BONN, Germany (PAMACC News) - At the UN climate talks, Civil Society Organisations from the global north and south, have raised alarm on what they term as incoherence and exclusion of key stakeholders from the implementation of the Africa Renewable Energy Initiative (AREI).
At a meeting with the EU Head of Delegation, at the on-going climate talks in Bonn, Augustine Njamnshi, Coordinator of the African Coalition for Sustainable Energy and Access (ACSEA) said CSOs from both the global north and south are concerned with the direction of AREI, which he said has completely excluded key stakeholders from the process.
“As key stakeholders, we are extremely concerned AREI is almost taking a wrong direction—no information on what is happening and a total exclusion of all key stakeholders,” said Njamnshi. “We thought of engaging you as EU for we know that you remain a key observer and stakeholder of AREI so that you can take responsibility, and help to correct the situation.”
Njamnshi said the EU should not only be seen to play its observer role regarding projects, but also show leadership on governance of the project.
“The EU was actively involved at a meeting in Brussels at which projects were being discussed, so it is not right to say that the EU is just an observer when there are issues like what is happening where the initiative seems to have taken totally a wrong path, but then become active observers during project matters only,” said Njamnshi.
AREI is an Africa-owned and Africa-led initiative of the African Union. It aims at harnessing Africa’s abundant renewable energy resources to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), enhance well-being, and sound economic development by ensuring universal access to sufficient amounts of clean, appropriate and affordable energy for all Africans.
As energy is the engine of economic development, AREI also seeks to help African countries leapfrog towards renewable energy systems that support their low-carbon development strategies while enhancing economic and energy security.
The Africa Renewable Energy Initiative (AREI) aims towards the installation of 10 GW of new and additional renewable energy generation capacity by 2020 and at least 300 GW by 2030. In so doing, the Initiative aims to ensure access to energy while addressing climate change.
AREI was launched at COP21 in Paris in December 2015 and immediately received strong international support from development partners who committed to mobilise at least $10 billion cumulatively to harness Africa’s renewable energy potential and expand energy access across the continent.
However, It was heard at a combined meeting of both global north and south CSOs held on the side-lines of the UN Climate talks in Bonn, that the initial administrative and implementation phases (2017 to 2020) of AREI have been marred with uncertainty and secrecy, much to the detriment of the core objective of the Initiative—people centred and decentralised energy systems to reach all Africans who lack access.
“Decentralised energy systems should not only be about decentralising equipment but also decentralising decision making systems. And AREI has a unique feature anchored on multi-stakeholder engagement especially civil society but this has not been the case,” explained Njamnshi.
And Jacob Werksman, EU delegation leader at the SB50 talks, acknowledged the concerns of the CSOs and pledged to bring them to the attention of the people directly working on the AREI at the European Commission.
“We will bring this to the attention of the people who are directly working on it to see whether, through the EU’s role as an observer, could help to sort the issues that you have raised,” said Werksman.
He was however quick to point out that the European Commission’s cautious involvement in AREI could be as a result of concerns from some African leaders who, at a high profile meeting, openly expressed concern that the was over playing its role in the initiative, and a urged for a to push back so that AREI, could, as was intended, be led by Africans.
“Thanks for taking the time to meet us,” said Werksman. “This is a high profile initiative. Although we are not involved in terms of the day to day operations, we know about it, we are interested and care about it because it was intended to embody all these principals. We are however also aware that there was a high profile meeting at which some of the EU donors present made a very overt effort to influence the initiative and there was an extreme push back from some of the African partners saying,‘you said this was going to be African led, we think you are overplaying your role, please push back’,”he explained.
It is important to note that Germany non-governmental organizations are supporting African civil society in its efforts to promote the AREI’s human rights-based, climate-compatible and sustainable implementation approach.
They are committed to ensuring that the demands and positions of African civil society are heard by Germany decision makers in particular. As one of the largest donors to the initiative, Germany is seen to have a special responsibility to ensure that AREI projects and programmes do in fact contribute to climate protection and sustainable development.
In order to improve civil society support for the initiative, organizations such as Germanwatch and Brot für die Welt have been supporting the organization of workshops and meetings to improve the networking of African and international civil society and maintain constant communication with African partner organizations.
BONN, Germany (PAMACC News) - Chile's Environment Minister and incoming COP25 President Carolina Schmidt and the Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change Patricia Espinosa have officially co-signed the bilateral agreement which forms the legal basis for organizing and hosting the UN Climate Change Conference in Santiago de Chile, later this year.
Dubbed the “COP of action”, the conference (COP25) is scheduled for 2-13 December, 2019.
The theme is aimed building on the UN says was a successful outcome of COP24 that was held in Poland last year, which resulted in the Katowice climate package.
As the host of COP25, Chile has a unique opportunity to demonstrate its leadership on ambitious action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Earlier this month, Chile announced its plan to completely phase out coal by 2040 and its objective to become carbon-neutral by 2050.
