A la salle 1 du pavillon Afrique de la COP 22 à Marrakech, il était question le mercredi 9 novembre 2016, de l’Initiative africaine pour les énergies renouvelables (IAER, en anglais : AREI). Ce plan de développement énergétique de l’Afrique, lancé il y a un an à Paris bénéficie d’un réel soutien des bailleurs de fonds, du secteur privé et de la société civile africaine.Au COP21 en France, l’annonce de l’IAERavait peut-être fait quelques sceptiques. Mais au Maroc, l’adhésion africaine s’est faite sentir pour accompagner cet ambitieux projet vers l’installation d’une capacité énergétique renouvelable à grande échelle sur le continent africain d’ici 2020. Ce qui aurait un impact considérable sur la réduction des émissions de gaz à effet de serre du continent.« C’est ce type d’initiative dont nous avons besoin », a réagi heureuxTosiMpanuMpanu, Président du groupe des Pays les moins avancés (PMA), dont l’Afrique compte 34 Etats sur les 42 membres. « C’est un projet qui apporte des solutions. Il permet de renforcer la coopération entre les pays. Il nous faut travailler la main dans la main pour sa réalisation. Ce plan doit mieux servir les PMA africains et identifier les besoins des autres PMA sur les autres continents », s’est-ilréjoui Pour SokonaYouba, vice-président du Groupe d’experts intergouvernemental sur l’évolution du climat (Giec) et un des initiateurs de l’Initiative, l’IAER doit donner l’électricité à tous les africains, tout en combattant le changement climatique.« Notre ambition est de produire 300 GW d’électricité en 2030. Ce n’est rien du tout. Car nous devons satisfaire le maximum de personnes », a-t-il avancé, appelant à une coopération intra-régionale sur les projets. « Tout type d’énergie renouvelable doit être promu. Nous devons mobiliser les capacités en Afrique, les renforcer là où il n’existe pas. Nous avons un calendrier à respecter », a prévenu Youba. Début du financementPour accompagner ce vaste projet, un certain nombre d’engagements avait été pris dans la capitale française en décembre 2015 et commence à se traduire en acte. Le 6 novembre 2016, le gouvernement français et la Banque africaine de développement (BAD) ont signé à Abidjan, un accord d’un montant de 6 millions d’euros (7,8 millions de dollars) pour la mise en œuvre de l’IAER. Ces ressources doivent permettre de mettre sur pied l’Unité d’exécution de l’Initiative, que la BAD s’est proposée d’héberger.Lors du panel du mercredi, le Directeur du département financier de la BAD,StéphaneNalletamby a confirmé l’engagement de l’institution à encadrer l’Initiative. « La BAD a désormais un département dédié aux énergies renouvelables et va accompagner la mise en œuvre des CPDN (Contributions déterminées au niveau national). La Banque soutient le projet de l’Initiative et nous y investirons 2 milliards de dollars entre 2017 et 2020 », a annoncé Nalletamby. Il est à souligner qu’au moins 5 milliards de dollars des États-Unis de financement public ainsi que de financement à des taux préférentiels de sources bilatérales, multilatérales et autres, y compris le Fonds vert pour le climat, seront nécessaires entre 2016 et 2020 pour exercer un effet de levier…

