ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (PAMACC News) - “The Paris Agreement is somewhat weak in terms of how African countries will attract the required investments to deal with the challenges of climate change…,”says James Murombedzi, Officer in Charge of the Africa Climate Policy Centre of the United Nations economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).

While heralded as a landmark global deal on climate change, there remains a feeling of impotence from the Africa group on certain nuances of the Agreement and its implications to the continent’s development agenda.

However, signing and ratifying the Agreement is not optional for Parties as it was universally agreed by the then 196 members to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change—UNFCCC, in Paris last year.

This therefore implies that whatever issues Africa has with the Agreement and its implications, would have to be dealt with at the negotiating table, and this is the point at which the Young African Lawyers (YAL) Programme becomes crucial.

Established under the ClimDev-Africa Programme, YAL has the overarching goal of strengthening Africa’s negotiating position and ensuring Africa gets the best at the UNFCCC processes.
 
“Signing and ratifying the Agreement is not optional for us as Africa,” says Natasha Banda, a young Legal Practitioner from Zambia, one of the mentees under the programme.
 
Being part of the legal advisory team for the Zambian negotiators through the UNFCCC country Focal point person, Banda believes ratifying the Agreement is not negotiable and the starting point “because the nature of international Agreements is that you cannot have bargaining power from outside,” and is certain that Zambia, which is yet to ratify, would do so once all necessary processes are complete.
 
In recognition of the importance of addressing the impacts of climate change comprehensively, and the unique roles and responsibilities of lawyers in the process, the Young African Lawyers (YAL) programme brings together young and motivated African lawyers in integrating climate change responses into Africa’s development agenda.
 
According to Dr. Johnson Nkem, Senior Climate Adaptation Expert with the Africa Climate Policy Centre, and Coordinator of the programme, YAL is a crucial component for Africa’s climate governance framework, especially now that the world is moving towards a greener, cleaner future, as espoused in the Paris Agreement.
 
“While providing essential legal support to the AGN, the YAL programme is an important foundation for developing a cadre of African lawyers who are fully engaged in wider climate change issues. Legal advice on low-carbon trading transactions, for example, or integrating climate change into Environmental Impact Assessments are going to be increasingly important as the world heads towards a greener, cleaner future. As Africa anchors itself firmly in this global transition, the YAL programme aims to nurture the legal skills that will be integral to this process,” Nkem explains.

As well as the immediate benefits of providing legal support at the climate negotiations, YAL has the longer-term goal of building the expertise of young lawyers, to be applied in broader aspects of climate change policy and law.
 
And Rachael Rwomushana, a Ugandan Lawyer, testifies to the positive impact that the programme has had on her and on the country’s engagement in the UNFCCC processes.
 
Uganda is one of the African countries that has ratified the Paris Agreement, and Rwomushana believes she played a positive role as a young lawyer working in the office of the Attorney General.
 
“Being involved in the this programme has enabled me to better understand the process and the guidance that I can give to my country and the African Group of Negotiators in the process,” she says, stressing that African countries should not look back on the Paris Agreement but work to strengthen their climate governance so that they get the best out of it.
 
Under the guidance of two seasoned lawyers experienced in Multilateral Environmental Agreements such as Dr. Seth Osafo, former senior legal adviser of the UNFCCC Secretariat, and Matthew Stilwell, a climate change expert and legal adviser to the African Group of Negotiators, the YAL programme could be Africa’s hope for better climate governance engagement in the years to come.

With the availability of additional resources and support, the programme plans to expand to other interested participants and legal institutions across Africa in developing the knowledge-base of legal experts on climate change issues.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (PAMACC News) - African governments have been urged to ratify and implement the Paris Agreement on climate change to help manage effects of climate change. Speaking at the sixth conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA V1) at the UN Complex in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia during the high level session, experts and ministers said the pact is good for the continent.

They called on Africa to unite and speak with one voice to be able to reap maximum benefits by fully implementing the agreement.
"The Paris Agreement will benefit Africa as it has commitments on finance, green technology and capacity transfer. If successfully implemented, it will be the key to our development," said Yasmine Fouad, Egypt's Assistant Minister of Environment.

