Africa faces $365 billion climate funding gap as agricultural communities bear the brunt of global crisis

African agriculture is drowning in a climate crisis it didn’t create, with a staggering $365 billion funding shortfall looming through 2035 despite recent pledges at UN climate talks. While international conferences generate headlines about increased climate finance, the reality on the ground tells a different story—one where the continent most vulnerable to climate change struggles to secure the resources needed to protect its food systems and rural communities.

The numbers paint a stark picture of inequality. Africa currently receives about $195 billion for climate adaptation, but researchers estimate the continent needs more than $1.6 trillion by 2035 to adequately address climate impacts. Agriculture, which employs hundreds of millions of Africans, receives just 26% of available adaptation funding—roughly $3.4 billion annually—despite being one of the sectors most threatened by rising temperatures, erratic rainfall, and extreme weather events.

“The current gap in climate adaptation finance for African agriculture is not just a funding shortfall—it is a continuation of an unequal global economic order where those who did the least to cause the crisis carry its heaviest burdens,” said Samuel Ogallah of the African Union’s climate change unit. Sierra Leone’s Environment Minister Jiwoh Abdulai emphasized the urgency, warning that delayed action will only drive costs higher as governments worldwide tighten their budgets and reduce overseas development assistance.

The funding crisis leaves African governments shouldering nearly as much of the adaptation burden as international donors, while millions of farmers like those in Ethiopia’s Tishimale Village face an uncertain future without adequate support to adapt their practices to a rapidly changing climate.