ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (PAMACC News) - “The Paris Agreement is somewhat weak in terms of how African countries will attract the required investments to deal with the challenges of climate change…,”says James Murombedzi, Officer in Charge of the Africa Climate Policy Centre of the United Nations economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).
While heralded as a landmark global deal on climate change, there remains a feeling of impotence from the Africa group on certain nuances of the Agreement and its implications to the continent’s development agenda.
However, signing and ratifying the Agreement is not optional for Parties as it was universally agreed by the then 196 members to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change—UNFCCC, in Paris last year.
This therefore implies that whatever issues Africa has with the Agreement and its implications, would have to be dealt with at the negotiating table, and this is the point at which the Young African Lawyers (YAL) Programme becomes crucial.
Established under the ClimDev-Africa Programme, YAL has the overarching goal of strengthening Africa’s negotiating position and ensuring Africa gets the best at the UNFCCC processes.
“Signing and ratifying the Agreement is not optional for us as Africa,” says Natasha Banda, a young Legal Practitioner from Zambia, one of the mentees under the programme.
Being part of the legal advisory team for the Zambian negotiators through the UNFCCC country Focal point person, Banda believes ratifying the Agreement is not negotiable and the starting point “because the nature of international Agreements is that you cannot have bargaining power from outside,” and is certain that Zambia, which is yet to ratify, would do so once all necessary processes are complete.
In recognition of the importance of addressing the impacts of climate change comprehensively, and the unique roles and responsibilities of lawyers in the process, the Young African Lawyers (YAL) programme brings together young and motivated African lawyers in integrating climate change responses into Africa’s development agenda.
According to Dr. Johnson Nkem, Senior Climate Adaptation Expert with the Africa Climate Policy Centre, and Coordinator of the programme, YAL is a crucial component for Africa’s climate governance framework, especially now that the world is moving towards a greener, cleaner future, as espoused in the Paris Agreement.
“While providing essential legal support to the AGN, the YAL programme is an important foundation for developing a cadre of African lawyers who are fully engaged in wider climate change issues. Legal advice on low-carbon trading transactions, for example, or integrating climate change into Environmental Impact Assessments are going to be increasingly important as the world heads towards a greener, cleaner future. As Africa anchors itself firmly in this global transition, the YAL programme aims to nurture the legal skills that will be integral to this process,” Nkem explains.
As well as the immediate benefits of providing legal support at the climate negotiations, YAL has the longer-term goal of building the expertise of young lawyers, to be applied in broader aspects of climate change policy and law.
And Rachael Rwomushana, a Ugandan Lawyer, testifies to the positive impact that the programme has had on her and on the country’s engagement in the UNFCCC processes.
Uganda is one of the African countries that has ratified the Paris Agreement, and Rwomushana believes she played a positive role as a young lawyer working in the office of the Attorney General.
“Being involved in the this programme has enabled me to better understand the process and the guidance that I can give to my country and the African Group of Negotiators in the process,” she says, stressing that African countries should not look back on the Paris Agreement but work to strengthen their climate governance so that they get the best out of it.
Under the guidance of two seasoned lawyers experienced in Multilateral Environmental Agreements such as Dr. Seth Osafo, former senior legal adviser of the UNFCCC Secretariat, and Matthew Stilwell, a climate change expert and legal adviser to the African Group of Negotiators, the YAL programme could be Africa’s hope for better climate governance engagement in the years to come.
With the availability of additional resources and support, the programme plans to expand to other interested participants and legal institutions across Africa in developing the knowledge-base of legal experts on climate change issues.
The African Development Bank, (AfDB) has unveiled a new action plan for 2016-2020 in pursuant to its ambitious vision to accelerate the continent’s economic transformation and the fight against climate change.
“We need to build technical skills so that African economies can realize their full potential for adaptation in high-technology sectors,” said Kapil Kapoor, acting vice president, sector operation at the African Development Bank, during the official opening of the 6th Conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa, CCDA-VI, October 18,2016 in Addis Ababa- Ethiopia.
