MARRAKECH, Morocco (PAMACC News) - The African Working Group on Gender and Climate Change has identified gender integration as a key component to the continent’s implementation of the Paris Agreement (PA).

Chairperson of National Gender and Equality Commission of the African Working Group on Gender and Climate Change, Winfred Lichuma said integration is much more meaningful and could lead to positive results as opposed to mainstreaming, which has largely dominated the gender discourse, but with minimal impact.

“To achieve the required responsiveness, we need to move from gender mainstreaming to integration as it is much more deeper and addresses the inadequacies noted especially at implementation of policies and strategies,”Lichuma told delegates at a side event at COP 22 where an analysis of the PA and gender in Africa was presented.

Lichuma explained that integration would ensure that the excluded gender is involved at all levels as opposed to their needs just being mainstreamed in policies and strategies.

Highlighting Agriculture which is believed to be the main source of Africa’s emissions and largely dominated by women, Lichuma bemoaned the failure by the Paris Agreement to include more explicit recognition of the gender dimension.

And representing the Nigerian Minister of Environment on the panel, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change UNFCCC country focal point, Peter Tarfa said ignoring the gender dimension especially women in the implementation of the Paris Agreement would be suicidal.

“Climate Change vulnerability is more pronounced among women who are in the majority in most countries, and should be involved especially on critical issues such as climate finance,” said Dr. Tarfa, adding that Nigeria is reviewing its National Climate Change Policy to make gender inclusivity more visible.

Meanwhile, representing the African Union Commissioner, Olushola Olayidehad some good news for theAfrican Working Group on Gender and Climate Change, announcing that the African Union’s Climate Change Strategy is almost ready to be tabled for adoption.

“The AU Climate Change Strategy is almost ready, and will soon be tabled to the high level organ for adoption. I therefore encourage you to keep pushing the gender agenda at the negotiating table and ensure that it is part of the strategies for the implementation of the Paris Agreement,” she said.

Africa’s Agenda 2063 has a clear aspiration on gender, which is linked to youth development as the two have been identified key components to unlock Africa’s development potential.

Representing youths, Zambia’s Abel Musumali of Green Enviro Watch said “the implementation of the Paris Agreement will not be possible without women and youths” saying the two have a symbiotic relationship of mother and child, and are usually the face of climate change vulnerability in Africa.

And Tabi Joda, another youth ambassador on climate change concluded that a well-developed Agricultural system which accommodates the young people’s innovations, is the solution to youth and women vulnerability to climate change.

“Women and youth carry the burden of Africa’s poverty, destitution but the solution lies in empowering these two groups with agricultural solutions that work; all it requires is commitment,” said Joda, explaining his involvement in the promotion of climate smart agricultural innovations to entice youths into agriculture.

MARRAKECH, Morocco (PAMACC News) - African Civil society at the ongoing climate change negotiation warned that if Parties did not urgently raise their Pre-2020 Ambitions in Marrakech, the impact of low ambition and business as usual scenario could trigger even greater climate crisis in Africa.

“The outcome from Marrakech should be ambitious enough to protect the rights of poor and vulnerable in the continent most impacted by climate change and provide adequate climate finance to address the impacts,” said Mithika Mwenda, the Secretary General of the Civil Society Platform, Pan African Climate Justice Alliance .

Finance is key to Implementation of the Paris Agreement and the Convention and must be on the table for discussion in Marrakech as one of the important agenda item if Marrakech must be taken serious.

“Paris Agreement has a goal 1.50C but no prescription for how to achieve it – the pledges would still take the planet to an unthinkable 3.5 degreesi of warming. Therefore the need to improve Paris pledges and ensure prior Kyoto obligations are at least met because Low pre-2020 ambition will deepen the post-2020 challenge to the detriment of the poor and vulnerable especially in Africa”, said John Bideri from Action for Environment and Sustainable Development, Rwanda and Co- Chair of PACJA’s Continental Executive Committee said.

Now that the Paris Agreement has come into effect, stakes are certainly high on its implementation and Marrakech provides an incredible opportunity to clearly define the path towards achieving the 1.50C target, Bideri added during the Press Conference organized by the Alliance.

“In Paris, we demanded equity, fair deal and legally binding agreement. And here In Marrakech, developed country Parties must be include and provide clarity on their contributions on all the elements including provision of money for adaptation for developing countries, and particularly Africa,” Robert Chimambo, of Zambia Climate change Network and PACJA member, said.