Reflecting the urgency and critical significance of climate change for the continent's economic growth and sustainable development, the conference, convened under the theme 'Paris Agreement on climate change: What next for Africa', seeks to address seven key areas.

The conference offers governments to deepen their understanding of the Conference of Parties (COP21) where the pact was signed and identify strategies for implementing the agreement through Pan-African initiatives, public-private partnerships and state and non-state actors.

The forum also seeks to provide a solution space for innovation, facilitate, networking between climate and development partners, raise awareness of the importance of climate information services and explore new and evolving challenges related to climate change.

Dr Abdalla Hamdok, Deputy Executive Secretary for UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) urged African countries to ratify the agreement.
"Out of the 81 out of 197 countries that have ratified the agreement, only 15 African countries have done so. This is a challenge," Hamdock said.

Kenya is among 15 African countries that have ratified the agreement. The country now stands to benefit from the $100 billion pledged by developed countries to developing ones and that even larger sums be leveraged from investors, banks and the private sector that can build towards the $7 trillion needed to support a world-wide transformation on climate change.

Hamdock noted the significance of Paris Agreement coming into force lies in Intended nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) which are the foundation of the agreement become legally binding as Nationally Determined Commitments (NDCs).

He observed that there are challenges with the INDC submissions of African countries due their vagueness in their mitigation ambitions and adaptation aspirations.

Other challenges include lack of cost estimates for achieving their adaptation and mitigation goals, absence of clarity on sources of funding and up to date national greenhouse gas emission records to inform the pledged emission reduction commitments.

Others are mitigation commitments that exceed current level of emissions and lack of coherence of the INDCs and national development goals.
"There is an urgent need for Africa to review and revise their INDCs to address the above issues," Hamdok said.

James Murombedzi, officer in charge of Africa Climate Policy Centre said the agreement which aims to come into effect before the end of the year aims to limit the increase in the global average temperature to below 1.5 degrees centigrade above pre-industrial levels.

"Africa will benefit by implementing the agreement because it is the continent that will be severely impacted by the adverse impacts of weather variability and climate change," Murombedzi said.

"The continent is already experiencing climate-induced impacts such as frequent and prolonged droughts and floods and environmental degradation and increased migration," Murombedzi said.


He added, "The agreement heralds bold steps towards decarbonizing the global economy and reducing dependency on fossil fuels."
Rhoda Tumisiime, Africa Union Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture said Africa need to industrialise but stop exporting its raw materials and promote sustainable production and consumption.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (PAMACC News) - The Sixth Conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA–VI) has kicked off in Addis Ababa Ethiopia, with climate experts, government representatives and civil society organisations examining how implementation of the Paris Agreement will impact the continent.

The agreement is an accord within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), seeking for reduction of emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, adaptation and mitigation of the impact of climate change, and financing of those activities.

 “The Paris Agreement heralds bold steps towards de-carbonizing the global economy and reducing dependency on fossil fuels,” said James Murombedzi, the Officer in Charge at the Africa Climate Policy Centre (ACPC).

However, added Murombedzi, “There are contentious nuances of the agreement that must be unpacked in the context of Africa’s development priorities, particularly in regard to the means of implementation which were binding provisions of the Kyoto Protocol and currently only non-binding decisions in the Paris Agreement.”

The Paris Agreement on climate change is set to come into effect before the end of the year, with over 80 countries already having ratified the pact, which aims at limiting the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue more ambitious efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels in this century.

For one week, the participants in the Addis Ababa conference will be reviewing the accord so as to provide a contextual analysis of what was at stake for Africa and what the Agreement offers, prior to COP22 in Marrakesh, Morocco 7-18 November 2016, thereby contributing to strategic orientation for African countries in moving forward with the implementation of the Agreement.

The basis of the Paris Agreement is the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) submitted by all parties in the lead up to COP21as their national contributions to limiting global greenhouse gas emissions. INDCs became Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) subsequent to COP21 in Paris.

The main theme of CCDA–VI, organized under the auspices of the Climate for Development in Africa (ClimDev-Africa) programme, is “The Paris Agreement on climate change: What next for Africa?”

The experts observed that mplementation of the agreement has significant implications for Africa as the continent that will be most severely impacted by the adverse impacts of weather variability and climate change.

