Green groups at Africa Climate Week call for less talk and more action on low-carbon transition

Green groups from Ghana and other African countries joined the UN-hosted Africa Climate Week to demand rapid and ambitious climate action by government officials gathered in Accra for the conference.

The conference is one of three regional climate workshops aimed at accelerating the implementation of current national climate plans – nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) – and the definition of more ambitious ones ahead of the special summit called by UN Secretary general António Guterres in September, and the next United Nations climate change conference, COP25, to take place in Chile in December.

Despite the urgency of the climate crisis, rendered all the more evident by the damage caused by cyclone Idai in Southern Africa – which took the lives of hundreds and impacted an estimated 1.5 million in the entire region- leaders gathered at the Africa Climate Week are failing in making concrete steps forward in heeding the calls for ambitious climate action issued by climate scientists, citizens and activists alike.

"The impacts of global warming are being felt daily by millions of Africans all over the continent. Communities everywhere fear to lose their land and their houses as each season hits one country after the other with exceptional floods, unexpected storms and increasingly long droughts. And cyclone Idai is just another terrible manifestation of what the expansion of fossil fuels means for African people,” said Landry Ninteretse, Africa Team Leader at 350.org.

"The proliferation of fossil fuels projects is happening at the expense of people’s health, climate, and ecosystems. Yet, solutions to this crisis are also well known. They include ending coal extraction and mining in the very short term and stop funding new coal infrastructure, while accelerating investments in renewables."

Ghana Reducing Our Carbon (GROC), 350 Africa and other civil society groups addressed leaders gathered at the Africa Climate Week to demand plans for a rapid phase-out of fossil fuels and an equally rapid and just transition to renewable energy sources, starting from Ghana’s commitment to produce 10% of its primary energy from renewable sources by 2030, which was already postponed from the initial 2020 deadline.

“Over the past four days we have heard representatives of African governments play little more than lip service to the need for ambitious climate action. They will go back to their capitals tomorrow and keep approving plans for new fossil fuel infrastructure, which is going to benefit only a handful of large corporations, some of which are foreign corporations, in Africa to once again exploit its resources and dump the resulting pollution on the most vulnerable and those who don’t have a say in these decisions” said Portia Adu Mensah, Coordinator of 350 - Ghana Reducing Our Carbon (GROC).

“Our continent needs a Copernican revolution, putting people’s lives before profits and achieving development by addressing the climate crisis: a rapid deployment of renewable energy sources and a focus on creating a truly green economy will lift people out of poverty, ensure that our energy needs are met and contribute to stopping the climate from changing even further in dramatic and deadly ways. Ghana can and must lead the way by setting in motion plans to meet its target of 10% primary energy produced by renewable energy sources by 2030”.

Already considered by the UN as possibly the worst cyclone ever to strike Southern Africa, Idai has ripped through villages and towns in three countries over the last few days, taking over 1000 lives and leaving a trail of destruction.

With winds of 195 km/h accompanied by lashing rains, Idai has already affected millions of people, causing floods, landslides and ruining crops and roads.

Promotion of gender equality intensifies at Africa Climate Week

Experts participating in the Africa Climate Week (ACW 2019) in Accra, Ghana have argued that practical solutions hinge on women’s participation in all aspects of the climate change debate.
 

In a presentation at the Africa Consultative Workshop on the sidelines of ACW, Salina Sanou of the Pan Africa Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), said there is need to continue supporting indigenous women-led organisations to empower them as role models.

She added that gender disintegrated data is a good way of identifying and rectifying gaps in monitoring progress in the climate change discussion.

“Women and men are experiencing climate change differently, as gender inequalities persist around the world, recognising the important contributions of women as decision makers, stakeholders, and experts across sectors and at all levels can lead to successful, long-term solutions to climate change. Indigenous women are an important part of the REDD+ process and the climate change discussion and cannot be ignored,” she said.

Climate change represents the most complex challenge which requires a concerted, proactive and holistic response.

Gender inequality may dramatically limit the resilience and adaptive capacity of women, families and communities. It may also restrict options for climate change mitigation.

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, if women had the same access to productive resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by 20-30 percent which could raise total agricultural output in developing countries by 2.5 to 4 percent.

Evidence shows that women’s empowerment and advancing gender equality can deliver results across sectors, and lead to more environmentally friendly decision making at household and national levels.

Across societies, women are often responsible for gathering and producing food, collecting water and sourcing fuel for heating and cooking. With climate change, these tasks are becoming more difficult. Extreme weather events such as droughts and floods have a greater impact on the poor and most vulnerable.

