PAMACC News - Illegal charcoal trade has been identified as key driver to deforestation globally. To stem the massive tide of illegally harvesting, production and exporting from different forests across the globe, Somalia has joined other stakeholders to push for cross-border efforts for meaningful results. The Somalia's government made their voice heard at the UN-supported conference on charcoal in Mogadishu, May 7th2018.According to a press release from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) the Somalian government have joined other stakeholders to call for international cooperation in halting illegal export of charcoal.Certain forestry products like charcoal are not allowed to be exported from Somalia the release say. The country has struggled to protect its natural forests from rapid and widespread illegal logging and for these measures to be effective, international cooperation with other African countries and Gulf states was imperative.« “We need a holistic response to address the issues of charcoal in Somalia. Both the demand andsupply side have to be tackled – to do this we need cooperation to implement the UN Security Council Resolution and ensure the environmental, economic and human losses that happen because of illegal charcoal trade are curbed, » said the Deputy Prime MinisterIt should be recalled that a similar call for international cooperation was made by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 2017 to stem massive exportation of charcoal from Myanmar to China. The FAO tracks forest cover globally, said in the report that between 1990 and 2015, Myanmar lost about 15 million hectares of forest and other wooded land. In Cameroon government officials say there is increasing amounts of charcoal burning for cooking and heating in recent years as Cameroon's electricity and gas supplies fail to keep pace with demand, raising concerns among forest stakholders about growing deforestation and carbon emissions in the country. The Cameroon government has also condemned this growing trend pledging to intensify efforts at eliminating the scorge in line with the 2012 UN resolution against illegal charcoal trade and export.The charcoal supply for Cameroon's two biggest cities comes principally from the East region, which harbours rich forest reserves that are important for Cameroon in particular and the Congo Basin in general.DEFORESTATION FEARSExperts fear that if the energy crisis continues unabated it could contribute to growing deforestation that could worsen climate change and lead to more severe weather."Charcoal is obtained from the burning of trees, and if this trend continues you can imagine the quantity of trees the country is going to lose and what impact this will have for the future," said Ebia Ndongo, director of forestry in the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife.Like in Myanmar, the export of charcoal from Somalia has been banned, both by a 2012 United Nations Security Council resolution and by the Somali Government, due to its destructive effect on the environment and its exacerbation of conflict and humanitarian crises.The UNEP Press release says an estimated 8.2 million trees were cut down for charcoal in Somalia between 2011 and 2017,increasing land degradation, food insecurity…

BONN, Germany (PAMACC News) - Negotiators and other interest groups at the ongoing UN climate change talks in Bonn, Germany, have been attempting to answer three questions – Where are we? Where do we want to go? How do we get there?The process of answering these questions has been termed the “Talanoa Dialogue”, a Fijian concept of non-confrontational approach to finding solutions to deliver on the Paris Agreement on climate change.UN climate chief, Patricia Espinosa, at a media round-table, described progress at the talks is mixed though “the general atmosphere is very positive”.She observed “people have come to the negotiations with the willingness to engage in the substantive issues that are before them”.Climate finance is emerging as one the biggest issues in the negotiation process, in the quest to answer the question of “how do we get there?”In addition to national emissions reduction targets, developed countries have made a collective promise of $100 billion a year of climate finance by 2020.But poor and developing countries have their skepticism in the commitment to deliver on the promises to enable their vulnerable economies adapt to the impacts of climate change and redress the damages.“Countries who have done the most to cause the climate problem must step up to deliver action and finance. They mustn't delude themselves that distant technologies will solve the climate problem in the future, letting them off the hook for climate action now”, said Teresa Anderson, ActionAid International.The Africa Group of Negotiators has submitted that “we need to go to a world where developed countries stop making promises but live up to their promises”.According to the group, financial support should include access to clean technology and expertise, and a significant increase in money from public sources and not simply offload finance to the private sector.“We call on governments to lay the ground for stronger ambition to honour the Paris climate pact,” said Kimbowa Richard of Uganda’s Coalition for Sustainable Development.Three years after the adoption of the Paris Agreement, there are expectations among many countries for clear indications how the $100billion climate finance will be delivered.Patricia Espinosa acknowledged there are technical issues in negotiating climate finance but “I don’t see any denial of the commitments that have been made”. She noted “the principle that developing countries need to be supported in order to deliver on their commitments under the Paris Agreement is absolutely unquestioned”. Investors are using the climate risk assessment as guideline for the decisions they will be taking, says the UNFCCC.“Now the truth is that even those 100billion will not be enough to financing the big transformation that is required in this agenda,” said the Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC.Patricia therefore believes the willingness for compliance will need to move beyond the UNFCCC process, by exploring the bigger picture in the implementation of the roadmap.Climate change impacts are already visible in communities and exacerbating poverty in developing countries.Outcomes of the Bonn Climate Talks would define progress to be made at the COP24 climate summit in Katowice, Poland later…