It was further observed that the continent is already experiencing climate-induced impacts, such as frequent and prolonged droughts and floods, as well as environmental degradation that make livelihoods difficult for rural and urban communities.

Increasing migration on the continent is therefore both triggered and amplified by climate change.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (PAMACC News) -Kenya is among 15 African countries that have been commended for ratifying the Paris Agreement on climate change by representatives of over 1000 civil society organisations in Africa, ahead of the Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA) conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

In the same vein, Kenya's Cabinet last week approved the National Climate Change Policy Framework, which provides a roadmap for coordinated response to climate change and urban development. The framework has been submitted to Parliament for adoption.

The country is now among the 81 countries globally that have ratified the climate change agreement out of the 197 parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Speaking at the UN conference centre in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, James Murombedzi of the African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC) hailed Kenya for championing ambitious climate policies in the run-up to Paris and by spearheading the implementation process.

"Kenya has set an example that should be emulated by the remaining African countries to demonstrate their commitment to concrete actions. We commend Kenya's ratification as this is important to delivering the expected results," Murombedzi said.

Mithika Mwenda, the secretary general of Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) said Kenya's step now paves way for it to benefit from the money the civil society is pushing for.

"Kenya now stands to benefit from the $100 billion pledged by developed countries to developing ones and that even larger sums be leveraged from investors, banks and the private sector that can build towards the $7 trillion needed to support a world-wide transformation on climate change," Mwenda said.

Kenya has also enacted Climate Change Act, 2016 which provides a regulatory framework for enhanced response to achieve low carbon climate resilient development.

Other policy measures to achieve a green economy in Kenya are the National Climate Change Action Plan 2013-2017, Climate Change Response Strategy 2010 and Environmental Management and Coordination Act CAP 387.

Environment Cabinet Secretary (CS) noted Government has identified nine areas where urgent mitigation actions should be undertaken using the billions of shillings.

"Among the nine are restoration of forests and degraded lands, developing an additional 2,275 megawatts of geothermal energy, restoration of degraded forests, encouraging Kenyans to use improved cookstoves and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and agroforestry," she said.

Others include bus rapid transit and light rail corridors, develop greenhouse gas inventory and improvement of emissions data, measuring, reporting on and monitoring forestry emissions and sinks and mainstreaming of low-carbon development options into planning processes.

"To achieve the above, Government needs to undertake a programme of work to restore forests on 960,000 hectares up to 2030 including dryland forest restoration activities, developing, testing and application of compensation and benefits-sharing mechanisms and develop an additional 2,275 MW of geothermal capacity by 2030 through a support programme aimed at encouraging private sector investment," Wakhungu said.

The country also needs to undertake a programme of work to replant forests on 240,000 hectares of land that were previously forests, increase awareness of improved cooking practices, undertaking pilot initiatives which promote the use of LPG, increasing awareness of stove quality, increasing access to soft loans, building capacity of stove producers, and improving access to testing facilities.

She said the country needs to convert 281,000 hectares of existing arable cropland and grazing land that have medium or high agricultural potential to agroforestry and implement an extensive mass transit system for greater Nairobi, based predominantly on bus rapid transit corridors complemented by a few Light Rail Transit corridors as other mitigation measures.

Others include developing a national forest inventory, forest reference scenario, and a monitoring and reporting system that allows for transparent accounting of emissions and removals in the forestry and land-use sectors.

Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of UNFCCC also congratulated countries that have ratified the agreement.
"This is a truly historic moment for people everywhere. The two key thresholds needed for the Paris Climate Change Agreement to become legal reality have now been met," she said.

She added, "The speed at which countries have made the Paris Agreement's entry into force possible is unprecedented in recent experience of international agreements and is a powerful confirmation of the importance nations attach to combating climate change and realizing the multitude of opportunities inherent in the Paris Agreement.

Under the Paris Agreement, governments are obligated to take action to achieve the temperature goals enshrined in the Agreement – keeping the average global temperature rise from pre-industrial times below 2 degrees C and pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees.

The CCDA conference is an annual event by the Climate for Development in Africa (ClimDev-Africa) Programme and a joint initiative of the African Union Commission (AUC), the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the African Development Bank (AfDB).
Africa is using the conference to forge a common ground ahead of the UN climate conference, known as COP22, in Marrakesh, Morocco next month.