BONN, Germany (PAMACC News) - The 2017 UN Climate Change Conference opens on Monday, with the aim of launching nations towards the next level of ambition needed to tackle global warming and put the world on a safer and more prosperous development path. The Conference, coming just two years after the landmark adoption of the Paris Climate Change Agreement, will also further fuel momentum among cities, states, regions, territories, business and civil society in support of national climate action plans, the internationally-agreed temperature goal and the wider objectives of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. However, representatives from the African Civil Society Organisations under the umbrella of Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) have called on all the parties to commit beyond their current level of emission targets in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) to tackle the devastating climate change. "All parties must pursue a low carbon development pathway to achieve the desired results," said Mithika Mwenda, the Secretary General - PACJA. Extreme Weather Brings Fresh Urgency Presided over by Frank Bainimarama, the Prime Minister of Fiji and the first small island developing state to hold this role, the conference comes against a backdrop of extreme weather events that have devastated the lives of millions of people in places like Asia, the Americas and the Caribbean. “The human suffering caused by intensifying hurricanes, wildfires, droughts, floods and threats to food security caused by climate change means there is no time to waste,” said Mr Bainimarama, who takes over as President of the COP23 conference from Morocco during the opening. “We must preserve the global consensus for decisive action enshrined in the Paris Agreement and aim for the most ambitious part of that target – to limit the global average temperature rise to 1.5 degrees above that of the pre-industrial age,” he said. “Wherever we live, we are all vulnerable and need to act. Fiji is helping build a Grand Coalition for decisive, coordinated action by governments at every level, by civil society, the private sector and all citizens on earth. That’s why we installed an ocean-going Fijian “drua” canoe in the entrance here to remind everyone of the need to fill its sail with collective determination to make COP23 a success and confront the biggest challenge humanity has faced,” he said. COP23 in Bonn will respond to that call with new progress and initiatives in the two critical and inter-linked areas of action: • Governments working to increase climate action under the terms of the Paris Agreement and the UN Climate Change Convention • Showcasing, fostering and launching new and expanding global climate action initiatives by all actors with a view towards better coordination that aligns efforts in more efficient, effective and transformative ways. Patricia Espinosa, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary, said: “COP23 in Bonn will show to the world the two faces of climate change—firstly positive, resolute, inspiring momentum by so many governments and a growing array of cities and states to business, civil society leaders and UN agencies…

BONN, Germany (PAMACC News) - Delegates from about 196 countries have gathered in Bonn, Germany for what has become a semblance of a yearly ritual – the 23rd conference of parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The conference holds from the 6 -17 November 2017 in Bonn under the leadership of Fiji which is the first small island developing state to hold this role. The COP is coming at a time extreme weather events like floods, hurricanes and fires have destabilised millions of people in Africa Asia, the Americas and the Caribbean. COP 23 therefore aspires to propel the world towards the next level of ambition needed to tackle global warming and put the world on a safer and more prosperous development path. Africa and the COP Process At the beginning of COP 22 in Marrakech, Morocco, November 2016, the Paris Agreement era had been ushered in. Countries of the world had demonstrated commitment and the Agreement had come into force faster than anticipated. Due to this reality, COP 22 then focused on how to make Paris agreement work by setting up mechanisms and structures that would facilitate its implementation. A year later and with with over 33 African countries ratifying the Paris Agreement, Africans are heading to Bonn with a bag full of expectations for the continent and the world. As the region with least contribution to green house gas emissions and the most affected in terms of climate disasters, African delegates are not happy with the failure of the COP process to close the finance gap; inadequacy in pledges; delay in addressing ‘orphan issues’ under the Paris Agreement especially common time-frames for NDCs, and adjustment of existing NDCs. Others are recognition of developing countries’ adaptation efforts; guidance related to finance; and the slow pace and ambiguity in sequencing of work on the Paris Agreement Rule Book thus creating roadblocks in advancing the its formulation. African demands Prof Seth Osafo of the African Group of Negotiators (AGN) believes that the slow progress by developed country parties towards reaching the US$100 billion goal of joint annual mobilisation by 2020 is not in Africa’s interest. Speaking at the African civil society Pre-COP workshop in Bonn, Prof Osafo said Africa’s interest lies in developed countries providing financial support to developing countries and positioning the Paris Committee on Capacity Building (PCCB) to provide support to developing countries in finance, technology and capacity building. At the Pre-COP workshop organised by African civil society actors including farmers, pastoralists, youth and gender groups under the umbrella of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), non-state actors from the region expressed their desire for loss and damage concerns to be fully taken into consideration as the Warsaw International Mechanism (WIM) shifts to serve the Paris Agreement after 2020. According to Mithika Mwenda, Secretary General of the alliance, parties should establish a globally supported insurance mechanism (especially for agriculture and infrastructure sectors) in line with the objectives of the WIM for Loss…