Under the new plan the African Development Bank will nearly triple its annual climate financing to reach 5 billion a year by 2020.
The Bank, said the vice president, has taken some initiatives geared at pursuing and driving growth in agriculture, which will complement investment actions and commitments of African countries as expressed in their National Determined Contributions, NDCs.
Citing some of the investment support initiatives, AfDB officials pointed at climate and disaster resilience programmes in many drought stricken African countries. For example the drought resilience projects in Djibouti, Ethopia and Kenya and the horn of Africa that received some 125 million US dollars. A similar project worth 231 million dollars was supported in the Sahel to control drought.
Only recently the Bank approved over 500 million US dollars to support the fight against the effects of El-Nino that hit many parts of Eastern and Southern Africa.
Officials believe the supported projects are already yielding encouraging results.
“Through many projects now financed by the Bank, environmental protection and climate mitigation and adaptation activities are mainstreaming into national development plans,” said Kapil.
The Bank also revealed it was working through partnerships with other Banks and insurance providers across Africa to bring greater access to insurance and risk financing in order to leverage lending for agriculture to the tune of I billion US dollars.
Experts however say Africa needs the right climate infrastructure to win the confidence of insurance service providers
“We understand that this cannot happen unless insurance and finance providers have access to reliable and quality climate and weather information that allows them to calibrate their risk models and design appropriate insurance package for agriculture,” Kabil Kapoor said.
Development experts called on African countries to review and revise the INDCs with a view of addressing the different challenges including that of infrastructure.
“There is urgent need for African countries to review and revise their NDC’s to meet the challenges of the Paris agreement,” said Dr Abdalla Hamdoc, deputy executive secretary and chief economist of UNECA.
According to officials on the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, UNECA, increasing levels of ambitions where appropriate will not be easy for many African countries given the complexities of ensuring adequate and reliable data, mainstreaming climate change into national development imperatives, ensuring coherence between climate change goals and the various sectoral goals and ensuring adequate funds for the process.
The sixth CCDA accordingly has been convened under the theme “The Paris Agreement on climate change, what next for Africa?”
The conference officials say, is built on the fifth conference on climate change and development in Africa, which was held in the lead-up to the twenty-first session of the conference of parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, COP21.
The sixth CCDA conference accordingly examines the implication of the Paris Agreement on Africa’s future economic growth and sustainable development agenda.
The African Development Bank, (AfDB) has unveiled a new action plan for 2016-2020 in pursuant to its ambitious vision to accelerate the continent’s economic transformation and the fight against climate change.
“We need to build technical skills so that African economies can realize their full potential for adaptation in high-technology sectors,” said Kapil Kapoor, acting vice president, sector operation at the African Development Bank, during the official opening of the 6th Conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa, CCDA-VI, October 18,2016 in Addis Ababa- Ethiopia.
Under the new plan the African Development Bank will nearly triple its annual climate financing to reach 5 billion a year by 2020.
The Bank, said the vice president, has taken some initiatives geared at pursuing and driving growth in agriculture, which will complement investment actions and commitments of African countries as expressed in their National Determined Contributions, NDCs.
Citing some of the investment support initiatives, AfDB officials pointed at climate and disaster resilience programmes in many drought stricken African countries. For example the drought resilience projects in Djibouti, Ethopia and Kenya and the horn of Africa that received some 125 million US dollars. A similar project worth 231 million dollars was supported in the Sahel to control drought.
Only recently the Bank approved over 500 million US dollars to support the fight against the effects of El-Nino that hit many parts of Eastern and Southern Africa.
Officials believe the supported projects are already yielding encouraging results.
“Through many projects now financed by the Bank, environmental protection and climate mitigation and adaptation activities are mainstreaming into national development plans,” said Kapil.
The Bank also revealed it was working through partnerships with other Banks and insurance providers across Africa to bring greater access to insurance and risk financing in order to leverage lending for agriculture to the tune of I billion US dollars.
Experts however say Africa needs the right climate infrastructure to win the confidence of insurance service providers
“We understand that this cannot happen unless insurance and finance providers have access to reliable and quality climate and weather information that allows them to calibrate their risk models and design appropriate insurance package for agriculture,” Kabil Kapoor said.
