Nairobi, 30 July 2021 - Africa is on course to complete the collective continental Climate Change Strategy. The continental climate change strategy is expected to guide Africa’s interventions in reducing greenhouse emissions, build resilience, boost adaptation and enhance mitigation measures to contain adverse climate change impacts.
Last week, stakeholders drawn from the Eastern and Southern African regions met in an appraisal workshop in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi to review the updated draft Strategy.
The workshop convened by the African Union (AU) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) covered the Eastern and Southern African regions and is the first in a series that will also convene the Central, West and North African regions to debate and enrich Africa’s proposed collective climate change strategy.
“It is important that as a continent we have got a framework that provides guidance on how we approach issues of climate change, but at the same time, this strategy will enable the continent, in terms of facilitating resource mobilization, as well as appropriate investments on the continent.” Harsen Nyambe, the Acting Director of Sustainable Development and Blue Economy at the African Union Commission said. “It will also, obviously, be a framework that we can use to harmonize our Member States responses and get a cohesive Africa-wide plan towards addressing climate change.”
The workshop in Nairobi marked a significant milestone in the quest to complete the last-mile towards the adoption of a comprehensive and all-inclusive Africa Climate Change Strategy.
For three days, stakeholders drawn from academia, AU member states, civil society, international multilateral partners, climate scientists, regional economic commissions, community based organisations participated on the open review and assessment to improve the quality of the draft strategy. They also offered country level feedback and, provided inputs to enrich the document. Identification of relevant climate change actions and the validation of the timeframes, baseline and indicators of the strategy were also discussed at length.
According to Dr James Murombedzi the head of the Addis Ababa-based climate think-tank, the African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC), most African countries have national climate policies and strategies in place. However, Murombedzi noted there is a missing link to connect these national strategies to the regional and continental strategic framework. “As a continent, our climate response is very weak and fragmented.” Murombedzi says. “There is no regional African mechanism which seeks to actually aggregate national responses in order to increase the impacts, and our ability to mobilize resources on the basis of those strategies.”
The continental climate change strategy is expected to be a bulwark that will support and cushion Africa’s transformational development vision as spelt out in Agenda2063 as well as attaining the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs) by 2030.
Development partners who have been incorporated in the strategy evaluation welcomed the contents in the draft and commended the review process.
“We commend what is being done today in terms of creating Africa wide climate change strategy and setting the tone of leadership of how African nations, as well as actors and stakeholders in Africa, should deal with climate change.” Mr. Ayaz Manji, who represented the UN Resident Coordinator in Kenya said. “It is a very positive step, and we would like to give our full support to the same.”
To bolster the review process Dr Murombedzi and Dr Laila Lokosang made keynote presentations..
Dr Murombedzi set the stage with his presentation “Climate change trends and perspectives in Africa” which raised critical questions facing the continent and needing attention in the strategic document. These included the questions on just transition as it applies to Africa with its abundant natural resources, climate financing and technology transfer. Adaptation mitigation and political support backed by funding for the African Group of Negotiators (AGN) also featured prominently in Murombedzi’s thought-provoking presentation.
“The AGN is not in any significant way funded by African countries. And this results in the AGN being dependent on other countries for their various expenses.” Murombedzi says. “The AGN also implements very significant initiatives, but these are also funded by other countries as well, and that creates obvious weaknesses in the negotiation process.”
Expert thematic presentations on “Climate Change Impacts on key sectors of African Economy“ followed. In this session Mr. Bartolomeu Soto spoke on wildlife, Mr. Alex Simalabwi tackled water, Ms. Zipora Otieno handled forestry, Ms. Jane Akumu expounded on transport trends and Mr. Laila Lokosang made a presentation on agriculture. These subject experts helped enrich stakeholder review and interventions.
The quest for a unified continental response to climate change is slightly over a decade old. It can be traced back to January 2009. At the time, the AU Commission was mandated by the highest decision making organ, the African Union Summit to “facilitate the building of a common African Position on Climate Change in preparation for the fifteenth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP15)” in Copenhagen, Denmark scheduled for December 2009.
Meeting in Sirte, Libya in July 2009 the Executive Council of the AU adopted a landmark decision on climate change. This decision requested the AUC to collaborate with partners and elaborate a comprehensive African strategy on climate change. The request also sought technical back-up data on the impacts of climate change, economic costs and amount of carbon sequestered in various African ecosystems.
In 2014, the AUC produced the first draft climate change strategy and presented it to the AGN as well as to the African Ministerial Conference on Environment (AMCEN) for consideration. A delay in finalization of the document and changing new realities most importantly the 2015 Paris Agreement had an impact on the completion of the strategy. Between 2018 and 2020 AUC expanded its engagement to include member states and development partners to update the 2014 draft strategy and incorporate the Paris Agreement, emerging science and recent realities like the one posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the global economic recovery agenda.
“Africa is in the midst of a developmental dilemma. We are the continent most vulnerable to climate change, and therefore, we have the largest ambition in terms of limiting the impacts of our climate change. However, we have contributed the least to global warming in terms of emissions, and yet, we actually possess unexploited fossil fuel reserves. So, how do we embark on our development trajectory?” Murombedzi poses. “Do we develop our undeveloped capacities in fossil fuels, do we negotiate increased access to the remaining carbon budget, or do we embark on carbon neutral development pathways? This is the just transition question which needs to be addressed in the Climate Change Strategy.”
It is these difficult questions, the need to broaden inclusivity and appreciation of the historical journey solidified by time and emerging realities that gave birth to the updated draft African Climate Change Strategy and the ongoing consultative review processes.
“Climate resilience is upon us and we must act now.” Amos Makarau who represented the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) at the workshop says. “Our recommendation to the policymakers is that they should better focus on solutions.”
It is anticipated that after incorporating the regional review processes in the draft, a final African Strategy on climate Change complete with a logical framework will be developed in readiness for adoption by the AU policy organs later in the year.
Issued by:
Communications Section
Economic Commission for Africa
PO Box 3001
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
Tel: +251 11 551 5826
E-mail: eca-info@un.org