Despite women being disproportionately affected by climate change, they play a crucial role in climate change adaptation and mitigation. Women have the knowledge and understanding of what is needed to adapt to changing environmental conditions and to come up with practical solutions. But they are still a largely untapped resource.

Salina said unleashing the knowledge and capability of women represents an important opportunity to craft effective climate change solutions for the benefit of all.

“Restricted land rights, lack of access to financial resources, training and technology, and limited access to political decision-making spheres often prevent them from playing a full role in tackling climate change and other environmental challenges,” she noted.

Betty Maitoyo, a Gender Specialist with indigenous organisation, Mainyoto Peoples Integrated Development organisation (MPIDO), observed Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) for instance should move beyond symbolic measures and ensure gender mainstreaming in all its activities (funding and representation).

Countries, according to her, should robustly involve women, CSOs and indigenous peoples in development of local and national plans and their monitoring and implementation.

“Budget should be set aside in the existing programme to enhance awareness to end gender-stereotypes and to support project women and women leaders,” she said.

In 2015, women made up on the average 38 percent of United Nations Framework Conventions on Climate Change (UNFCCC) national delegation.

According to records from the Roots for Future, IUCN-GGCA, in same year, participation of women on climate finance mechanism boards was not impressive.

Women accounted for 25 percent in Global Environmental Facility, 15 percent in Green Climate Fund, 26 percent in Climate Investment Fund, 11 percent in Climate Development Mechanism, and 35 percent in Adaptation Fund.

This is a trend that the women groups and other civil society organisations at the meeting expressed as woefully inadequate.

For Betty, Climate finance should be accessible to both men and women and designed to generate mutual benefits, not exacerbate patterns of inequity.

Meanwhile, global negotiations have increasingly reflected the growing understanding of gender considerations in climate decision making over the last eight years.

For instance, women accounted for 29 percent whiles the men 71 percent of National Focal Point of the Global Environmental Facility at the Rio deliberations.

United Nations Climate Change negotiations, void of gender-related texts and discussions until 2008, have more recently reflected an increased understanding of the links between gender equality and responding to climate change.

It has become necessary because women bear the biggest brunt of climate change, the impact and effect much more than they affect men.

Climate change impacts and responses are not gender-neutral; thus climate financing mechanisms and resource allocations meant to address these differentiated impacts must be gender-responsive.

Hayford Duodu of the Dedicated Grant Mechanism for Local Communities Project (DGM-GHANA), added that women’s direct participation in climate change decision making is very critical.

According to him, the indigenous knowledge of the indigenous women directly impacted by the effect of climate change cannot be overlooked and must be tapped.

“Their worth of indigenous knowledge is a crucial aspect to effectively and equitably designing, implementing, and funding climate solutions, he said”.

Gender-responsive climate finance architecture can play a profound role in supporting a comprehensive climate change framework and complementary sustainable development pathway that promotes an equal and resilient economy for women and men.

It is therefore important to ensure equal space and resources for women and men to participate in climate change decision making and action at all levels.

Africa Climate Week: Accessing Finance for Climate Action

Access to finance remains critical for vulnerable African countries to take climate action.
 

Ghana, for instance, requires $22.6billion in investments to implement climate mitigation and adaptation actions.

While countries are expected to commit national resources in undertaking climate mitigation and adaptation, overcoming the climate scourge will demand huge international support to efficiently implement the nationally determined contributions (NDCs).

The NDCs are efforts each country makes to reduce national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.

The Green Climate Fund (GCF) has been established as a critical avenue to mobilize financial resources to address the challenge of climate change.

Activated in 2010, the GCF operates as the financial mechanism under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to support the efforts in developing countries to respond to the challenge of climate change.

Support to developing countries is to facilitate limiting their greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to climate change.

So far, developed nations have pledged to provide a current target of $100billion by 2020.

The last UN Climate Conference in Katowice, Poland, did not achieve new financial commitments but urged countries to deliver on their pledges.

According to Dr. Samson Samuel Ogallah, Solidaridad Network Senior Climate Specialist for Africa, until the pledges are converted into commitments and contributions, it cannot be said that resources have been attained for climate action.

“We’ve heard countries pledge big amounts but some of the pledges are never converted into contributions which become a challenge in the implementation of real action on the ground,” he observed.

The US, for instance, pledged $3billion but managed to convert $1.5billion during the Obama administration. The other part of the fund never materialized in the Trump administration.

