UN Climate Change conferences (or COPs) take place every year, and are the world’s only multilateral decision-making forum on climate change with almost complete membership of every country in the world.
To put it simply, the COP is where the world comes together to agree on ways to address the climate crisis, such as limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, helping vulnerable communities adapt to the effects of climate change, and achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.
More than 70,000 delegates are expected to attend COP 28, including the member states (or Parties) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Business leaders, young people, climate scientists, Indigenous Peoples, journalists, and various other experts and stakeholders are also among the participants.
Officially, COP 28 stands for the 28th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UNFCCC.
Africa’s youthful population is its greatest asset, and COP28 provides an opportunity to harness this demographic for climate action. In line with the resolutions from recent youth-focused assemblies, the African Climate Summit (ACS), and official continental forums; we urge COP 28 to prioritize youth-centric engagement.
Africa is going with one document and one vision to the COP 28 to be held from 30 November to 12 December 2023 in Dubai, AU Great Green Wall Initiative Director Elvis Paul Tangem said.
At the COP 28 Summit, countries, companies, financial institutions and civil society will come together to affirm their will to tackle the climate challenge through concerted and collaborative action, it was learned.
The director told local media that this year’s COP 28 summit is critical for Africa to hear its voice with the same position.
The director said that this year’s COP 28 summit is critical for Africa.
“I think this particular COP 28 is going to be very critical because Africa is going with one document, one vision, and there is no longer any division between countries. Now we have the declaration, which is going to be the platform with which we are going to engage our international development partners.”
Tangem expressed his hope that the summit will put in a win action to adopt funding that is going to support the member states that are being badly affected by climate change.
Africa has the lowest per capita fossil fuel emissions of any region globally. Still, the continent has been facing the most severe challenges due to climate change.
The negative effects of climate change on the African continent have become increasingly vivid through disasters such as floods, earthquakes, and drought. Seven out of the ten most vulnerable countries by climate change are in Africa.
African Union Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy, and Sustainable Environment Commissioner Josefa Sacko also said that the Union is prepared to actively participate at the COP 28 Summit.
Recall that AU member state leaders who attended the Africa Climate Summit (ACS), which took place in September 2023 in Nairobi, Kenya, signed the Nairobi Declaration that will serve as a basis for Africa’s common position in the global climate change process to COP 28 and beyond.
“We came out with a very bold African leader Nairobi Declaration, and we are already prepared to go and negotiate,” the commissioner stated.
She added that the AU is also in conversation with African group of negotiators to see the areas that the continent really wants to address.
“For us, it is adaptation. Adaptation is our priority, loss and damages another priority access to finance in order for us to implement our climate actions,”
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)/CAADP Programme Officer-Monitoring and Evaluation, Fatmata Seiwoh stressed that the continent is still facing climate issues.
There was a COP of last year, she said, adding that “there are recommendations. I know that for us as a regional economic community, we have done some effort in implementing some of those recommendations; but climate issues continue to be imminent in the continent.”
Delegates from nearly 200 countries, leaders of business and finance, and representatives of civil society are expected to gather for the COP 28 climate conference with the aim of fast-tracking the transition to a clean-energy future.
The COP 28 is expected to stress the importance of collective action to stop climate change and the critical role of finance in the low-carbon transition. With our participation we hope to help investors and other capital markets participants see what’s ahead and back climate commitments with action.
According to WWF COP28 Africa Expectation Paper, “Africa’s position for COP 28 is clearly articulated in the Addis Ababa Declaration of the 19th Session of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) and reaffirmed by African leaders in the Nairobi Declaration adopted at the inaugural African Climate Summit (ACS) in Nairobi”.
African countries have, through their renewed NDCs, proposed additional actions to increase their ambition to keep global temperature increase below 1.5°C by the end of the century. WWF in 2021 published the report on the “Africa NDCs: Recommendations for Decision makers’. According to the report, most of the African countries that have submitted their reviewed NDCs have increased their mitigation ambition. Implementation of these new or updated NDCs is the point of departure for delivering on the ACS objective “To raise the ambition of Africa for low carbon climate resilient development pathways” but also providing the opportunity to get this cut across the four thematic areas of the Africa Climate Week (ACW).
At COP 28, Africa on climate adaptation should: stress the further elaboration of adaptation planning and implementation, including reaching an agreement on the Glasgow-Sharm el-Sheikh Work Programme on the Global Goal on Adaptation (GlaSS) to meet Africa’s adaptation needs and associated costs. Advocate for stronger commitments and actions on adaptation finance; with clear outcomes to match the annual cost of adaptation in developing countries estimated to range from$140 billion to $300 billion by 2030.
For Africa, the GST process provides specific opportunities to link addressing the ambition gap to leapfrogging its development, capitalizing on its significant endowment of land, natural resources, and untapped renewable energy potential. Given high levels of energy poverty on the continent, and the current levels of dependence on consumption of biomass for cooking and heating, there is a significant energy gap that must be filled through the provision of modern climate-friendly technologies.
Africa should push for an ambitious outcome on loss and damage and ensure a solution for financing within the climate negotiations. A loss and damage finance facility should be established under the UNFCCC financial mechanism with a dedicated fund and be included as an element of the New Collective Quantified Goal, in addition to mitigation and adaptation finance.
Last year, at COP 27, parties agreed to increase financing to facilitate global transformations to a low-carbon economy. This requires at least 4 trillion USD to 6 trillion USD a year. Unfortunately, developed countries still have not fulfilled their pledged $100billion since Copenhagen. At the African Climate Summit, African leaders reiterated their demand for developed countries to not only deliver on their promise of 100 billion USD annually, but also for an overhaul of the global financial architecture to meet Africa’s needs. They equally called for the doubling of climate adaptation financing by 2025. It is important to note that only about 4–8% of all climate finance has been allocated to adaptation investments. This significant financing gap needs to be addressed on apriority basis.
African governments must elevate the topic of climate change and food systems on the COP 28 agenda. This accelerates efforts on food loss and waste and sustainable agriculture that reduce emissions and enhance the resilience of food systems. Adaptation is urgent: Adapting Africa’s food systems to climate change is not a choice. Discussions on food systems should consider securing the most impacted sources of food for vulnerable communities, such as land, water, and related biodiversity like fish and seed. Holistic actions are needed in integrated land and water management systems to reverse biodiversity loss and restore degraded areas.
For COP 28; Parties should reiterate their commitment to support Africa in phasing out fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas), using just transition principles in a timely manner to meet its needs based on its strong supply of wind, sun, hydropower, and even geothermal resources, which offer great potential for deployment and investment. Misplaced and expensive investments in fossil fuels will be obsolete in a few years as the climate crisis worsens and fossil fuel companies potentially lose their social license to operate.
Africa should reiterate the importance of leveraging the role of NbS in addressing the climate urgency and reducing the vulnerability of Africa’s people and biodiversity to climate change.
BY STAFF REPORTER
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD WEDNESDAY 29 NOVEMBER 2023
