NAIROBI, Kenya (PAMACC News) - The U.S. President Donald Trump has finally made good his threat to withdraw his country from the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, in a move that has been condemned by leaders and personalities from all over the world including USA.

During his campaign for U.S. presidency, Trump vowed to put ‘America first.’ But his decision to withdraw from an international agreement that has been signed by 194 and ratified by 147 countries has left America walking on a lonely path alongside Syria and Nicaragua.

"Donald Trump has made a historic mistake which our grandchildren will look back on with stunned dismay," Thomson Reuters Foundation quoted Michael Brune, the Executive Director, Sierra Club.

In a statement released by Climate Justice Info, civil society representatives and social movement leaders from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the United States vowed to build people power to address the climate crisis despite Trump’s decision.

"Climate change is not waiting for U.S. action and neither can the rest of the world,” said Ben Schreiber of the Friends of the Earth USA.

“Trump has turned the U.S. into a rogue climate state and the world should use economic and diplomatic pressure to compel the U.S. to do its fair share,” said Schreiber adding that the majority of Americans do not support the president and his fossil fuel agenda that puts corporate profits above people.

Sreedhar Ramamurthi of the Environics India pointed out that it is because of the historic U.S. pollution, that the world is already suffering the consequences of a rapidly warming world with droughts, fires, and floods wreaking havoc with livelihoods and lives, even displacing whole communities.

“Trump wants to add to that historic pollution and condemn present and future generations in the global south to further suffering and death. We cannot allow this, there must be forceful political, legal, and economic consequences levied against the U.S. Trump must realise that in the case of climate, nature has the trump card and not him and his cronies," said Ramamurthi.

Rachel Smolker of the BiofuelWatch USA also expressed her disappointment in Trump’s decision.  "I am ashamed of my country's persistent role in undermining efforts to create a strong and binding agreement, now culminating in Trump's withdrawal from the Paris Agreement,” she said.

“Here in the U.S. climate justice activists are scrambling hard to find a path forward from within.  We hope our allies will let their voices be heard at U.S. embassies - to both isolate Donald Trump and his ilk - and apply pressure on the U.S. to step up and take responsibility for real and equitable solutions to the escalating climate catastrophe," added Smolker.

In a statement to the media, Trump’s announcement was also highly regretted by the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The UNFCCC Secretariat also noted the announced intention to renegotiate the modalities for the US participation in the agreement. In that regard, the secretariat said it was ready to engage in dialogue with the United States government regarding the implications of the announcement.

However, according to the Secretariat, the Paris Agreement remains a historic treaty signed by 194 and ratified by 147 counties and cannot be renegotiated based on the request of a single Party.

According to Mithika Mwenda, the Secretary General for the Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA),  the people power and international solidarity are the only hope for averting an unimaginable climate crisis which will fan the flames of every existing inequality and injustice.

“It will take all of us around the world, organising together, to hold the historic emitters like the U.S. under the watch of Donald Trump to account and ensure our governments also do their fair share of climate action in the next four years to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees. Trump's decision doesn't change that," said Mwenda.

The Paris Agreement is an accord within the UNFCCC dealing with greenhouse gas emissions mitigation, adaptation and finance starting in the year 2020.

The Agreement is aimed at reducing risk to economies and lives everywhere, while building the foundation for a more prosperous, secure and sustainable world. It enjoys profound credibility, as it was forged by all nations and is supported by a growing wave of business, investors, cities, states, regions and citizens.

BONN, Germany (PAMACC News) - Environment experts have called for a strong public/private partnership to finance agro-forestry and fight against climate change.

During the  SBSTA 46 climate conference in Bonn, Germany, experts from World Agroforstry  Centre, (ICRAF), Oro verde –Tropical Forestry Foundation and Global Nature Fund (GNF), tapped into  different Agro-forestry success cases to showcase potential  pathways to drive the fight against climate change.

