MARRAKECH, Morocco (PAMACC News) - Africa should avoid the ‘Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) trap’ by perpetually pushing capacity building and miss out on serious climate funding opportunities, Dr Balgis Osman Elasha of the African Development Bank (AfDB) has said.Dr Osman Elasha, who is the Principal Climate Change officer at the bank’s Quality Assurance and Results Department, says “Africa could not benefit from the CDM because it was caught up in the capacity building mode while others were taking action.”CDM of the Kyoto Protocol provided for emissions reduction projects aimed at to assist parties not included in Annex I in achieving sustainable development and compliance with their quantified emission limitation and reduction commitments.“For Africa to benefit from the Paris Agreement, we should, this time avoid the CDM trap”, Dr. Osman Elasha told delegates at an AfDB side event on day two of the UN Climate Change conference currently holding in Marrakech, Morocco.Discussing ‘Access to means of Implementation-key concern for Africa post COP 21’, Dr. Osman Elasha said there is no room for Africa to waste on capacity building while the rest of the world would be taking action.The panel discussion focused on the challenges that Africa faces and windows of opportunities that the continent could take advantage of, in the implementation of the Paris Agreement.Seen as a historic Agreement and fastest international treaty to enter into force, the Paris Agreement which is anchored on the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), places obligations on all Parties to fulfil what is contained in their climate action plans.However, for Africa, several gaps have emerged, one of which is the vagueness of most African countries’ NDCs, even before the bigger issue of means of implementation (finance and technology transfer) is brought into picture.“The way forward is a major challenge for most developing countries—it’s not just about getting the money but also what to do with it to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement,” said Kurt Lonsway, Manager for the Climate and Environment portfolio at AfDB.Lonsway, however, was quick to point out that the Bank stands by its commitment to support African states as they seek to rework their climate action plans to ensure that they benefit from available climate funding windows.And in keeping up with the African challenge theme, Advisor of the African Group of Negotiators, Seth Osafo lamented the lack of in-country coordination among key climate players in most African countries.“While it is collectively agreed that there is lack of capacity to develop bankable projects to access climate finance, another African tragedy is the lack of coordination within African countries,” said Osafo, adding that some country focal points end at representing their countries at negotiations without sharing key decisions with other key players in their respective countries.Osafo, who is former legal advisor at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), observed the need to improve in-country linkages especially between the Ministries of Environment, which, in most African countries, carries the climate change portfolio, with Finance.“For example, the ministries of finance are the…

Experts at the UNFCCC’s 22nd Conference of Parties which began yesterday in Marrakech have proposed innovative approaches to solving the African energy challenge. Speaking at a side event on Renewable Energy Performance Platform as a tool to deliver NDC Objectives on the first day of the conference, the experts believe that Africa’s energy poverty which leaves about 600 million people without access to electricity and McKinsey’s projection on $490bn investment needed by 2040 for new generation capacity in Africa constitute an invitation to explore innovative ways of overcoming the challenge. One of such innovative solutions, according to Gareth Philipps, African Development Bank’s Chief Climate and Green Growth Officer, is results-based financing mechanism which allows donors to channel climate finance into different types of energy projects. “Results-based financing is attractive because it takes away a lot of the risks from the donor and it simply says you give me the results and I will give you the money and it frees up the private and entrepreneurial sectors to come up with solutions to these problems,” Philipps added. Results-based climate finance as a crediting mechanism is increasingly becoming an avenue to scale carbon mitigation by routing financial flows towards fiscal reforms for renewable energy, incentivize sectoral investments and leverage private capital. Subha Nagarajan, Managing Director of Africa Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and Andreas Gunst of DLA Piper were of the view that the Renewable Energy Performance Platform (REPP) which aims to mobilise private investment in renewable energy in sub-Saharan Africa, address early-stage barriers to renewable energy project development, and focus on small to medium-sized renewable energy projects can rewrite Africa’s energy story for good. The platform’s innovative approach to providing technical and financial advisory while facilitating access to risk mitigation instruments and finance provided by REPP partners addresses challenges of funding gap, absence of development capital, lack of expertise in financial structuring and access to cheaper funding on the continent of Africa. Developed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) in collaboration with the AfDB, USAID, OPIC and a host of banks with an initial funding of £48 million from the UK’s Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), the Platform supports technologies in solar, run-of-river hydropower, onshore wind, biomass, geothermal and waste-to-energy with project types such as grid-connected and off-grid, public utilities and private offtakers, greenfield, brownfield and renewable storage hybrids.

