The Subsidiary Bodies (SBs) are an integral part of the Bonn Climate Change Conference. They consist of two bodies: the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) and the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA). These bodies support the work of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The SBs take place every year, in many cases during the month of June, and they always happen at the World Conference Centre in Bonn, Germany. Whatever is passed during the Bonn conference, forms the agenda for the next Conference of Parties (COP), usually held between the months of November and December, and it rotates every year from one part of the world to another.
Here are five facts you need to know:
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The SBs meet twice a year: during the Bonn Climate Change Conference and COP
They discuss and negotiate various aspects of climate change mitigation, adaptation, finance, capacity-building, technology transfer, and now, loss and damage. The meetings typically take place in June and November/December. The SBs work separately, but have joint agendas as they cooperate on cross-cutting issues within the areas of competence of both bodies.
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The SBI focuses on the implementation of climate policies and actions
Its meetings include discussions on mitigation, adaptation, reporting and review processes, as well as on financial mechanisms and capacity-building initiatives. The SBI meeting plays a crucial role in enhancing transparency and accountability in the global climate change response.
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The SBSTA provides scientific and technological advice for implementing the Paris Agreement and other climate policy processes
It assesses the latest scientific findings, technological advancements and transfer, as well as methodologies and guidelines relevant to climate change mitigation and adaptation. It also fosters inter-institutional collaboration in the field of research and systematic observation of the climate system.
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The SBs play a vital role in preparing the agenda and decisions for the annual Conference of the Parties (COP)
COP is the highest decision-making body under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The SBs provide technical expertise and recommendations that shape the negotiations and outcomes of COP. The SBs also inform the CMA (Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement) and the CMP (Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol). The CMA oversees the implementation of the Paris Agreement and takes decisions to promote its effective implementation, whereas the CMP does this for the Kyoto Protocol.
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The Bonn Climate Change Conference serves as a platform to advance the global climate agenda
It is a meeting point for governments, civil society organizations, scientists, and other stakeholders to come together. The Conference provides opportunities for dialogue, knowledge sharing, capacity-building and consensus-building among parties involved in the UNFCCC process.
BONN, Germany (PAMACC News) - The Climate Change envoy to the President of Kenya has asked Kenya’s and by extension Africa’s negotiators at the ongoing climate conference in Bonn, Germany not to put much emphasis on financing of the Loss and Damage kitty, but instead calls for fairness and equity.
“Loss and damage remains an important issue, we hope it will be operationalised in Dubai, but whatever amount that may go to the kitty, will not take us anywhere as a global community,” Ali Mohamed, who advises the President on matters climate change told the Kenya’s delegation in Bonn, shortly after President William Ruto demanded that COP-28 be the last round of global negotiations on climate change.
The Loss and Damage funding is an agreement reached upon during the 27th round of climate negotiations in Egypt to support vulnerable countries hit hard by climate disasters that include cyclones, floods, severe droughts, landslides, heat waves among others.
During the opening ceremony of the UN Habitat Assembly in Nairobi, President Ruto said that it is possible to stop the conversation and the negotiation between North and the South because “climate change is not a North/South problem, it is not about fossil fuel verses green energy problem, it is a problem that we can sort out all of us if we came together,” said Ruto, the current Chair of the Committee of African Heads of State and Government on Climate Change (CAHOSCC).
According to Ruto, it is possible (for African negotiators) to agree on a framework that will bring everybody on board for the continent to go to COP28 with a clear mind on what should be done, and how Africa and the global South can work with the global North, not as adversaries, but as partners to resolve the climate crisis and present an opportunity to have a win-win outcome that has no finger pointing.
In Bonn, Mohamed, who is also the formwe Permanent Secretary (PS) for the Ministry of Environment and Forestry told the Kenya’s negotiators that as Africans, there is need to raise voices and call for a new global architecture and a new way of doing things.
He gave an example of the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) during the period of COVID-19, where Europe, which has a population of 500 million people, received over 40 percent, while the entire African continent with a population of 1.2 billion people received a paltry five percent of the total funds.
“This kind of unfairness is what President Ruto wants to take forward and say it is no longer tenable in the new world order,” said Mohamed, who is vying to become the next Chair of the Africa Group of Negotiators (AGN) for the next three years.
The SDR is an interest-bearing international reserve asset that supplements other reserve assets of member countries. Rather than a currency, it is a claim on the freely useable currencies of International Monetary Fund (IMF) members.
