc has noted.
A senior AU official made the remarks on Monday during the opening of a meeting dubbed, Africa Climate Resilient Infrastructure Summit, at the AU Headquarters in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa.
The three-day summit aims at introducing AU member states the practical solutions and technical cooperation from the private sector, technology providers, consultancies and service providers to address negative impacts of climate change in the areas of energy, ICT (information & communication technology), building infrastructure, water, and agriculture & food security, according to AU.
Elham M.A. Ibrahim, AU Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy, noted that the high vulnerability of Africa to impacts of climate change is directly linked to development challenges including weak economies and institutions; widespread poverty; limited human, financial & technical capacities; conflicts; and inadequate social infrastructure. The Commissioner stated that climate-proofing of current and future infrastructure is of utmost importance to deal with weather events such as droughts, floods, cyclones, and heat waves among others, and also for sustainable and cost-effective option in the long-run.
In Africa, vital infrastructure including power systems, roads, rail and communication, and buildings among others are vulnerable to weather events, reiterated Ibrahim.
“However, the currently low levels of infrastructure on the continent provide Africa with ample opportunities to integrate the climate change dimension into its infrastructure development plans, ” she noted.
“Therefore, there is a great need to take into account climate change in designing, building and managing our infrastructure,” underlined the official.
With the theme, “Africa: Towards Resilient Infrastructure Development,” African experts, policy-makers and partners deliberate for three consecutive days on ways of enhancing the climate resilience of Africa’s infrastructure.
The commissioner hailed the focus of the Summit more important as Africa is currently at the stage of building its infrastructure at national and regional levels towards achieving a sustainable future for Africa.
She stated that the AU Commission has a mandate to ensure the implementation of large regional infrastructure on the continent in several key sectors including power, transport, and ICT sectors.
“We are very keen to understand and deliberate on the range of vulnerabilities we could expect on our continent and future infrastructure plans, the costs implications, and also the various ways and strategies that could be deployed to address these range of vulnerabilities,” said the commissioner.
There is an African initiative, dubbed the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA), which covers transport, energy, transboundary water and telecommunication/ICT.
PIDA is dedicated to facilitating continental integration in Africa through improved regional infrastructure and is designed to support implementation of the AU Abuja Treaty and the creation of the African economic community, according to AU. Enditem
Source: Xinhua
