NEW YORK, USA (PAMACC News) - A meeting of ministers and high-level representatives of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) on September 22 agreed to accelerate efforts to significantly reduce short-lived climate pollutants by the end of the next decade in order to put the world on a "pathway that rapidly reduces warming in the near term and maximizes development, health, environmental, and food security benefits". These efforts, they noted, must be complementary to aggressive carbon dioxide mitigation and a transition to a zero-carbon economy by mid-century.Meeting a day before the United Nations Secretary-General's Climate Action Summit, the Coalition's High-Level Assembly put forward a 2030 Vision Statement that aims to ensure the earth's atmosphere continues to enable people and the planet to thrive by limiting warming to 1.5˚ Celsius and drastically reducing air pollution.In a message to the Assembly, Finnish President Sauli Niinistö reiterated the urgency required: "Climate change impacts the Arctic faster than any other region in the world. Reducing black carbon emissions is the most immediate way to limit further damage. As a partner of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition Finland is committed to this work on a global scale. Because this is not just a regional emergency. If we lose the Arctic, we lose the globe."Short-lived climate pollutants like methane, black carbon and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) – also known as super pollutants – are many times more powerful than carbon dioxide at warming the planet but because they are short-lived in the atmosphere, preventing emissions can rapidly reduce the rate of warming. Many are also dangerous air pollutants and reductions will benefit human health and ecosystems.Miguel Arias Cañete, the European Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy, reminded delegates that mitigation efforts must be urgently stepped up across the entire global energy sector, and called on countries to work with the Coalition to reduce methane emissions from oil and gas production. "We need a swift transition to a low-carbon and a more resource efficient economy to meet these goals. This also requires more action on short-lived climate pollutants," he said. "Given the scale of the challenge, the European Commission is exploring further ways to better measure and report methane emissions across all hydrocarbon industries and reduce methane emissions from energy production and use. There is still a significant potential to reduce emissions with low costs."The Coalition's goal is to reduce short-lived climate pollutants beyond the recommendations made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its special report Global Warming of 1.5˚C. According to the report, there need to be considerable cuts in emissions of black carbon (35 per cent by 2030), methane (37 per cent by 2030) and HFCs (70 per cent to 80 per cent by 2050) if we are to keep warming below 1.5˚C. The control measures that the CCAC is working on can deliver all recommended methane mitigation, and substantially more with new research for agricultural methane, as well as a 60 per cent reduction in black carbon emissions by 2030 –…

NEWYORK, USA (PAMACC News) - Millions of people have taken to the streets today Friday September 20,2019 demanding their governments take greater climate action, in what has been described as the largest climate protest in history.On the eve of the UN climate Summit , record numbers of youth climate campaigners joined by parents, workers, trade unions, businesses and organisations in a global strike ramping up pressure on political leaders to respond to the climate crisis.Rights groups including participants of the People' s Summit on Climate and human Survival organised by Amnesty International joined the youth protest today Friday September 20th.The protest rights groups say is also going on World wide, with picket lines and marches simultaneously going on from Russia to Johannesburg and Turkey to New Delhi.One of the largest demonstrations took place in New York, where UN secretary general António Guterres has convened world leaders to, as he put it, “put climate action into higher gear” over one the most important climate Summit starting on Saturday September 21,2019.What is the UN Summit AllAbout?According to the UN secretariat the summit has been billed as a critical moment for political leaders to show their willingness to increase their climate plans, in a bid to bridge the ambition gap to limit global temperature rise to 1.5C – the tougher goal of the Paris Agreement demanded by vulnerable countries and backed by Guterres.From Monday September 23, climate campaigners in Washington are expected to stage a protest against the lack of action of Donald Trump’s administration. The strike is modelled on Swedish activist Greta Thunberg’s own weekly protests, demanding her government take action commensurate to the findings of the science and a landmark report on 1.5C.The ‘Fridays For Future’ movement she inspired has dramatically increased public pressure on governments to listen to people’s demands for more ambitious climate action.Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Guterres said the leadership and initiative showed by youth around the world was “remarkable”.“The youth has been showing an enormous leadership, and I hope that that leadership will have a very strong impact on the societies as a whole, on their families and, based on that, on their governments of their countries,” he said.Young people are due to play a key role throughout the high-level meeting, starting with a youth summit on Saturday.Of governments that were not taking action, Alexandria Villaseñor, co-founder of US Youth Climate Strike and founder of Earth Uprising, said on Thursday: “They can listen to us now, or they can listen to us later… because our voice is going to continue getting louder as the climate crisis gets more urgent.”“The audacity of simply asking for leaders to lead is extraordinary and we are indebted to young people the world over for pushing us to this place,” Guterres’ special representative for sustainable energy Rachel Kyte told journalists on Thursday.The strike has also been supported by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), which boasts 200 million members globally.“Your standing up to governments, demanding action around climate has in fact…