This is a major step for a country with a 40% coal share in their electricity mix and is a prime example of the type of action required to limit the global average temperature rise to as close as possible to 1.5°C, the central goal of the Paris Climate Change Agreement.
The COP Presidency rotates among the following 5 United Nations regions: Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and Latin America and the Caribbean.
BONN, Germany (PAMACC News) - Chile's Environment Minister and incoming COP25 President Carolina Schmidt and the Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change Patricia Espinosa have officially co-signed the bilateral agreement which forms the legal basis for organizing and hosting the UN Climate Change Conference in Santiago de Chile, later this year.
Dubbed the “COP of action”, the conference (COP25) is scheduled for 2-13 December, 2019.
The theme is aimed building on the UN says was a successful outcome of COP24 that was held in Poland last year, which resulted in the Katowice climate package.
As the host of COP25, Chile has a unique opportunity to demonstrate its leadership on ambitious action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Earlier this month, Chile announced its plan to completely phase out coal by 2040 and its objective to become carbon-neutral by 2050.
This is a major step for a country with a 40% coal share in their electricity mix and is a prime example of the type of action required to limit the global average temperature rise to as close as possible to 1.5°C, the central goal of the Paris Climate Change Agreement.
The COP Presidency rotates among the following 5 United Nations regions: Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and Latin America and the Caribbean.
BONN, Germany (PAMACC News) - The world is already experiencing changes in average temperature, shifts in the seasons and an increasing frequency of extreme weather events and other climate change impacts and slow onset events.
Accessible, adequate, and predictable finance is thus critical for developing and implementing adaptation action, from the local to the regional level, around the globe.
At the UN Climate talks in Bonn, leading authorities on adaptation and finance have convened for the 2019 Technical Expert Meeting on Adaptation (TEM-A) to survey the adaptation finance landscape and discuss concrete actions that can help it better serve adaptation action for vulnerable countries, groups and communities.
Now in its fourth and penultimate year, this year’s TEM-A is focusing on the topic of Adaptation finance, including the private sector.
“Firstly, dedicating two days to this technical session on adaptation finance is a very progressive move,” says Augustine Njamnshi, Chair of Political and Technical Affairs of the , Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA). “While it is good that experts are exploring all the possibilities including the private sector, our view is that focus should be so much on public financing. Adaptation remains key for Africa and this area has been struggling as far as finance is concerned. We hope the workshop will highlight concrete ideas that will revamp the operationalization of the adaptation pillar as we get to COP 25 later this year.”
According to available statistics, developing countries already face an adaptation finance gap, which will only grow in the absence of increased public and private adaptation finance, according to UN Environment.
The 2016 UNEP Adaptation Finance Gap Report estimated that adaptation finance costs in 2030 are likely to range from USD 140-300 billion per annum, requiring finance that is approximately 6 to 13 times greater than international public finance for adaptation as of now.
In the first week of the climate talks, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary, Patricia Espinosa urged action adding that “this was a climate emergency and that we must respond in kind.”
“Nations are not on track to achieving their goals. They’re not even close. We have one ultimate goal as a civilization if we are to avoid the worst impacts of climate change: to limit global temperatures to 1.5 degrees. We are dreadfully off course,” she said.
While industrialised countries immediate focus is mitigation—cutting their carbon emissions, the developing country parties are pushing for adaptation.
Thus, throughout the TEM-A, panelists and attendees are looking to guide policymakers and practitioners towards unlocking more of the required adaptation finance. Representing various sectors and regions, the experts are drawing out valuable insights and illustrative examples throughout seven sessions addressing topics from emerging sources of adaptation finance, to assessing the impact of adaptation finance, to financing the commercialization of adaptation technology solutions.
In recognition of the important role of the private sector, both to provide adaptation finance but also to seek and deploy it for its own adaptation needs, mobilizing the private sector forms an important thread of discussion running through all the sessions. Speakers and experts from the private sector are also in attendance to share their experiences and ideas.
It is however the private sector narrative that has not settled well with African Civil society and other like-minded campaigners from the global south.
They believe the heavy involvement of the private sector in climate finance mechanism especially for adaption waters down its essence, and is likely to further burden the poorest communities who are at the fore front of the climate crisis.
The TEM-A is the cornerstone of the technical examination process on adaptation, which was established in 2015 to identify concrete opportunities for strengthening resilience, reducing vulnerabilities, and increasing the understanding and implementation of adaptation actions.
Each year, the case studies and good practices from the meeting are reflected in a technical paper and summary for policymakers, and help sow the seeds of strengthening pre-2020 adaptation action.
The meeting is organized jointly by the Subsidiary Bodies, guided by the High-Level Champions, and conducted by the Adaptation Committee with the goal of bolstering adaptation action.