YAOUNDÉ, Cameroon (PAMACC News) - Cameroon is witnessing significant progress in its electricity and transport infrastructure development in the last few years, but for lack of financial and technical knowhow, the impetus is coming from China, government authorities say. According to Cameroon’s minister of the economy, planning and regional development, Louis Paul Motaze, many planned infrastructure projects geared at driving double digit economic growth by 2035, lay the building blocks for attaining the UN Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs), that had been treading water in the last decade have since taken off thanks to financing opportunities from Chinese banks. “We are grateful to our partners from China for regularly providing financial support to boost the much needed infrastructure projects in Cameroon,” says Louis Paul Motaze at the signing of two framework agreements worth 973 RMB in Yaounde September 22, 2017. Government says China has become its prime investment partner in energy and road infrastructure since the launch of the country’s economic development programme dubbed Vision2035. The project is geared at eradicating poverty and help the country become a middle income country with a double digit economic growth. “It is about enabling our country to reach a level of development such that every Cameroonian can live decently on his work, raise his children properly, and have decent housing and protection from disease,” President Paul Biya said at his end of year address to the nation in 2014. In the East and South region of the country, Chinese firms have undertaken several energy and transport infrastructure projects that are changing the lives of the population. Renewable energy Infrastructure In 2015 a solar power station project constructed in Nvogmeka,the village of the President of the Republic,Paul Biya, by Huawei Technologies Company Cameroon Ltd. in Cameroon's South Region today provides energy for the over 15,000 villagers. The project constructed in two phases provides energy capacity of 72 KW. The population say the project has since brought measured hope. “It is a miracle that we are getting energy for our businesses from the sun. Now we too can fight unemployment with business activities like those in the city,” admits Jules Atangana who now operates a beer palour in Nvogmeka. Cameroonian’s Water Resources and Energy Minister Atangana Kouna Basile and Huawei Technologies Company Cameroon Ltd. General Manager Ni Zheng both acknowledged the importance of the project especially in a typical village setting.“In the absence of hydro-electricity, renewable energy provide solution pathways to energy shortage in rural areas,” says Atangana Kouna. Statistics from the government show that over 60% of villages in Cameroon have no electricity, due to the cost of connecting with national grid. But with the coming of renewable energy, the trend is changing, the minister says.Like Mvogmeka, Huawei has provided new solar power station projects for 166 villages in Cameroon, bringing benefit to more villagers in the country. Other Chinese-sponsored renewable energy projects include the 409 solar panels constructed in 2013 and today lighting Ngousso and Soa in the Centre region in Yaounde costing over 1.5billion…

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (PAMACC News) - As the global community turns attention and focus towards a green growth pathway, the African Forest Forum (AFF) is exploring avenues to improve forest management in a manner that better addresses poverty eradication and environmental protection in Africa.The AFF, a pan-African non-governmental organization, is implementing a project titled: “Strengthening Sustainable Forest Management in Africa” to generate and share knowledge and information through partnerships in ways that will provide inputs into policy options and capacity building efforts.One of the key project objectives is to enhance capacity of institutions and individuals – including farmers and farmer organizations, and other private sector actors, professional organizations, and public sector organizations – to achieve forest compatible development.“The increased global interest in forestry management and green economy offers opportunities for resource mobilization from both public and private sources to support forest management in Africa,” said Professor Godwin Kowero, Executive Secretary of AFF. “The sustainable utilization and conservation of forests to maintain and/or enhance forest ecosystem services is a major part of the green growth pathway, because it also generates co-benefits such as the conservation of biodiversity while securing forest based livelihoods of local communities”.Prof. Kowero recently addressed a regional workshop in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, which provided a platform for stakeholders in forestry education to deliberate on training programmes that will produce appropriate forestry graduates to manage forests in a changing world.“The advocacy for effective forest management policies is now driven mainly by a strong and vibrant civil society and an increasingly informed population. It is therefore important to understand how forestry education on the continent is preparing the future generation in putting the forestry sector on a green economy pathway,” he stated.He also touched on another key area – climate change – stating that over and above its contribution to climate change mitigation and adaptation, the role of forests in enhancing the climate resilience of communities to environmental changes in general is being recognized as an important opportunity.“Due to the need to contain global warming, we have a new commercial product in the forestry sector, forest carbon. It is important to understand how our training institutions are handling these and related issues,” Prof. Kowero noted.He further stated that it is very important to understand how our education in forestry is shaping a generation that can meaningfully use forest and tree resources to address issues of food and nutrition security on the continent. The Africa Forest Forum has commissioned two studies in Anglophone, Lusophone and Francophone Sub-Sahara African countries that look into the needs of employers of forestry graduates from the universities and technical colleges.The employer needs or expectations are matched with what these institutions offer in their curricula.The AFF will receive and discuss the findings and decide how the continent can contain the identified gaps in training that have become apparent.