ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (PAMACC News) - The 28th Summit of the Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU), officially opened today at the headquarters of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with a strong call for unity to uphold the maintenance of peace and stability in the continent.The Nelson Mandela plenary hall was full to capacity with delegates and special invitees coming to witness the important event. They heard from distinguished speakers who took their turn on the podium to enlighten the world on the progress made so far in the continent and some of the challenges that Africa faces, as well as proposals for the way forward.The event this year is holding under the AU theme: “Harnessing the Demographic Dividend through Investments in the Youth”. The outgoing Chairperson of the Union, President Idriss Deby Itno of the Republic of Chad declared open the official ceremony of the 28th AU summit before handing over the baton of command to the newly elected Chairperson of the African Union, H.E Alpha Conde, President of the Republic of Guinea who in his acceptance speech said “ It is with honor and humility that I accept to preside at the destiny of our Organisation during the year 2017 and I promise to ensure that we implement all the objectives we have set to achieve during this period with the view to enhance the development of our continent ”. Meanwhile, outgoing Chair President Deby wished a happy new year 2017 to all the delegations and invited guests while underscoring the need to continuously preserve peace, stability and prosperity in the continent. He expressed his appreciation to H.E Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, Chairperson of the AU Commission and her team including the Commissioners and staff of the AUC, for the support given to him during his mandate as Chair of the Union. He commended the Commission and the Government of Ethiopia for the successful organisation of the 28th AU Summit. On the other hand, President Idriss Deby warmly welcomed the newly elected Presidents of the Gambia, Ghana, Sao-Tome and Principe and Seychelles, who worn through a democratically electoral process organized in their respective countries. He also warmly welcomed H.E Mr. Mahamoud Abbas, President of the State of Palestine and the new UN Secretary General, Mr. Antonio Guterres to Africa, wishing him success in his new functions and reiterates the support of the African people to the UN given that “Africa has found in Mr. Guterres a sincere, committed and sensible person who will stop at nothing to address the issues currently faced by the continent”. Speaking at the opening ceremony of the 28th Summit of the African Union, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, Chairperson of the African Union Commission (AUC) warmly welcome to the UN Secretary on his first AU Summit in this capacity. “We appreciate the appointment of our sister Amina J. Mohamed of Nigeria as Deputy Secretary General of the UN, and congratulate her on this new responsibility”, underlined the AUC…

ABUJA, Nigeria (PAMACC News) - Ahead of the upcoming 28th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Unionholding 30th and 31st January 2017 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW)has activated the online portal of the continent’s water sector and sanitation reporting system. The new Pan African Monitoring and Reporting System serves as a platform to report progress on theimplementation of the AU Heads of States and Government Sharm el Sheikh Commitments to accelerate theachievement of the Africa Water Vision 2025, as well as the global high level political commitments on theSustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on water and sanitation. Considered as one of the most ambitiousattempts at tracking sectoral progress, the system represents Africa’s readiness to learn from past mistakes inmonitoring the implementation of the MDGs as well as efforts being made to attain Africa’s Agenda 2063. Speaking on the successful activation, the AMCOW President and Minister for Water and Irrigation, Tanzania,Engr. Gerson Lwenge stated “The AMCOW Monitoring and Reporting System helps to address Africa’slongstanding challenges in producing harmonised water and sanitation monitoring data”. Engr. Lwenge recalledthat lack of credible national and regional water sector and sanitation monitoring and reporting systems in Africawas widely recognised as a critical constraint to making informed policy and investments decisions on thedevelopment and effective use of water resources and sanitation in the continent”. Commenting, the AUCommissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, Rhoda Peace Tumusiime said “ongoing actions such as thisensures Africa’s readiness to monitor and report on progress towards achieving the SDGs while providing agreat opportunity to establish baselines not just for the global indicator framework, but also for the Africancommitments for which efforts to monitor progress towards attainment are constrained by the lack of baselinedata.” The System developed by the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW) working with the Commission ofthe African Union captures the harmonised monitoring and reporting indicators for the continent and links withother global monitoring and reporting processes. The AMCOW Executive Secretary, Dr Canisius Kanangirebelieves “the system provides African Member States an opportunity to own and manage the water sector andsanitation data”. Dr Kanangire reiterated that the issue of water sector and sanitation monitoring and reportinggained momentum in July 2008 with the AU Sharm El-Sheikh Declaration requesting AMCOW to report annuallyon the state of the continent’s water resources and sanitation” to the Summit. The web-based Reporting system was developed with funding from the African Water Facility (AWF), andsupported by the M&E Task Force, the German Cooperation as well as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation(BMGF) and with technical assistance from UNEP-DHI. The highlight of the portal which can be accessed athttp://www.africawat-sanreports.org is the 2016 Status Report of 42 African member statessubmitted using an online reporting framework. It also contains the 2013 and 2014 data submitted by MemberStates using a temporary paper based template. The system which serves as database on water and sanitation for Member States in Africa is expected topromote cross-sector learning and knowledge dissemination within the water, sanitation, food, energy andclimate nexus while…

