The World Bank says an investment of over two billion dollars is required to fully develop and modernise Africa’s hydromet services.
World Bank Senior Director, Ede Jorge Ijjasz-Vasquez said more partners are required to upscale the resource envelop from the initial US $600 million that the bank committed last year.
“Without strong hydromet services, Africa’s developmental gains will be in jeopardy as millions of people could fall back into poverty reversing economic gains that Africa has made over the past years,” Ijjasz-Vasquez told delegates at a side event during the on-going COP 22 in Marrakech, Morocco.
While thanking new partners such as the United Nations Development Programme, World Food Programme and Agence Francaise Development,Ijjasz-Vasquez urged for more partnerships adding that “two billion dollars plus is required to improve hydromet services in Africa.”
At COP 21, the World Bank in partnership with the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the World Meteorological Organization announced a US $600 million programme to improve hydro-meteorological services in 15 West African countries.
The programme, Strengthening Climate Change and Disaster Resilience in Sub-Saharan Africa, aims at improving meteorological services through infrastructure and capacity building in latest meteorological technologies for a reliable and timely capture and transmission of meteorological information to the public.
And speaking earlier, Africa Development Bank (AfDB) Coordinator for Clim-Dev Special Fund, Justus Kabyemera said it was sad that Africa is losing colossal sums of money to cope with disasters that could be avoided if strong hydromet services were in place.
“Many of you will recall the recent drought in Southern Africa. Its impact has been catastrophic, affecting food security, livelihoods and entire economies and causing serious disruption to the regional development agenda,” said Kabyemera adding that an estimated 32 million people will be food insecure between June 2016 and March 2017 including 18.6 million people who will require humanitarian assistance, with an estimated cost of US $ 1.2 billion to respond.
The major weakness noted in Africa lies mainly in the national and regional Hydromet systems, which lacks capacity to collect and deliver timely prior information or alerts that could assist preparedness and contingency planning to address negative impacts.
It is for this reason that through the Hydromet programme, the World Meteorological Organisation has prioritised the development of national strategies on hydromet and link them to National Adaptation Plans (NAPs).
“As a major step to mainstream climate information services, WMO is working to help facilitate the development of national strategies on hydromet and this will be linked to the bigger adaptation picture—the National Adaptation Processes (NAPs),” said Elena Manaenkova, Deputy Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).
And in shading some light on the gravity of in-country challenges, Zambian Minister of Water Development, Sanitation and Environmental Protection Lloyd Mulenga Kaziya lamented the dwindling climate information services and called for urgent support from cooperating partners to address the information gap especially for the rural poor.
“Zambia is deeply affected, in the past five years, our rivers have been drying up while the frequency of droughts has increased affecting our smallholder farmers in terms of production, and to make matters worse, information flow to the affected communities is not readily available,” said Kaziya adding that the southern African country requires urgent support to upgrade hydromet systems and integrate them in all key sectors such as Mining, Energy and Agriculture.
COP 22 has been dubbed the implementation conference and the African Group of Negotiators (AGN) is not leaving anything to chance. It has been pushing for the adaptation agenda to ensure that the continent benefits through an increased allocation of resources to adaptation and not mitigation.
Under the auspices of the African Ministerial Conference on Environment (AMCEN), the African Adaptation Initiative was launched at COP 21, with the aim of coordinating the continent’s adaptation activities including at the UNFCCC negotiating table.
“The hydromet programme comes at an opportune time when there is political capital as expressed by our leaders at the highest level, and it is important to advantage of this political will by coordinating hydromet and the Africa Adaptation Initiative to avoid duplication of activities,” said Kulthoum Omari, Chair, AGN, Africa Adaptation Initiative.
Hydromet services are key to strengthening resilience to climate change by providing early warning services especially for rural poor whose livelihoods are largely dependent on natural resource based activities such as agriculture.
MARRAKECH, Morocco (PAMACC News) - Experts at the ongoing climate talks in Marrakech have advocated the development and adoption of a policy and strategic framework that support expansion and mainstreaming of sustainable tourism certification in Africa.
Speaking at a side event in the Africa pavilion on the second day of the COP22 climate conference, water and tourism experts were unanimous in their view that African states should encourage and incentivise green certification of tourism, specifically in relation to monitoring and reducing water and waste.
This, according to them, will set the stage for existing African and International certification programs to have adequate criteria, and established processes and systems for working with the hotel sector to assess and monitor their waste and water management systems.
In addition to other environmental, social and socio-economic components of sustainable tourism, the framework will provide a mechanism to recognise that certification standards use a common and comprehensive approach to sustainability as well as summarise existing monitoring data being gathered by national tourism authorities and international/regional certification bodies specifically relating to the accommodation sector in Africa.
According to Dr. Anna Spenceley, a consultant with the African Development Bank (AfDB), African states can integrate sustainability criteria into their hotel quality-rating programs as a way of supporting Sustainable Development Goal 12 which places emphasis on responsible consumption and production, and also contribute to the objectives of the 10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Tourism.