The discussions were held under the theme “High impact public-private climate finance” with case studies from Africa and Latin America.

According to Dr Peter Minang of ICRAF, Agroforests and agroforestry can be direct targets of Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) programs, or indirect parts of the necessary conditions for success.

“Whether or not agro-forestry becomes a core element of REDD+ depends on the country’s forest definition. Where carbon stocks in agroforestry cannot be directly targeted in REDD+, agroforestry still can be included in REDD+ strategies, as ways to shift demand for land and provide alternative sources of products otherwise derived from forest over-exploitation or conversion, thereby avoiding leakage from forest protection efforts,” Minang pointed out .

Financing Agro-forestry in the fight against climate change experts say has become imperative and can take the form of supporting capacity building to increase the number of investible projects, leveraging smallholder farmers who are key private investors ,analyse risk reduction potential for environment and social improvement and establishing a monitoring system.

“Agro-forestry is a climate-smart process that requires adequate attention and financial support,” said Dr Lalisa Duguma, scientist at the World Agro-forestry Centre and ASB Partnership.

Agro-forestry he said helps in agriculture adaptation and resilience building, restoring the soil and enhancing crop production.

However, Torsten Klimper of the German Tropical Forest Foundation OroVerde cautioned that funding biodiversity projects requires respect for the laws regulating biodiversity.

“There is need for investors to ensure total respect of the laws regulating biodiversity,” he cautioned.

According to experts, ecological farming encompasses a wide range of modern crop and livestock management systems that seek to increase yields and incomes, and maximise the sustainable use of local natural resources while minimising the need for external inputs.
Ecological farming ensures healthy farming and healthy food for today and tomorrow, by protecting soil, water and climate. It promotes biodiversity, and does not contaminate the environment with chemical inputs or genetically engineered plant varieties

This involves Agro-forestry that focuses on the wide range of work with trees grown on farms and in rural landscapes. Among these are fertiliser trees for land regeneration, soil health and food security, fruit trees for nutrition, fodder trees that improve smallholder livestock production, timber and fuelwood trees for shelter and energy, medicinal trees to combat disease, and trees that produce gums, resins or latex products. Many of these trees are multipurpose, providing a range of social, economic and environmental benefits, the experts explained.

In anticipation of the reviewing of NDC’s in 2018 experts recommended the inclusion and mainstreaming of Agro-forestry in the various national climate change agenda.

Dr Minang called for creating mechanisms to reward Agro-forestry practitioners for the environmental services they provide, such as carbon sequestration, water quality improvements, and biodiversity protection. He emphasized the need to ensure that mitigation activities in Africa also enhance adaptation.

The World Agro-forestry Centre (ICRAF) is a centre of scientific excellence possessing the world’s largest repository of agro-forestry science and information. Their vision accordingly is ensuring equitable world where all people have viable livelihoods supported by healthy and productive landscapes. The Centre according to ICRAF generates science-based knowledge about the diverse roles that trees play in agricultural landscapes, and uses its research to advance policies and practices, and their implementation that benefit the poor and the environment.

BONN, Germany (PAMACC News) - Civil society organisations at the ongoing Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) conference in Bonn have called on the UNFCCC to kick out representatives of big oil, gas and coal corporate organisations from the climate negotiation room, citing conflict of interest.

Article 12 of the Paris Agreement explicitly allows public participation in the climate policy making process, thus inviting everybody on board, including representatives of major fossil fuel corporations.

But now, civil society groups say that this is likely going to derail the entire process. “There will be no progress with involvement of the industry, because such players are profit oriented,” said Jesse Bragg, the spokesperson of the Corporate Accountability International.

On 12th May 2007, the UNFCCC released a report based on one of the sessions during the conference, where participants had expressed concerns about involvement of such multibillion dollar corporate groups, arguing that they were likely going to use their financial capabilities to influence global policies on climate change.