He also gave an example of Berlin wall, which fell in 1989, and suddenly in just six months, a new financial architecture was formed for Europe.
He pointed out that since the ratification of the Paris Agreement, the world has been meeting every year to talk about the $100 billion which developed countries committed to collectively mobilise per year by 2020 for climate action in developing countries, in the context of meaningful mitigation actions and transparency on implementation, but the funds have remained a mirage.
“What Africa is pushing for is investment through available, accessible and adequate financing at affordable costs. We borrow at an interest of 15 percent, on a currency that is not ours, while other countries in the North borrow at 2 percent,” said Mohamed.
The AGN Chair Mr. Ephraim Mwepya Shitima declined to comment on Kenya’s new position saying that it was beyond his powers to do so. “I am not in a position to comment on whatever has been said by a member of the CAHOSCC,” he told IPS in Bonn.
However, during the opening plenary, Shitima called on developed countries to deliver to restore trust in the UNFCCC process. “The Green Climate Fund replenishment is in October and this is an opportunity for developed countries to show the world that they are willing to do their part- to address climate change and support climate action in developing countries,” he told global delegates in Bonn.
He also welcomed the work programme on just transitions pathways. “We are of the view that it will advance the implementation of climate action and strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change in the context of sustainable development. The Subsidiary conference here should agree on the work programme's elements, scope, and modalities to be adopted at COP28,” he said.
The Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) conference which is going down in Bonn is the link between the scientific information provided by expert sources such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on the one hand, and the policy-oriented needs of the COP on the other hand. The outcome is therefore used to set the agenda for the subsequent COP based on scientific evidence.
BONN, Germany (PAMACC News) - African civil society organisations attending the ongoing climate change conference in Bonn, Germany have called on developed countries to demonstrate leadership and courage in tackling the climate crisis that threatens the common future of humanity and the entire ecosystem.
Led by the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), the activists drawn from different organisations from across Africa reminded the Parties to the UNFCCC of their moral and legal obligations to protect the planet and its people from the existential threat of global warming.
“Africa is at the frontline of climate crisis. We are experiencing the worst effects of a problem that we did not create. Our communities are facing severe water scarcity, crop failures, malnutrition, diseases, displacement, conflicts, heat waves and loss of lives due to climate change. Our natural resources and ecosystems are under immense pressure from climate change and other human activities,” said Dr Mithika Mwenda, the Executive Director – PACJA.
“We are not here to ask for charity or sympathy,” he told delegates during the first civil society briefing in Bonn. “It is far from that, we are here to demand justice and equity; to demand that the Parties, especially from the North, should stop procrastination; to call on them to listen to the voices of the people, especially those who are most vulnerable and marginalized, and to act following the best available science and the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities,” said Mwenda.
Below are the demands as articulated by the team in Bonn:
- That all Parties cooperate in good faith and in a spirit of solidarity to reach credible progress in the conference. The time for delay and excuses is over. The world is watching and expecting concrete results, and we cannot afford to fail.
- That big polluters increase their mitigation ambition and announce enhanced nationally determined contributions (NDCs) that are consistent with the 1.5°C goal of the Paris Agreement and reflect their fair share of the global effort. The current NDCs are insufficient to close the emissions gap and put the world on a safe, ecologically-just and sustainable pathway. This requires Developed country Parties demonstrate leadership and responsibility by reducing their emissions at source and in providing adequate support to developing countries for their mitigation actions. These countries have a historical and moral obligation to assist developing countries in their transition to low- carbon development and to compensate them for the loss and damage caused by climate change.
- That developed countries take urgent and concrete actions to increase their needs –based adaptation finance for Africa. We urge them to commit to a clear and transparent roadmap for scaling up their support and to ensure that at least 50% of the climate finance provided by developed countries is allocated to adaptation and inform of grants. We stress that this is a matter of justice and equity, as Africa is the most vulnerable region to the impacts of climate change, despite contributing the least to its causes. We also emphasize that adaptation finance is essential for enhancing the resilience and adaptive capacity of our communities, ecosystems and economies. We call on developed countries to deliver on their promises and to meet their obligations under the Paris Agreement and the UNFCCC. We expect them to report on their progress and achievements by the end of 2023, and to demonstrate their solidarity and partnership with Africa in addressing the climate crisis.
