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) - 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.
The African Development Bank, (AfDB) has unveiled a new action plan for 2016-2020 in pursuant to its ambitious vision to accelerate the continent’s economic transformation and the fight against climate change.
“We need to build technical skills so that African economies can realize their full potential for adaptation in high-technology sectors,” said Kapil Kapoor, acting vice president, sector operation at the African Development Bank, during the official opening of the 6th Conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa, CCDA-VI, October 18,2016 in Addis Ababa- Ethiopia.
Under the new plan the African Development Bank will nearly triple its annual climate financing to reach 5 billion a year by 2020.
The Bank, said the vice president, has taken some initiatives geared at pursuing and driving growth in agriculture, which will complement investment actions and commitments of African countries as expressed in their National Determined Contributions, NDCs.
Citing some of the investment support initiatives, AfDB officials pointed at climate and disaster resilience programmes in many drought stricken African countries. For example the drought resilience projects in Djibouti, Ethopia and Kenya and the horn of Africa that received some 125 million US dollars. A similar project worth 231 million dollars was supported in the Sahel to control drought.
Only recently the Bank approved over 500 million US dollars to support the fight against the effects of El-Nino that hit many parts of Eastern and Southern Africa.
Officials believe the supported projects are already yielding encouraging results.
“Through many projects now financed by the Bank, environmental protection and climate mitigation and adaptation activities are mainstreaming into national development plans,” said Kapil.
The Bank also revealed it was working through partnerships with other Banks and insurance providers across Africa to bring greater access to insurance and risk financing in order to leverage lending for agriculture to the tune of I billion US dollars.
Experts however say Africa needs the right climate infrastructure to win the confidence of insurance service providers
“We understand that this cannot happen unless insurance and finance providers have access to reliable and quality climate and weather information that allows them to calibrate their risk models and design appropriate insurance package for agriculture,” Kabil Kapoor said.
Development experts called on African countries to review and revise the INDCs with a view of addressing the different challenges including that of infrastructure.
“There is urgent need for African countries to review and revise their NDC’s to meet the challenges of the Paris agreement,” said Dr Abdalla Hamdoc, deputy executive secretary and chief economist of UNECA.
According to officials on the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, UNECA, increasing levels of ambitions where appropriate will not be easy for many African countries given the complexities of ensuring adequate and reliable data, mainstreaming climate change into national development imperatives, ensuring coherence between climate change goals and the various sectoral goals and ensuring adequate funds for the process.
The sixth CCDA accordingly has been convened under the theme “The Paris Agreement on climate change, what next for Africa?”
The conference officials say, is built on the fifth conference on climate change and development in Africa, which was held in the lead-up to the twenty-first session of the conference of parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, COP21.
The sixth CCDA conference accordingly examines the implication of the Paris Agreement on Africa’s future economic growth and sustainable development agenda.