MARRAKECH, Morocco (PAMACC News) - Experts at the ongoing climate talks in Marrakech have advocated the development and adoption of a policy and strategic framework that support expansion and mainstreaming of sustainable tourism certification in Africa.Speaking at a side event in the Africa pavilion on the second day of the COP22 climate conference, water and tourism experts were unanimous in their view that African states should encourage and incentivise green certification of tourism, specifically in relation to monitoring and reducing water and waste.This, according to them, will set the stage for existing African and International certification programs to have adequate criteria, and established processes and systems for working with the hotel sector to assess and monitor their waste and water management systems. In addition to other environmental, social and socio-economic components of sustainable tourism, the framework will provide a mechanism to recognise that certification standards use a common and comprehensive approach to sustainability as well as summarise existing monitoring data being gathered by national tourism authorities and international/regional certification bodies specifically relating to the accommodation sector in Africa.According to Dr. Anna Spenceley, a consultant with the African Development Bank (AfDB), African states can integrate sustainability criteria into their hotel quality-rating programs as a way of supporting Sustainable Development Goal 12 which places emphasis on responsible consumption and production, and also contribute to the objectives of the 10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Tourism. Jean Michel Ossete, the Coordinator of the African Water Facility, jointly sponsored by the AfDB and the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW) believes that the AfDB could support member states to raise awareness on the benefits of sustainable tourism certification in Africa particularly those with currently low levels of certification,improve linkages between established certification programs and member states, where there the program is aligned with the country’s objectives, and providing guidance on the design and implementation of incentives to promote improved waste and water management.Recognising that sustainable tourism certification provides an independent mechanism for evaluating and measuring water and waste management in African hotels, Oseloka Zikora of the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW) advocated support for the development of national waste and water management capacity, to ensure that countries are able and willing to establish and enabling policy framework for good practices, and that hotels can implement them. “This should be done by providing technical advice and mentoring to governments on how they can promote better water and waste management and certification in the hotel sector through congruent policies, including through incentives, commissioning and sharing research findings on the financial and non-financial benefits of certification, and of good waste and water management practices, that provides clear quantification of the benefits that can be understood by decision makers,” Zikora added.He further recommended the adoption of a train-the-trainers approach to making the outreach cost effective and locally relevant, as well as establish an online resource library containing tools on waste and water management, training guides and case study examples. The experts also agreed on the need to…

MARRAKECH, Morocco (PAMACC News) - Africa should avoid the ‘Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) trap’ by perpetually pushing capacity building and miss out on serious climate funding opportunities, Dr Balgis Osman Elasha of the African Development Bank (AfDB) has said.Dr Osman Elasha, who is the Principal Climate Change officer at the bank’s Quality Assurance and Results Department, says “Africa could not benefit from the CDM because it was caught up in the capacity building mode while others were taking action.”CDM of the Kyoto Protocol provided for emissions reduction projects aimed at to assist parties not included in Annex I in achieving sustainable development and compliance with their quantified emission limitation and reduction commitments.“For Africa to benefit from the Paris Agreement, we should, this time avoid the CDM trap”, Dr. Osman Elasha told delegates at an AfDB side event on day two of the UN Climate Change conference currently holding in Marrakech, Morocco.Discussing ‘Access to means of Implementation-key concern for Africa post COP 21’, Dr. Osman Elasha said there is no room for Africa to waste on capacity building while the rest of the world would be taking action.The panel discussion focused on the challenges that Africa faces and windows of opportunities that the continent could take advantage of, in the implementation of the Paris Agreement.Seen as a historic Agreement and fastest international treaty to enter into force, the Paris Agreement which is anchored on the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), places obligations on all Parties to fulfil what is contained in their climate action plans.However, for Africa, several gaps have emerged, one of which is the vagueness of most African countries’ NDCs, even before the bigger issue of means of implementation (finance and technology transfer) is brought into picture.“The way forward is a major challenge for most developing countries—it’s not just about getting the money but also what to do with it to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement,” said Kurt Lonsway, Manager for the Climate and Environment portfolio at AfDB.Lonsway, however, was quick to point out that the Bank stands by its commitment to support African states as they seek to rework their climate action plans to ensure that they benefit from available climate funding windows.And in keeping up with the African challenge theme, Advisor of the African Group of Negotiators, Seth Osafo lamented the lack of in-country coordination among key climate players in most African countries.“While it is collectively agreed that there is lack of capacity to develop bankable projects to access climate finance, another African tragedy is the lack of coordination within African countries,” said Osafo, adding that some country focal points end at representing their countries at negotiations without sharing key decisions with other key players in their respective countries.Osafo, who is former legal advisor at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), observed the need to improve in-country linkages especially between the Ministries of Environment, which, in most African countries, carries the climate change portfolio, with Finance.“For example, the ministries of finance are the…

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.