- The global goal for adaptation must receive the attention it deserves ; parties must be more decisive in fast-tracking negotiation on this agenda item. Time is running out yet there is so much to be done, since 2015, we have been going round in circles without a clear plan of action on this agenda. This is a make-or-break year for this agenda as time lapse for the work program on global goal for adaptation. We call for parties to clearly establish strong targets under the GGA framework that will enhance adaptation ambition, and at the same time ensure that a standing agenda item is established on the global goal for adaptation beyond the two-year Glasgow Sharm -El -Sheikh work program on global goal for adaptation which ends this year.
- That all parties work together to overhaul the climate finance architecture to ensure that it is transparent, accountable, accessible, and responsive to the needs and priorities of African communities. Specifically, we call for the following actions:
The developed countries must fulfil their commitment to providing at least $100 billion per year by 2020 for climate action in developing countries, and increase this amount significantly in the post-2020 period;
The Green Climate Fund must allocate at least 50% of its resources to adaptation projects and prioritize direct access and enhanced direct access modalities for African countries;
The Adaptation Fund must be replenished and sustained as a key instrument to support adaptation efforts of the most vulnerable countries under the Paris Agreement;
The Climate Technology Centre and Network must enhance its support for technology development and transfer in Africa, especially for locally appropriate and community-based solutions;
The Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage must operationalize its action and support functions and establish a finance facility, compete with a replenishment mechanism to address the irreversible impacts of climate change in Africa, latest at COP28.
Abidjan, 5 June 2023 - Individuals, communities, civil society, businesses and governments around the world today marked World Environment Day with a focus on solutions to plastic pollution, with official celebrations held in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, with the support of the Netherlands.
The focus on solutions to plastic pollution this World Environment Day is particularly timely, following the recent conclusion of a second round of negotiations on a global agreement to end plastic pollution in France.
2023 marks the 50th anniversary of World Environment Day, after it was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972. Over the past five decades, with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) at the helm, the day has grown to be one of the largest global platforms for environmental outreach. Tens of millions of people participate online and through in-person activities, events and actions around the world.
“Plastic is made from fossil fuels – the more plastic we produce, the more fossil fuel we burn, and the worse we make the climate crisis. But we have solutions,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in his World Environment Day message. “We must work as one – governments, companies, and consumers alike – to break our addiction to plastics, champion zero waste, and build a truly circular economy.”
Speaking at the official event at Espace Latrille Events Deux Plateaux in Abidjan, Mr. Jean-Luc Assi, Côte d’Ivoire’s Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, said: “Côte d'Ivoire issued a decree in 2013 banning the production, import and marketing, possession and use of plastic bags. It has supported businesses in switching to reusable and biodegradable packaging. The country's largest city, Abidjan, has also become a hub for start-ups looking to beat plastic pollution. They are being encouraged. So let's all be aware of the need to combat plastic pollution. Let's act now and all say stop to plastic pollution.”
“World Environment Day helps to highlight the urgent challenges we currently face. Challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. Plastic pollution touches on all three of those challenges,” noted Vivianne Heijnen, Netherlands’ Minister for the Environment. “It’s crucial that we continue raising awareness, collecting best practices, and ensuring commitment from all stakeholders. I hope that this edition of World Environment Day will prove to be a landmark event in our collective fight to beat plastic pollution.”
Humanity produces over 430 million tonnes of plastic annually, two-thirds of which are short-lived products that soon become waste. While the social and economic costs of plastic pollution range between $US300 to US$600 billion per year.
According to a recent UNEP report, Turning off the Tap, plastic pollution could reduce by 80 per cent by 2040 if countries and companies make deep policy and market shifts using existing technologies.
“For the sake of the planet’s health, for the sake of our health, for the sake of our prosperity, we must end plastic pollution. This will take nothing less than a complete redesign of how we produce, use, recover and dispose of plastics and products that contain them,” said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of (UNEP). “How the world produces, consumes and disposes of plastic has created a disaster. But it is one we can end by turning off the tap on plastic pollution. On World Environment Day, I call on everybody to join the global movement. And help us beat plastic pollution, once and for all.”
At the second session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) on plastic pollution in Paris, France, the INC Chair was given the mandate to prepare a zero draft of an international, legally binding agreement on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment.
In February 2022, at the fifth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-5.2), a historic resolution (5/14) was adopted to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment with the ambition to complete the negotiations by end of 2024. The instrument is to be based on a comprehensive approach that addresses the full life cycle of plastic. The third session of the INC will take place in Nairobi, Kenya, in November 2023.
