The African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC) of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) was established in 2008 after a process of reflection on the need to mainstream climate change into Africa’s development policy planning. Previous recognition of the challenges posed by climate change for the attainment of the 2015 Millennium Development Goals in Africa had led to the ECA and the Global Climate Observing System’s co-organizing a regional workshop in Addis Ababa in April 2006. This workshop, in turn, resulted in creation of the Climate for Development in Africa programme, commonly known as ClimDev-Africa, in 2010, with the ACPC as its secretariat.
An initiative of the African Union Commission (AUC), ECA and the African Development Bank (AfDB), ClimDev-Africa was established to create a solid foundation for Africa’s response to climate change. Bringing to bear the collective efforts of these three key African institutions to foster a common and coordinated response to climate change throughout the continent, the programme’s stated objective was “to guide the effective integration of climate information and services into development planning and to ensure the mainstreaming of climate considerations into policies and programmes aimed at achieving the 2015 Millennium Development Goals”.
The first joint AU-ECA annual Conference of Ministers of Planning, Finance and Economic Development held in April 2008 requested ECA, in collaboration with the AUC and the AfDB to take the necessary measures for the effective implementation of ClimDev-Africa Programme through relevant national, sub-regional and regional institutions. The Conference also endorsed the establishment of the African Climate Policy Center (ACPC) with the objective of providing policy guidanceon climate change issues in the region.
ACPC four goals:
- Strengthening African countries’ capacities to participate more effectively in international climate negotiations;
- Enhancing the African countries’ abilities to develop coherent policy frame- works for coordinating adaptation and mitigation investment in climate informa- tion and knowledge generated at all levels;
- Improving African countries’ efficiency in mainstreaming climate concerns into development frameworks; and
- Ensuring a solid foundation of applied climate science and reliable assessments of climate vulnerability, risks and impacts.