BONN, Germany (PAMACC News) - United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Executive Secretary, Patricia Espinosa is up-beat about the Talanoa Dialogue approach to climate negotiations.At a round table with the media, Espinosa said the first phase of the Talanoa dialogue which took place on Sunday, 6th May, 2018, is a positive start towards an inclusive approach to climate negotiations and moving the process forward.“The discussions about how to capture and derive from the Talanoa dialogue, general conclusions, is only starting now, it’s only a new process, it’s the first phase which happened yesterday, and delegations are starting now to think about what they would like to see as the outcome of the dialogue,” Espinosa said.She said the secretariat would now wait on the compilation of a report whose content would form the basis for moving the process forward especially, the next round of NDCs depending on how each country decides to do their NDCs.The Un Climate chief further stated that the report would be crucial for the next phase of the dialogue which is likely to take place at COP 24—the political phase where a high level delegation of Presidents would have to make conclusions on the way forward.However, Espinosa said, “the good news in my mind is that, the enthusiasm about raising ambition, and working together and uniting efforts is what has transpired from this very first phase of the Talanoa dialogue.”The “Talanoa Dialogue” is a round table non-confrontation approach to finding solutions to complicated challenges. It allows for stories and interventions covering three key thematic questions—where are we? where do we want to be? Andhow do we get there?And adding to the Executive Secretary’s optimism, co-chairs also expressed a positive outlook of the progress made in the first week, during theirstock-take.They said work on the rulebook had progressed but needed to be significantly accelerated in the final week in order to be finalised at COP24. While it is clear that today’s Talanoa Day is just kicking off a longer process, civil society expressed their hope that the Talanoa Dialogue will lead to all parties raising their climate ambition. According to Climate action Network, the Talanoa Dialogue is a promising start towards inclusive approach to climate action and must lay the groundwork for a real political outcome.At a press conference, there was a feeling that the dialogue fostered a sense of good intentions in the room, making clear that vulnerability to climate change binds all actors together, highlighting the urgency of taking more ambitious action.“This lack of climate action means we are ‘cheating one another and abandoning our children’. People around the world are angry. They want to see more climate action, they want to see it happening faster. That is why they go out on the streets with banners and march. That is why they are taking governments and companies who fail to take action to court,” said Juan Pablo Osornio, Task Force Leader at Greenpeace.He said the Talanoa Dialogue providethe space in which some of…

Les besoins pour l’Afrique, concernant l’électrification sont immenses. A ce jour, les tendances sont encourageantes, les approbations de financements se sont concentrées sur l’accès à l’énergie, c’est donc encourageant. Cependant, nous pourrions faire un peu plus, ont estimé des organisations de la société civile (OSC) africaine.Réunies à l’auditorium Babacar Fall de la Banque africaine de développement (BAD) d’Abidjan, du 7 au 9 mai 2018, à l’occasion d’une première rencontre des OSC, il planchait sur le thème : « Réduire le fossé énergétique pour une industrialisation réussie de l’Afrique : table ronde pour diffuser les solutions à grande échelle ». Une rencontre organisée par plusieurs structures, notamment l'Alliance Panafricaine pour la Justice Climatique (PACJA). « Aujourd’hui, les financements pour l’accès à l’énergie sont importants. Nous n’entendons pas moins de la part de la BAD. Entre 2013 et 2017, les parts de financements sont passés de 16% à 70% c’est donc encourageant. Mais nous pouvons mieux faire, car le besoin sur le continent est encore immense » a souligné Thuli Makama, Africa Senior Advisor à OilChange international.« Si l’Afrique et la BAD veulent réaliser l’industrialisation, il faut prendre en compte ceux qui parlent disent que c’est cher. Si vous démystifier le secteur, si vous enlever les subventions des énergies fossiles vous verrez le résultat. Il y a un cri de cœur. Les populations ont besoin de quelque chose de nouveau. Ne nous laissons pas distraire par le lobby des énergies fossiles. Nous avons besoin de la masse critique », a-t-elle ajouté.Un avis partagé par Mithika Mwenda, secrétaire général de PACJA. « Seule une véritable synergie des actions de la BAD permettra de régler de manière transversale le problème. Et nous avons besoin de la masse critique des organisations de la société civile pour accompagner la Banque dans l’industrialisation du continent », a-t-il indiqué.Selon les données actualisées, 640 millions d’Africains qui n’ont pas accès à l’énergie. L’objectif du continent est de combler le GAP d’ici à 2025. Pour cela il faut investir jusqu’à 90 milliards de dollars, a révélé Al-Hamadou Dorsouma, expert en changement climatique à la BAD. « La BAD, toute seule, ne peut pas arriver à financer. Encore que dans certains pays, les coûts d’accès à l’électricité sont encore élevés. Sans compter qu’il manque souvent des projets bancables parce qu’ils ne sont pas bien préparés. Ce sont des barrières pour la pénétration des énergies renouvelables (ER) », a souligné Dorsouma, soulignant que si chaque pays détenait un projet cohérent et concis en matière d’accès à l’ER, il serait mieux accompagné.Plus de trois cent organisations de la Société Civile (OSC), en provenance de divers pays africains sont réunis à Abidjan à l'initiative de la Banque Africaine de Développement pour plancher sur l'engagement des OSC dans l'industrialisation en Afrique.Cette rencontre est la première du genre, après la décision de la BAD d’impliquer un peu plus les OSC dans des débats portant sur des sujets cruciaux pour le continent africain.