Development experts called on African countries to review and revise the INDCs with a view of addressing the different challenges including that of infrastructure.
“There is urgent need for African countries to review and revise their NDC’s to meet the challenges of the Paris agreement,” said Dr Abdalla Hamdoc, deputy executive secretary and chief economist of UNECA.
According to officials on the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, UNECA, increasing levels of ambitions where appropriate will not be easy for many African countries given the complexities of ensuring adequate and reliable data, mainstreaming climate change into national development imperatives, ensuring coherence between climate change goals and the various sectoral goals and ensuring adequate funds for the process.
The sixth CCDA accordingly has been convened under the theme “The Paris Agreement on climate change, what next for Africa?”
The conference officials say, is built on the fifth conference on climate change and development in Africa, which was held in the lead-up to the twenty-first session of the conference of parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, COP21.
The sixth CCDA conference accordingly examines the implication of the Paris Agreement on Africa’s future economic growth and sustainable development agenda.
NAIRIBI, Kenya (PAPACC News) - Many African smallholder farmers and farm communities experience low crop and animal yields but are unaware that this is partly as a result of climate change.
In countries like Ghana, many are not aware of what to do to remedy the situation of erratic rainfall, drought and other unfavorable weather conditions.
Agriculture across the continent needs to undergo a significant transformation to meet the multiple challenges of climate change, food insecurity, malnutrition, poverty and environmental degradation.
A proposed means of achieving such improvements is increased use of a climate-smart agriculture (CSA) approach which emphasizes the use of farming techniques that: increase yields, reduce vulnerability to climate change, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Mrs Estherine Fotabong, the NEPAD Agency’s Director of Programme, says the ability of farmers to apply new technologies and innovations is an important determinant of CSA adoption.
“Transformative adaptation needs to not only be at larger scale with new innovations, bold enough to take political steps that may not be easy or quick but also transformative adaptation needs to be integrated fully into the big agriculture questions that will really transform Africa’s agriculture,” she said.
The decision of African Union to set up an African Climate Smart Agriculture Coordination Platform is a means to pursue the vision to have at least 25 million farm households more practicing Climate Smart Agriculture by 2025.
The 2nd Africa CSA Alliance Forum holding in Nairobi, Kenya, is focused on addressing major hindrances limiting the adoption of climate-smart agricultural (CSA) practices among smallholder farmers.
Under the theme “From Agreement to Action: Implementing African INDCs for Growth and Resilience in Agriculture”, the Forum is looking at the INDCs transitioning to Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) with key implications for Africa’s development, especially agriculture.
The Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) represent country-level programmes for climate action presented to the UNFCCC ahead of the COP21 climate talks in December 2015, which produced the historic Paris Agreement on climate change.
Dr Abebe Haile Gabriel, FAO Deputy Regional Representative for Africa, has maintained that countries need support in their INDCs, through which the plight of climate smart agriculture came to light.
The plight of smallholder farmers was also brought to the fore with a call to promote climate smart agriculture success stories and award them opportunities to sustainably adopt climate smart practices.
Mrs Fotabong stressed that knowledge-sharing is key in agriculture and rural transformation, through which indigenous knowledge should not be ignored.
“Communities should be fully capacitated in the various areas of crop management, community mobilisation and empowerment, disaster preparedness and have access to robust technologies and information such as new crop varieties that are drought and disease tolerant,” she emphasized.
This she said should be the collective effort of government, private sector, NGOs, civil society and donors to ensure communities have greater ability to cope and adapt to climate change and extreme weather events and thus achieve rural livelihoods and food security.
Climate Change can no longer be treated as just an environmental challenge but as a holistic sustainable development challenge that impacts on natural systems, physical and social infrastructure and key economic sectors, said Willy Bett of Kenya’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries.
“The overarching climate change-related challenge in agriculture is to sustainably increase food supply to accommodate a rapidly growing population while preserving a safe operating space for humanity by avoiding drastic environmental damage,” he said.
