Africa’s Regional Climate Dialogue to boost climate actions 15.04.2019
Laure Fouchecourt Last month, from 15th to 22nd of March 2019, 196 participants, of which 47 African countries, private sector and other non-Party stakeholders mobilized at the Africa Climate Week 2019 in Accra, Ghana to discuss and advance the climate action agenda of the region.
The Africa Climate Week is actually the first of the Regional Climate Week planned for this year – the latter two being the Latin America and Caribbean Climate Week and the Asia Pacific Climate Week. One of the events held during the Africa Climate Week, was the NDC regional climate dialogue which aims at boosting ambition and accelerating climate actions.
Translating NDCs into concrete climate actions is complex and requires a whole-of-country approach.
In Ghana, two days were dedicated to technical dialogues on the implementation of the climate commitments or “Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). These technical NDC dialogues, running since 2014, have been organized by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and UN Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat to help countries plan and implement their climate commitments. Discussions
focused on the preparation of second-round NDCs with increased clarity
and ambition; capacity strengthening for tracking NDC implementation
progress; and peer-to-peer knowledge exchange, building on lessons
learned from implementing initial NDCs and drawing on the outcomes of
the Talanoa
Dialogue and COP24. The dialogues further invited countries to look to
2050 and beyond and encourage the formulation of long-term climate
strategies, which countries are invited to submit to the UNFCCC by 2020.
The outcomes of each dialogue will be presented to the UN Climate
Action Summit, in September 2019.At the dialogue, the representation of key stakeholders from all sectors of society provided a clear indication that this inclusive engagement process was well underway in the region.
Participants noted that in Africa, the regional, municipal and local
actors need to help bridge the gap between ambitious national climate
targets and the concrete actions required on the ground.
achieve the 1.5C temperature goal of the Paris Agreement, Africa will have to focus on three strategies. Firstly, as Africa's development is linked to the world's capacity to address climate change,
its climate plans - mitigation and adaptation actions – will have to be
aligned with national development plans and strategies. Secondly, to
identify opportunities, to plan, finance and implement action at all
levels - national, sub-national, local and across sectors – the data
collected will need to be consistent, reliable and comparable. Finally, financial instruments and innovative financing mechanisms must be leveraged to mobilize adequate climate finance. Enabling environment for private sector engagement
and public-private collaborations must also be further enhanced to
ensure the required pace and scale of climate action is fulfilled in
these critical years ahead.
In addition, as part of the Africa Climate Week, the Government of Ghana and UNDP organized a 2 days NDC Investment Forum to discuss ways to crowding-in private sector investment for projects in Ghana that are financially viable, and that also deliver the climate solutions Ghana pledged in their NDC.
The host country, Ghana, has led by example by creating a conducive environment for private sector engagement in the planning and implementation of its climate actions. Having designed emission reduction plans for cooling, cooking and lighting - through energy efficient refrigerators and clean energy cooking and lighting appliances - Ghana developed an investor guide to attract financing from the private sector for low carbon development.
More info about the NDC Dialogue can be found here. | Last month, from 15th to 22nd of March 2019, 196 participants, of which 47 African countries, private sector and other non-Party stakeholders mobilized at the Africa Climate Week 2019 in Accra, Ghana to discuss and advance the climate action agenda of the region. The Africa Climate Week is actually the first of the Regional Climate Week planned for this year – the latter two being the Latin America and Carribean Climate Week and the Asia Pacific Climate Week. One of the events held during the Africa Climate Week, was the NDC regional climate dialogue which aims at boosting ambition and accelerating climate actions. |