Jean Michel Ossete, the Coordinator of the African Water Facility, jointly sponsored by the AfDB and the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW) believes that the AfDB could support member states to raise awareness on the benefits of sustainable tourism certification in Africa particularly those with currently low levels of certification,improve linkages between established certification programs and member states, where there the program is aligned with the country’s objectives, and providing guidance on the design and implementation of incentives to promote improved waste and water management.
Recognising that sustainable tourism certification provides an independent mechanism for evaluating and measuring water and waste management in African hotels, Oseloka Zikora of the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW) advocated support for the development of national waste and water management capacity, to ensure that countries are able and willing to establish and enabling policy framework for good practices, and that hotels can implement them.
“This should be done by providing technical advice and mentoring to governments on how they can promote better water and waste management and certification in the hotel sector through congruent policies, including through incentives, commissioning and sharing research findings on the financial and non-financial benefits of certification, and of good waste and water management practices, that provides clear quantification of the benefits that can be understood by decision makers,” Zikora added.
He further recommended the adoption of a train-the-trainers approach to making the outreach cost effective and locally relevant, as well as establish an online resource library containing tools on waste and water management, training guides and case study examples.
The experts also agreed on the need to develop external coordination and cooperation mechanisms to ensure good communication, linkages and compatible approaches.
Strategic partners identified for this include multi-laterals such as the United Nations World Tourism Organisation, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), bi-lateral organisations such as GiZ, and NGOs like the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, the Travel Foundation and International Tourism Partnership, and also networks such as the Sustainable Tourism Certification Alliance Africa.
Collectively, the African and international certification programs have certified at least 715 accommodation facilities in 19 African countries, against their environmental, social and economic criteria.
Though the total actual number of hotels in Africa is not known, Booking.com lists 20,844 hotels in 51 of Africa’s 52 countries. It therefore implies that the number of hotels that are monitoring their waste and water consumption, and taking efforts to improve their practices, are a tiny proportion of the number of accommodation facilities on the continent.
MARRAKECH, Morocco (PAMACC News) - Experts at the ongoing climate talks in Marrakech have advocated the development and adoption of a policy and strategic framework that support expansion and mainstreaming of sustainable tourism certification in Africa.
Speaking at a side event in the Africa pavilion on the second day of the COP22 climate conference, water and tourism experts were unanimous in their view that African states should encourage and incentivise green certification of tourism, specifically in relation to monitoring and reducing water and waste.
This, according to them, will set the stage for existing African and International certification programs to have adequate criteria, and established processes and systems for working with the hotel sector to assess and monitor their waste and water management systems.
In addition to other environmental, social and socio-economic components of sustainable tourism, the framework will provide a mechanism to recognise that certification standards use a common and comprehensive approach to sustainability as well as summarise existing monitoring data being gathered by national tourism authorities and international/regional certification bodies specifically relating to the accommodation sector in Africa.
According to Dr. Anna Spenceley, a consultant with the African Development Bank (AfDB), African states can integrate sustainability criteria into their hotel quality-rating programs as a way of supporting Sustainable Development Goal 12 which places emphasis on responsible consumption and production, and also contribute to the objectives of the 10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Tourism.
Jean Michel Ossete, the Coordinator of the African Water Facility, jointly sponsored by the AfDB and the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW) believes that the AfDB could support member states to raise awareness on the benefits of sustainable tourism certification in Africa particularly those with currently low levels of certification,improve linkages between established certification programs and member states, where there the program is aligned with the country’s objectives, and providing guidance on the design and implementation of incentives to promote improved waste and water management.
Recognising that sustainable tourism certification provides an independent mechanism for evaluating and measuring water and waste management in African hotels, Oseloka Zikora of the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW) advocated support for the development of national waste and water management capacity, to ensure that countries are able and willing to establish and enabling policy framework for good practices, and that hotels can implement them.
“This should be done by providing technical advice and mentoring to governments on how they can promote better water and waste management and certification in the hotel sector through congruent policies, including through incentives, commissioning and sharing research findings on the financial and non-financial benefits of certification, and of good waste and water management practices, that provides clear quantification of the benefits that can be understood by decision makers,” Zikora added.
He further recommended the adoption of a train-the-trainers approach to making the outreach cost effective and locally relevant, as well as establish an online resource library containing tools on waste and water management, training guides and case study examples.
The experts also agreed on the need to develop external coordination and cooperation mechanisms to ensure good communication, linkages and compatible approaches.
Strategic partners identified for this include multi-laterals such as the United Nations World Tourism Organisation, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), bi-lateral organisations such as GiZ, and NGOs like the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, the Travel Foundation and International Tourism Partnership, and also networks such as the Sustainable Tourism Certification Alliance Africa.
Collectively, the African and international certification programs have certified at least 715 accommodation facilities in 19 African countries, against their environmental, social and economic criteria.
Though the total actual number of hotels in Africa is not known, Booking.com lists 20,844 hotels in 51 of Africa’s 52 countries. It therefore implies that the number of hotels that are monitoring their waste and water consumption, and taking efforts to improve their practices, are a tiny proportion of the number of accommodation facilities on the continent.