ADDIS ABABA (PAMACC News) - Morocco, a nation in the northern part of Africa has been showcased as the best example of African countries that are shifting from nonrenewable energy to green energy, but a senior government official says it takes more than availability of resources.The country, which has been importing most of its energy particularly from Spain targets to generate 40 percent of grid electricity from renewable sources mainly solar, wind and hydroelectric by 2020.“We got to this level because there was good political will from the Royal Kingdom, there was transparency, sound policies and direct involvement of the private sector,” Said Mouline, the head of Moroccan Agency for Energy Efficiency (MAEE) told a high level dialogue on sustainable energy held on the sidelines of the Africa Union Summit, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.Today, the country has the world’s largest concentrated solar plant on the fringe of the Sahara desert already generating 180 megawatts of electricity, and is set to generate 580 megawatts once the solar plant is completed in 2018.All the projects are handled by the private sector, but with very close involvement of the government to ensure that there is sound policy environment and transparency at all steps, according to Mouline.In 2011 for example, the Royal Government made changes in its constitution so as to bring out the aspect of sustainable development, and at the same time stopped subsidising fossil fuels to make renewable energy more competitive, and started welcoming private investments in the clean energy sector.As a result for example, some of the public transport buses in Morocco, and private cars run purely using electric energy.“Apart from the mega energy projects, the government encourages investment in solar roofs, solar pumping systems among others by reducing the prices of the gadgets,” Mouline told participants.So far, there are over 100 small companies in Morocco investing in solar related businesses such as irrigation pumps, repair of the gadgets, disposal of obsolete batteries among other areas. “There is a huge potential in small projects,” said Mouline.According to Augustine Njamnshi of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance, time has come for Africa to invest in solar energy not just for lighting, but for irrigation, heating, refrigeration among other uses. “We need to change the notion that non-grid energy belongs to the poor, but at the same time try to improve it so that it does more than just lighting the house,” said Njamnshi.In Morocco, nearly every household in the cities and rural areas have access to electricity. “15 years ago, only 25 percent of the total households in rural areas had access to electricity. But today, 99 percent have access to power,” said Mouline.Benson Ireri of ChristianAid also wondered why a country like Kenya would invest so much in coal production, when the country has a potential of over 10,000 megawatts of electricity, which is totally underutilized.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (PAMACC News) - Members of African Civil Society organisations (CSO) on Climate change are worried that President Donald Trump may derail his country’s progress towards implementation of the Paris Agreement that seeks to slow global warming, which was coined particularly to accommodate the United States of America.“The Paris agreement was weakened because we were looking for a treaty that the US President could sign by Executive Instrument, since it is usually very difficult for US to be party to a legally binding treaty that require ratification by the Congress,” said Dr Seth Osafo, the Legal Adviser to the African Group of Negotiators at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).However, with the president’s latest moves to dismantle the legacy of his predecessor Barrack Obama, CSO representatives are afraid that even after accepting to weaken the treaty, Trump is likely to withdraw from the process.Their worries are complicated by the fact that during his campaigns, Trump had indicated that "the concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive." “He is a climate denier and that is very unfortunate for the entire world,” said Mithika Mwenda, the Secretary General for the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance during a workshop to review the 22nd Conference of Parties (COP 22), which was held in Marrakech, Morocco.In one of the presidential debates, Trump further said that the issue of climate change is an issue that requires further probing, and that money used to fight the phenomenon should be channeled to other uses."There is still much that needs to be investigated in the field of climate change. Perhaps the best use of our limited financial resources should be in dealing with making sure that every person in the world has clean water. Perhaps we should focus on eliminating lingering diseases around the world like malaria,” said Trump. Perhaps, he continued, “We should focus on efforts to increase food production to keep pace with an ever-growing world population. Perhaps we should be focused on developing energy sources and power production that alleviates the need for dependence on fossil fuels. We must decide on how best to proceed so that we can make lives better, safer and more prosperous.” To cement his words, he has already selected a close ally of the fossil fuel industry to head up the environment department, which analysts say may do a big blow to president Obama’s progress on climate change.So far, in less than fortnight after his inauguration, the President has already changed the federal government’s approach to the environment by clearing the way for two major oil pipelines that had been blocked by his predecessor. ¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