MARRAKECH, Morocco (PAMACC News) - African Civil society at the ongoing climate change negotiation warned that if Parties did not urgently raise their Pre-2020 Ambitions in Marrakech, the impact of low ambition and business as usual scenario could trigger even greater climate crisis in Africa. “The outcome from Marrakech should be ambitious enough to protect the rights of poor and vulnerable in the continent most impacted by climate change and provide adequate climate finance to address the impacts,” said Mithika Mwenda, the Secretary General of the Civil Society Platform, Pan African Climate Justice Alliance . Finance is key to Implementation of the Paris Agreement and the Convention and must be on the table for discussion in Marrakech as one of the important agenda item if Marrakech must be taken serious. “Paris Agreement has a goal 1.50C but no prescription for how to achieve it – the pledges would still take the planet to an unthinkable 3.5 degreesi of warming. Therefore the need to improve Paris pledges and ensure prior Kyoto obligations are at least met because Low pre-2020 ambition will deepen the post-2020 challenge to the detriment of the poor and vulnerable especially in Africa”, said John Bideri from Action for Environment and Sustainable Development, Rwanda and Co- Chair of PACJA’s Continental Executive Committee said. Now that the Paris Agreement has come into effect, stakes are certainly high on its implementation and Marrakech provides an incredible opportunity to clearly define the path towards achieving the 1.50C target, Bideri added during the Press Conference organized by the Alliance. “In Paris, we demanded equity, fair deal and legally binding agreement. And here In Marrakech, developed country Parties must be include and provide clarity on their contributions on all the elements including provision of money for adaptation for developing countries, and particularly Africa,” Robert Chimambo, of Zambia Climate change Network and PACJA member, said. “The role of capacity building and technology in the realization of the global target through mitigation and adaptation actions can never be over-emphasized. Support to developing countries by developed countries in the spirit of justice and equity in terms of capacity building and technology development and transfer is key to achieving African countries’ commitments in their NDCs even as developed countries embark upon drastic domestic economic-wide emission reduction efforts,” Tracy Sonny, National Coordinator, Botswana Climate Change Network and a member of Pan African Climate Justice Alliance, added.

Delegates from 196 countries today held up solar lanterns in a show of solidarity symbolising the transformation to clean technology which is essential to achieve the Paris Agreement goals. This took place as the 22nd Conference of Parties to the Kyoto Protocol under the United Nations Framwork Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) began this morning in Marrakech, Morocco. The solidarity show was at the behest of Morocco’s Foreign Minister and newly-elected COP22 President Salaheddine Mezouar who underscored his country's willingness to host the conference as a demonstration of Africa's commitment to contributing to global efforts at tackling climate change. “It emphasizes Africa’s desire to take its destiny in hand, to reduce its vulnerability and strengthen its resilience,” he said. Together with Ségolène Royal, French Environment Minister and President of last year's Paris UN Climate Change Conference, Salaheddine Mezouar handed out solar lanterns to all delegates at the opening ceremony. Ratifying Paris Agreement Acknowledging that the fact that the Paris Agreement is yet to put the world on track towards the goal of a maximum global average temperature of 1.5 to 2 degrees, as agreed by the international community in Paris last year, COP President Mezouar urged government delegates “to be more ambitious than ever in your commitments.” “All over the world, public opinion must perceive change. It has to be a change at all levels, from local projects through to those that cross international borders and it must create genuine win-win partnerships," he added. In her last address before handing over the stewardship of the climate forum to her Moroccan counterpart, Ségolène Royal announced that 100 countries have ratified the Paris Agreement, which entered into force last Friday, a record time for an international treaty. "We have made possible what everyone said was impossible, I therefore call on other nations to ratify the Paris agreement by the end of the year," said French environment minister. UNFCCC Executive Secretary, Patricia Espinosa reasoned that whilst the early entry into force of the Paris Agreement is a clear cause for celebration, it is also a timely reminder of the high expectations that are now placed on governments: “Achieving the aims and ambitions of the Paris Agreement is not a given. We have embarked on an effort to change the course of two centuries of carbon-intense development. The peaking of global emissions is urgent, as is attaining far more climate-resilient societies.” Ms. Espinosa further underlined 5 key areas in which work needs to be taken forward and they are Nationally determined contributions, support for adaptation, capacity building, full engagement of non-party stakeholders from north and south, and the finance to allow developing countries to green their economies and build resilience. The place of climate finance According to the UN climate chief, climate finance has to reach the level and have the predictability needed to catalyse low-emission and climate-resilient development. This clearly resonates with African Development Bank’s plan to triple its climate financing to $5 billion per year by 2020. President of the bank, Dr.…