“The role of capacity building and technology in the realization of the global target through mitigation and adaptation actions can never be over-emphasized. Support to developing countries by developed countries in the spirit of justice and equity in terms of capacity building and technology development and transfer is key to achieving African countries’ commitments in their NDCs even as developed countries embark upon drastic domestic economic-wide emission reduction efforts,” Tracy Sonny, National Coordinator, Botswana Climate Change Network and a member of Pan African Climate Justice Alliance, added.

MARRAKECH, Morocco (PAMACC News) - African Civil society at the ongoing climate change negotiation warned that if Parties did not urgently raise their Pre-2020 Ambitions in Marrakech, the impact of low ambition and business as usual scenario could trigger even greater climate crisis in Africa.

“The outcome from Marrakech should be ambitious enough to protect the rights of poor and vulnerable in the continent most impacted by climate change and provide adequate climate finance to address the impacts,” said Mithika Mwenda, the Secretary General of the Civil Society Platform, Pan African Climate Justice Alliance .

Finance is key to Implementation of the Paris Agreement and the Convention and must be on the table for discussion in Marrakech as one of the important agenda item if Marrakech must be taken serious.

“Paris Agreement has a goal 1.50C but no prescription for how to achieve it – the pledges would still take the planet to an unthinkable 3.5 degreesi of warming. Therefore the need to improve Paris pledges and ensure prior Kyoto obligations are at least met because Low pre-2020 ambition will deepen the post-2020 challenge to the detriment of the poor and vulnerable especially in Africa”, said John Bideri from Action for Environment and Sustainable Development, Rwanda and Co- Chair of PACJA’s Continental Executive Committee said.

Now that the Paris Agreement has come into effect, stakes are certainly high on its implementation and Marrakech provides an incredible opportunity to clearly define the path towards achieving the 1.50C target, Bideri added during the Press Conference organized by the Alliance.

“In Paris, we demanded equity, fair deal and legally binding agreement. And here In Marrakech, developed country Parties must be include and provide clarity on their contributions on all the elements including provision of money for adaptation for developing countries, and particularly Africa,” Robert Chimambo, of Zambia Climate change Network and PACJA member, said.

“The role of capacity building and technology in the realization of the global target through mitigation and adaptation actions can never be over-emphasized. Support to developing countries by developed countries in the spirit of justice and equity in terms of capacity building and technology development and transfer is key to achieving African countries’ commitments in their NDCs even as developed countries embark upon drastic domestic economic-wide emission reduction efforts,” Tracy Sonny, National Coordinator, Botswana Climate Change Network and a member of Pan African Climate Justice Alliance, added.

Experts at the UNFCCC’s 22nd Conference of Parties which began yesterday in Marrakech have proposed innovative approaches to solving the African energy challenge.
 
Speaking at a side event on Renewable Energy Performance Platform as a tool to deliver NDC Objectives on the first day of the conference, the experts believe that Africa’s energy poverty which leaves about 600 million people without access to electricity and McKinsey’s projection on $490bn investment needed by 2040 for new generation capacity in Africa constitute an invitation to explore innovative ways of overcoming the challenge.
 
One of such innovative solutions, according to Gareth Philipps, African Development Bank’s Chief Climate and Green Growth Officer, is results-based financing mechanism which allows donors to channel climate finance into different types of energy projects.
 
“Results-based financing is attractive because it takes away a lot of the risks from the donor and it simply says you give me the results and I will give you the money and it frees up the private and entrepreneurial sectors to come up with solutions to these problems,” Philipps added.
 
Results-based climate finance as a crediting mechanism is increasingly becoming an avenue to scale carbon mitigation by routing financial flows towards fiscal reforms for renewable energy, incentivize sectoral investments and leverage private capital.
 
Subha Nagarajan, Managing Director of Africa Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and Andreas Gunst of DLA Piper were of the view that the Renewable Energy Performance Platform (REPP) which aims to mobilise private investment in renewable energy in sub-Saharan Africa, address early-stage barriers to renewable energy project development, and focus on small to medium-sized renewable energy projects can rewrite Africa’s energy story for good.
 
The platform’s innovative approach to providing technical and financial advisory while facilitating access to risk mitigation instruments and finance provided by REPP partners addresses challenges of funding gap, absence of development capital, lack of expertise in financial structuring and access to cheaper funding on the continent of Africa.
 
Developed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) in collaboration with the AfDB, USAID, OPIC and a host of banks with an initial funding of £48 million from the UK’s Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), the Platform supports technologies in solar, run-of-river hydropower, onshore wind, biomass, geothermal and waste-to-energy with project types such as grid-connected and off-grid, public utilities and private offtakers, greenfield, brownfield and renewable storage hybrids.