Action on plastic pollution
Across the world, in the lead up to, and on World Environment Day, the momentum for global action is clear. This World Environment Day Map showcases innovative, community-driven solutions to reduce plastic pollution. Hundreds of activities have been registered, from beach clean-ups in Mumbai to cloth-bag sewing workshops in Ghana and zero-plastic-waste live concerts in Atlanta.
The International Air Travel Agency and UNEP announced a Memorandum of Understanding, aligned with the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, to address sustainability challenges in the aviation industry. Reduction of problematic single use plastics products and improving the circularity in the use of plastics by the aviation industry is the initial focus of the partnership.
At a World Environment Day event at the International Association of Public Transport (UITP) Global Public Transport Summit, in Barcelona, Spain, UNEP and the UITP unveiled a Memorandum of Understanding to formalise their partnership, with a strong focus on environmental and sustainability awareness raising across public transport networks.
With the support of UNEP, Jyrgalan, a village in the Kyrgyz Republic, recently inaugurated its first waste collection facility; the facility aims to address the village’s growing waste challenges – brought on by increased tourism - through building capacity for small businesses and strengthening the role of women in decision-making.
In Panama, under the leadership of UNEP representatives of the Panamanian government, UN offices at the regional and national levels and civil society, including youth organizations, committed to reduce plastic waste both in their offices and their communities.
In Greece, thanks to training from the non-profit enterprise Enaleia, fishers from 42 ports have stopped littering and instead recover marine plastic with their nets. Co-founded by Lefteris Arapakis, a UNEP Young Champion of the Earth for Europe, Enaleia recently announced that it will now start working in Egypt and Spain and scale up its activity in Kenya and Italy.
The Kenya Plastics Pact released new industry guidelines on recyclability for plastic packaging. The guidelines aim to provide clear recommendations to decision-makers on how to design plastic packaging to be compatible with and future mechanical recycling infrastructure.
In New York, an art project made entirely of plastic waste will be launched at the World Trade Center. In India, screen stars and famous musicians have come together to create a music video and share messages to encourage more people to take action against plastic pollution. In Kazakhstan, local music group Great Steppe released a music video to mark the Day and highlight the environmental damage the Aral Sea is suffering, while a UN-supported sustainable fashion and art event in Almaty showcased pieces made from recycled materials.
Airports and transport networks around the world, from China and Indonesia to Chile and the United States, as well as billboards in Times Square and Piccadilly Circus broadcast World Environment Day messages, bringing awareness to millions of passengers and citizens of the importance of action to curb the menace of plastic pollution.
Hundreds of thousands of people participated in World Environment Day online, with the day’s hashtags #WorldEnvironmentDay and #BeatPlasticPollution trending at number one and two respectively on Twitter. More than 50,000 people downloaded UNEP’s Beat Plastic Pollution Practical Guide.
These events, actions and exhibits, taking place in community centres, schools, businesses and homes, illustrate how individuals and communities are important drivers of environmental action. They can spur governments, cities, financial institutions and industries to use their capacity to invest in and implement large-scale solutions to overcome and reverse the plastic pollution crisis.
BONN, Germany (PAMACC News) – This year’s Bonn Climate Change Conference (SB58) launches next Monday, 5 June, designed to prepare decisions for adoption at COP28 in the United Arab Emirates in December.
Building on the many mandates that emerged from COP27 in Egypt last year, the conference will convene the 58th session of the UNFCCC subsidiary bodies, including a large number of events, and continue discussions on issues of critical importance.
These issues include the global stocktake, the global goal on adaptation, the just transition to sustainable societies, the mitigation work programme and loss and damage, among others.
“For many people around the world, limiting warming of our planet to 1.5 degrees Celsius is a matter of survival. The global stocktake is the opportunity of a generation to correct the course we are on, to design a way forward to tackle climate change with fresh vigor and perspective,” said UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell.
The technical phase of the global stocktake will conclude at the Bonn Conference, and mark the start of the political phase which will work towards a strong outcome of the first stocktake at COP28.
Another key task at SB58 will be to prepare decisions at COP28 to operationalize the new loss and damage fund and funding arrangements, along with a decision on the host for the Santiago network on loss and damage.
Stiell added: “COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh marked the shift to implementation of the Paris Agreement, resulting in several important outcomes supporting this historic new phase. Parties know what is at stake, and each country now has to deliver.”
