(Ecofin Agency) - A national report found that climate change could cause annual losses ranging from 3 to 4.5% of Côte d'Ivoire's GDP between 2023 and 2030. The Ivorian government is therefore seeking financial support, this time from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to reduce the country's vulnerability.

Côte d'Ivoire plans to secure financial support from the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF).

This decision comes after the release of the national climate report for 2023-2050, which assesses the additional funding needs to enhance the country's climate resilience at a minimum of 0.2% to 0.4% of the GDP annually between 2023 and 2050.

The report indicates that Côte d'Ivoire has experienced a temperature increase of 1 to 4 degrees Celsius due to climate change, a sea-level rise of 30 cm, and increasingly irregular precipitation. These trends are expected to result in average annual losses ranging from 3 to 4.5% of the GDP in 2023-2030, potentially reaching 12.9% of the GDP by 2050.

The Ivorian government is concerned that these changes could have "serious repercussions" on achieving the country's goal of attaining the upper-middle-income status by 2030. Since May, Abidjan has benefited from a $3.5 billion mixed financial program supported by the IMF under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) and the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) over 40 months. This program aims to maintain the country's short-term macroeconomic stability and support a deeper economic transformation towards the upper-middle-income status in the midterm.

According to the Ivorian government, this financing will enable the necessary investments to accelerate ecological transition and reduce the country's vulnerability.

In recent years, Côte d'Ivoire has committed to adaptation efforts to climate change and pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 30.41% by 2030. One of its latest initiatives is the launch of the "Low Carbon Transition" project in partnership with the European Union, aiming to support the country's climate commitments from 2024 to 2030.