A la salle 1 du pavillon Afrique de la COP 22 à Marrakech, il était question le mercredi 9 novembre 2016, de l’Initiative africaine pour les énergies renouvelables (IAER, en anglais : AREI). Ce plan de développement énergétique de l’Afrique, lancé il y a un an à Paris bénéficie d’un réel soutien des bailleurs de fonds, du secteur privé et de la société civile africaine.
Au COP21 en France, l’annonce de l’IAERavait peut-être fait quelques sceptiques. Mais au Maroc, l’adhésion africaine s’est faite sentir pour accompagner cet ambitieux projet vers l’installation d’une capacité énergétique renouvelable à grande échelle sur le continent africain d’ici 2020. Ce qui aurait un impact considérable sur la réduction des émissions de gaz à effet de serre du continent.
« C’est ce type d’initiative dont nous avons besoin », a réagi heureuxTosiMpanuMpanu, Président du groupe des Pays les moins avancés (PMA), dont l’Afrique compte 34 Etats sur les 42 membres. « C’est un projet qui apporte des solutions. Il permet de renforcer la coopération entre les pays. Il nous faut travailler la main dans la main pour sa réalisation. Ce plan doit mieux servir les PMA africains et identifier les besoins des autres PMA sur les autres continents », s’est-ilréjoui
Pour SokonaYouba, vice-président du Groupe d’experts intergouvernemental sur l’évolution du climat (Giec) et un des initiateurs de l’Initiative, l’IAER doit donner l’électricité à tous les africains, tout en combattant le changement climatique.
« Notre ambition est de produire 300 GW d’électricité en 2030. Ce n’est rien du tout. Car nous devons satisfaire le maximum de personnes », a-t-il avancé, appelant à une coopération intra-régionale sur les projets. « Tout type d’énergie renouvelable doit être promu. Nous devons mobiliser les capacités en Afrique, les renforcer là où il n’existe pas. Nous avons un calendrier à respecter », a prévenu Youba.
Début du financement
Pour accompagner ce vaste projet, un certain nombre d’engagements avait été pris dans la capitale française en décembre 2015 et commence à se traduire en acte. Le 6 novembre 2016, le gouvernement français et la Banque africaine de développement (BAD) ont signé à Abidjan, un accord d’un montant de 6 millions d’euros (7,8 millions de dollars) pour la mise en œuvre de l’IAER. Ces ressources doivent permettre de mettre sur pied l’Unité d’exécution de l’Initiative, que la BAD s’est proposée d’héberger.
Lors du panel du mercredi, le Directeur du département financier de la BAD,StéphaneNalletamby a confirmé l’engagement de l’institution à encadrer l’Initiative. « La BAD a désormais un département dédié aux énergies renouvelables et va accompagner la mise en œuvre des CPDN (Contributions déterminées au niveau national). La Banque soutient le projet de l’Initiative et nous y investirons 2 milliards de dollars entre 2017 et 2020 », a annoncé Nalletamby.
Il est à souligner qu’au moins 5 milliards de dollars des États-Unis de financement public ainsi que de financement à des taux préférentiels de sources bilatérales, multilatérales et autres, y compris le Fonds vert pour le climat, seront nécessaires entre 2016 et 2020 pour exercer un effet de levier sur 15 milliards de dollars pour d’autres investissements, pour un total d’au moins 20 milliards de dollars investis à l`horizon 2020.
Secteur privé et société civile : Une partition à jouer
Présents dans la salle 1 du Pavillon Afrique, le secteur privé et la société civile ont perçu les enjeux de s’approprier l’Initiative. Mais ils souhaitent y jouer un rôle majeur.
« D’abord, ce qui serait intéressant, c’est de regrouper les acteurs du secteur privé, qui sont pour beaucoup des commerçants. Ensuite, il va falloir que le secteur privé soit à l’endroit où les décisions sont prises en termes d’orientation. Ce ne sont pas de bons samaritains, ils viennent se faire de l’argent. Enfin, nous avons besoin d’encadrement, de renforcement de capacités », a indiqué Fatima Dia, chargé du secteur privé au Conseil patronal du Sénégal.
Un plaidoyer dans lequel s’est inscrit Kouamé Kondo, membre de la l’organisation Amis de la terre Afrique : « Le projet donne espoir, avec l’engagement des chefs d’Etats. Cependant, la participation de la société civile doit être effective. Elle doit faire partie du Conseil d’administration de l’Initiative afin de représenter les populations, Il est important qu’on y mette l’accent ».
En réponse à ces différents acteurs du continent, le vice-président du GIECleur a lancé un appel. « Faites parties du succès, de ce rêve. Ce n’est pas une question de bavardage. Une autre table ronde des ministres est prévue pour voir la faisabilité du projet et nous pensons qu’ils vont faire avancer les choses. Alors, même si vous (société civile et secteur privé)ne faites pas partie du Conseil d’administration, accompagnezle projet », a plaidé Dr Youba.