According to the report published on the UNFCCC website, some participants stressed that enhancing the engagement of non-Party stakeholders must not undermine the legitimacy and integrity of the UNFCCC process.

To that end, one group proposed that the UNFCCC process should adopt a definition of conflict of interest in the same manner it was adopted by the World Health Organization (WHO) in to safeguard public health policy formulation especially when it involves issues to do with tobacco.

According to Article 5.3 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, such actors with conflicts of interest have been locked out completely due to similar reasons cited by climate lobby groups.

The WHO Article states; “In setting and implementing their public health policies with respect to tobacco control, Parties shall act to protect these policies from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry in accordance with national law.

“This is the kind of protection we are looking for, when we are talking about climate change,” said Kathleen Roof also of Corporate Accountability International, noting that some of the biggest fossil fuel corporations knew more than 20 years ago that social and environmental devastation would follow in their footsteps, but they sought to deepen their pockets at any and every cost.

The same view is held by the umbrella of African civil society organisations on climate change, otherwise known as the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA).

“By all means, we must have all fossil fuel corporate organisations off the climate negotiation table because they have always been an impediment to the process,” said Mithika Mwenda, PACJA Secretary General.

“We have seen them influence the Presidency of the United States of America, and given their money power, they will definitely bribe their way to ensure that their interests are taken good care of, despite the impact such decisions may cause to the environment,” said Mithika.

According to Corporate Accountability International, such business organisations are already represented at the UNFCCC through different accredited groups.

However, according to Sam Ogallah, also of PACJA, these groups are already recognized under the Paris Agreement, and that cannot be changed. To that effect, it means that civil society groups will need to employ innovative tactics to bar them from influencing the process.

BONN, Germany (PAMACC News) - The Bonn climate talks entered high gear amid growing speculations about the present and future outcome of the Paris Agreement.

At a side event organised by civil society organisations on May 9th, participants expressed fears at declarations made by the Donald Trump administration, including no funding for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Green Climate Fund, Clean Technology Fund and the Strategic Climate Fund, calling for immediate review of the Clean Power Plan and reversing several of Barack Obama’s moratoriums on climate change.

They said such declarations will have a direct impact on addressing climate change globally and especially in the US.

“The slash of funding will have a direct impact on the implementation of climate action plans or Nationally Determined Contributions, much of which is conditional on the support of developed countries,” said Augustine Njamnshi of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance, PACJA during presentation of a study on Renewable Energy Initiative for Africa.

Africa’s dream to fight against poverty with the renewable energy initiative launched at COP21 Paris he said risk being frustrated by Donald Trumps administration, participants noted, calling on other developed countries to come to Africa’s rescue.

“Considering the developments in the US, developed countries must step forward and fill up or compensate for the US. Developed countries would need to mount pressure on developing ones to undertake necessary steps to address the issue,” he said.
It should be recalled that the Africa Renewable Energy Initiative is aimed towards the implementation of 10 GW of new and additional energy generation capacity by 2020 and at least 300 GW by 2030.

This ambitious efforts experts say could pave the way forward for a low carbon development pathway for all African countries.
Thus the need to fight against any obstacle towards Africa’s lofty energy provision plans.
Participants stressed that the principles of equity and differentiated responsibility are not open to negotiations or reinterpretations and that there should be no backtracking on climate commitments.

However, considering the nature of climate negotiations and the behaviour of developed countries reflected in their extreme reluctance to increase their climate ambitions or the support to developing countries, they expressed the need for the negotiations in Bonn to take a more open and transparent twist.

Negotiations, over the years, have also pointed out the fact that issues critical to developing countries, including means of support, adaptation, loss and damage and agriculture will suffer huge setback as the focus of the developed countries is more mitigation-centric.
Such concerns were reflected by developing countries represented by G-77 and China, LMDC, Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Arab Group, Alliance of Small and Island States (AOSIS) and BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) group in the opening plenary, calling on the negotiators to seek balance between different elements of the Paris Agreement