The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation pledged $1.4 billion in support of smallholder farmers in Africa and Asia at the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27). The amount will be paid over four years and will go towards innovation to improve farmers’ resilience to extreme droughts, heat waves and floods exacerbated by climate change, said a statement released today on the sidelines of COP27.
“Additional funding is needed to ensure that agricultural and technological innovations are widely available to vulnerable communities,” said Bill Gates, co-founder of technology company Microsoft.
At the UN climate conference, more than 190 countries in Sharm al-Sheikh, Egypt, have been negotiating for two weeks the implementation of the Paris climate agreement and financial support to countries particularly affected by climate change.