Several events will touch on climate finance, notably the provision of adequate and predictable financial support to developing countries for climate action, including the new collective quantified goal on climate finance. Other important issues will be increasing the transparency and accountability of climate action and minimizing the impacts that climate change is having on the agriculture and food security sectors.
Sameh Shoukry, President of last year’s COP27 in Egypt, said: “The Bonn Climate Conference is an opportune occasion to stock take the status of implementation of the outcomes and breakthroughs achieved in Sharm el-Sheikh. It also provides an opportunity to pave the way towards achieving remarkable progress at COP28 in the UAE later this year. This is most urgent given that the climate crisis is becoming the new reality and we are forced to deal with its consequences on a daily basis. Acknowledging this, we must seize every opportunity to renew our science-based collective resolve to adhere to the principles of the UN Framework Convention and the Paris Agreement in order to strengthen our response to ensure observing the Paris temperature goal, keeping the 1.5 degrees within reach, effectively adapting to a changing climate and sufficiently responding to the different forms of losses and damages.”
Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, COP28 President-Designate, said: “The upcoming Bonn sessions are critical for shaping meaningful, pragmatic, and impactful outcomes at COP28. As the incoming Presidency, we will ensure a fair, inclusive, and transparent presidency that provides space for all Parties to reach consensus across the whole agenda. That includes making climate finance more available, accessible, and affordable; doubling adaptation finance, operationalizing the loss and damage fund, tripling global renewable energy capacity by 2030; and putting young people, nature, and health at the heart of climate progress. We express our full support for the Subsidiary Body Chairs and call on all Parties to ensure we make as much progress as possible across all tracks. Our aim is to build on the results of SB58 to achieve a balanced and ambitious outcome in the UAE this December.”
Also in Bonn, the High-Level Champions for COP27 and COP28, Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin and Ms. Razan Al Mubarak, will continue to connect the work of governments with the many voluntary and collaborative climate actions taken by cities, regions, businesses and investors and discuss how to increase the accountability of such actions.
BONN, Germany, (PAMACC News) - As the African Group of Negotiators on Climate Change (AGN) Lead Coordinators convene in Bonn, Germany, to strategise ahead of the 58th session of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate (UNFCCC) Subsidiary Bodies (SB58) conference scheduled for the 5th to 15th June, 2023, the Global Stocktake and discussions on the modalities for establishment of the Loss and Damage Fund have dominated the agenda.
The global stocktake, as enshrined in Article 14 of the Paris Agreement (GST), is a process for taking stock of the implementation of the Paris Agreement with the aim to assess the world’s collective progress towards achieving the purpose of the agreement and its long-term goals.
The first stocktake got underway at the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow in November, 2021 and is expected to conclude at COP28. Each stocktake is a two-year process that happens every five years. Thus, as Parties prepare for the SB58 session and COP28 later in the year, all eyes are on the outcome of this process, which is critical to achieving the overarching goal of the Paris Agreement and the Convention.
The GST is currently in the technical phase. The political phase will be at COP28 where leaders will be expected to adopt the outcomes of the process.
Similarly, in view of the landmark COP27 decision on Loss and Damage, the discussions centred on the need for robust and flexible modalities for the operationalisation of the Loss and Damage Fund.
Speaking when he officially opened the meeting, AGN Chair, Ephraim Mwepya Shitima re-affirmed AGN’s call for the GST to be balanced, covering all thematic areas, and the need for robust and flexible modalities for the operationalisation of the Loss and Damage Fund.
"This is an important year for us; following key outcomes from COP27, and especially in the context of taking stock of where we are, we have a mammoth task to ensure we continue advancing Africa’s interests. We cannot afford to lose track of the GST, whose outcome, we have repeatedly said, must be comprehensive and balanced to facilitate progress across all the thematic areas, and respect the priority issues of all Parties and stakeholders. Our emerging position, which is still being discussed, is to ensure an equitable and just global transition to low emission and climate resilient world that allows African countries the policy space to achieve the SDGs in the immediate to medium-term (2030), using all its natural resources and endowment. Equally, operationalization of Loss and Damage Fund with flexible and robust modalities, is a key priority for the AGN as our leaders and the entire continent is banking on us to ensure that it is not short-changed," said Shitima.