PAMACC News - Joseph Mithika Mwenda, a Kenyan climate activist and the head of the Pan Africa Climate Justice Alliance has received the prestigious Earth Care Award by the Sierra Club at a colourful ceremony held in the Marriott Oakland City Centre in Oakland, California.The award comes just a few months after Apolitical, a global network for governments announced him among the 100 most influential persons especially on climate policy, nominated by hundreds of public servants from around the world, including experts at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Harvard University, Oxford University, Bloomberg Philanthropies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).The Sierra Club is the most enduring and influential grassroots environmental organisation in the United States which brings together 3.5+ million members and supporters who fight and defend everyone’s right to a healthy world.“This is not a singular honour but the recognition of the work by thousands of PACJA members and partners in Africa and elsewhere who have sacrificed all what they have to ensure we reach this level,” said Mwenda soon after he was nominated in June “With profound humility, I accept this Award that will no doubt energise my resolve to continue fighting to accord voice to those at the frontline of climate crisis.”Mwenda has been steadfast in the fight for climate justice from the country level in Africa, to the international conferences through the Pan Africa Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA).The alliance is a consortium of more than 1,000 organisations from 48 African countries, and brings together a diverse membership drawn from Faith-based Organisations, Community-Based Organisations, Non-Governmental Organisations, Trusts, Foundations, Indigenous Communities, Farmers and Pastoralist Groups with a shared vision to advance a people-centred, right-based, equitable, just and inclusive approach to climate change response. PACJA is implementing a variety of projects that traverse direct programming, policy and advocacy, sub-granting and capacity building, mainly focusing on the most vulnerable groups that are “unreachable” in traditional development paradigms. The Alliance plays a central role in key African processes spearheaded by African Union, UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and African Development Bank (AfDB), among them, the flagship Climate for Development in Africa (ClimDev) Programme. It is a Partner in Adaptation of African Agriculture on Climate Change Initiative (AAA), whose main goal it to build resilience for the mainly smallholder agriculture from climate shocks.

ACCRA, Ghana (PAMACC News) - The erosion of trust in South Sudan’s public institutions is hindering humanitarian work in the war torn country, a UN agency has said.Hsiao Wei Lee, the senior strategy advisor and head of programme at World Food Programme (WFP), South Sudan, said during the 2019 AGRF in Accra, Ghana, that it is becoming problematic to rebuild the country due to weakened trust among the people and institutions there.According to Lee, military institutions in the country have taken over key decision making activities, there, leaving out its people. Yet the people are the ones mostly affected by sporadic conflicts in South Sudan.“Livelihoods in South Sudan depend highly on free movement but this is being constrained by conflict. People are not able to keep up with coping strategies,” said Lee.Latest research conducted by her agency indicated that over 90 per cent of the population in South Sudan would like chiefs and communal groups to be wholly involved in peace building.This is because even short term conflicts have long term impacts on communities, especially when it comes to food insecurity.Agnes Kalibata, the president of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), said climate change is being blamed for food insecurity in the country, yet it is conflict that is leading to worsening hunger there.According to her, two thirds of the people of South Sudan are going hungry due to conflict, yet there are attractive investment opportunities in the country that can make it prosper.“South Sudan is in a better position compared to about a decade ago. AGRA’s programs there have proved that there are agriculture investment opportunities that can be a game changer for the country,” said Kalibata.Over 400,000 people in the war torn country have died due to conflict since 2013. Two million more live in neighbouring countries as refugees.While this is the case, over 85 percent of the population live below the poverty line, while 60 percent of these depend on humanitarian assistance.But this situation can be improved. All that is needed is to tie peace building with humanitarian aid and development, according to Patrick Diskin, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) deputy mission director in South Sudan.“It is impossible to provide humanitarian assistance where there is no peace. The people also need to be educated and exposed to formal jobs,” said Pierre Vauthier, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) South Sudan country representative.However, Henry Taban, the executive director and chairman of the Rural Action Against Hunger in South Sudan, said the Partnership for Recovery and Resilience (PfRR) programme in South Sudan is helping restore the social fabric in the country.This, he said, is being done through building partnerships with community groups, NGOs and UN agencies.“Building partnerships is the best model to help in the recovery process of South Sudan,” said Taban.