Other key agenda items included; the continued push for Africa’s Special Needs and Special Circumstances; the need for scaled-up financial and technical support to implement Africa’s highly ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), in particular, adaptation finance through a call for grant-based financial resources for African countries and the need to reform the climate financial architecture; the need to expedite operationalization of the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA); Just Transition work programme; a call for ambitious mitigation efforts from developed country parties; the Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture and food security; and means of implementation.
Africa’s Special Needs and Special Circumstances
As mandated by the African Union through the Committee of African Heads of State on Climate Change (CAHOSCC) at the 36th African Union Summit held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in February, 2023, the AGN Lead Coordinators deliberated on, and agreed to take forward the agenda on Africa’s Special Needs and Special Circumstances—a continent which is the least contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions (less than 4%) and yet the most adversely impacted region, as reaffirmed by latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports.
According to the IPCC, Africa is already experiencing severe and widespread impacts of climate change, causing devastation to lives, livelihoods and the continent's development trajectory.
“At the 36th session of the Au Summit in February, 2023, the AU Heads of State Assembly gave guidance on a number of issues, including urging the AGN to continue collaborating with other stakeholders, including the COP28 Presidency on Africa’s special needs and special circumstances agenda. So, we will continue pursuing this agenda item as guided by our leaders in the interest of the continent’s development aspirations in relation to climate action,” Shitima said.
Climate Finance and reform of the financial architecture
The question on climate finance is as old as the climate negotiations. Still, the AGN team is determined to ensure this agenda item is given the prominence it deserves, particularly for developed countries to deliver on their climate finance pledges. The key ask is for developed countries to provide predictable and accessible funding for climate action on affordable and reasonable terms that do not further worsen the debt crisis that most developing countries are already dealing with.
Adaptation (GGA)
Adaptation to the impacts of climate change remains one of the key challenges that Africa is facing. Therefore, adaptation remains a key priority as people, infrastructure and ecosystems on the continent continue to experience climate shocks and economic distress.
The latest science by the IPCC reveals that Africa will need up to 86.5 billion USD for adaptation alone by 2030. In view of the foregoing, the AGN is seeking a clear and traceable delivery mechanism for the doubling of adaptation finance, a commitment made by developed countries in Glasgow in 2021, to avoid the mystery of the 100 billion USD per year, which has haunted negotiations since 2009.
Additionally, the weak outcome at COP27 on adaptation, largely due to developed countries’ unwillingness to take the matter seriously, has remained a concern to the AGN. The group is therefore seeking for seriousness on this matter and agreed to continue pushing for science-based indicators, targets and metrics within the agreed framework.
Mitigation
Notwithstanding the concentration on adaptation, the AGN’s call on developed countries to take their leadership role in climate action seriously by urgently scaling up mitigation ambition and implementation during this critical decade, to keep the 1.5-degree Celsius temperature goal alive. The group’s emphasis is also on the importance of support to implement conditional components of African countries and other developing countries' NDCs to enable them effectively contribute, as well as the call for countries to increase the share of renewable and low emission energy sources in their energy mix and scale-up renewable energy investments in particular to address the energy access challenges of many countries in Africa.
Just Transitions
In deliberating on Africa’s special needs and circumstances, the AGN Lead Coordinators also spotlighted the continent’s energy poverty, with latest statistics showing over 600 million people having no access to electricity and 900 million people with no access to clean cooking.
This is in addition to other development challenges that Africa faces requiring the continent to fully exploit its natural resources. With a heightened global campaign for countries to transition to clean and green energy sources, Africa will thus require support for Just energy transition that ensures resources and technologies are made available to enable the continent achieve climate, energy and development goals.
“Our argument is that reducing emissions should not be at the expense of Africa’s development but at a pace and scale affordable to African countries. The work programme should facilitate ambitious and equitable climate actions, recognising different starting points of countries and nationally defined development priorities of developing countries, different pathways and national circumstances and the importance of the social and economic components of the transition,” said AGN Chair.
Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture and food security
In the context of the climate crisis in Africa, agriculture is seen as an important agenda item in view of the continent’s food insecurity, said to be worsened by climate change vagaries. In view of the foregoing, Africa cannot afford to slumber on the importance of making agriculture resilient to climate change.
Given its importance to most African countries’ food security and economic transformation, the AGN has firmly set its agenda on ensuring clear action matrix of the the four-year Sharm el-Sheikh joint work on implementation of climate action on agriculture and food security.