Other contributed funds also go through bureaucracies and approval processes with a chunk of the Fund going into consultancy services, and leaving a pittance for climate action on the grounds.

Concerned about the minimal civil society participation in the design, implementation and evaluation of climate projects, the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) and Care International held a day’s workshop on the sidelines of the Africa Climate Week, with a focus on sustainable financing for climate action.

Executive Director of PACJA, Mithika Mwenda, noted that “as representatives of the people and communities on the ground, civil society organizations are very important in any action on climate change, including finance. The Green Climate Fund must be people-driven, people-responsive fund which funds things that cannot be financed by the conventional banks like the World Bank”.

The Accra dialogue, involving 15 African countries, acknowledged the proper and broader engagement of stakeholders in GCF processes to help most African countries develop fundable proposal which can enhance resilience of vulnerable communities and bring about paradigm shift in the entire process.

“The GCF is designed to address the needs of people at the local level, involving small holder farmers, pastoralist communities, labour movement, women and the youth,” Mithika noted.

He said PACJA is undertaking extensive training and outreach to demystify the Green Climate Fund as an instrument to support agriculture, transport and other economic activities.

But Funds available through the GCF and the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), among other financial mechanisms, are currently inadequate to meet the global needs for climate solutions.

According to the African Development Bank (AfDB), African countries need $3trillion by 2030 to implement their Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) targets.

Regional Principal Officer of AfDB, Dr. Olufunso Somorin, said 75percent of the amount will be leveraged from the private sector.

He therefore believes CSOs have a role in brokering increased engagement of the private sector in climate financing.

“The low resourcing of GCF is a concern,” he said. “Attracting private sector investment is a long-term solution”.

Long term engagement of CSO’s towards strengthening broader societal support for transformation and increase accountability of national authorities is critical to achieve GCF paradigms of low-emissions and climate-resilient economies and societies.

By Kofi Adu Domfeh

Africa Climate Week: Groups express concerns over forest decline

Civil society and indigenous forest communities have expressed concerns over the accelerating decline of forests in African countries, and called on drastic measures to reverse the trend.

Around 100 participants from 20 forest-dependent countries across Africa are meeting on the sidelines of the UN “African climate week” to share experiences and exchange ideas on various efforts spearheaded by governments to address deforestation and forest degradation, popularly known as REDD, in Africa.

Welcoming the participants to the meeting, the Executive Director of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), Mithika Mwenda decried the inertia in some governments, but appreciated innovative mechanisms that are being put in place to promote forest preservation.

He particularly pointed at the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), a World Bank-funded mechanism to support forest programmes in support of the global call for action against climate change.

“It’s not enough to agree, sign and adopt the Paris Climate Agreement,” Mithika emphasised. “It is important to move beyond it and take action at local level, at communities we come from.”

“Climate Justice Movement is growing tremendously and we see how it is being energised by young people across the world,” he said, noting that this is the only way to bequeath a better planet to the next generation.

Mithika also expressed the desire of civil society to contribute at the Africa Climate Week and share perspectives on the climate solutions and how they impact on livelihoods and environment.

Joseph Ole Simel, the Executive Director of the indigenous organisation, Mainyoto Peoples Integrated Development organisation (MPIDO), which is co-hosting the meeting with PACJA, reiterated the strength in the collaboration among organisations and people sharing common heritage and challenges.

“The impact of climate change is affecting the vulnerable communities we represent here and thus we need to be very proactive as we cannot be spectators anymore,” he said, adding that indigenous people in Africa will continue with such collaborative efforts until their visibility and impact is assured.

“So far we are doing very well but I think we must do more,” he noted.

The workshop will facilitate regional exchange to encourage first-hand learning and sharing of experiences from civil society and forest dependent IPs engagement in REDD+ processes, and from the Capacity Building Project being implemented by PACJA and MPIDO

The meeting is part of the activities implemented by PACJA and MPIDO, which are intermediaries for the Pan African FCPF Capacity Building Program on REDD+ for CSOs and Forest-dependent IPs supported by the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) of the World Bank.

The two-day meeting seeks to enhance linkages with national REDD+ processes, identify challenges and best practices in forest preservation in Africa.

It will also broaden conversation around the FCPF Capacity Building Program and broader REDD+ Readiness/ implementation processas well as strengthening the REDD+ community of practice among 18 FCPF Countries in Africa through.

Among the countries represented are Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Nigeria, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo and Uganda.

In addition to civil society and indigenous groups, government representatives from some countries also attended the meeting.

AfDB pledges $25 billion to climate finance for 2020-2025

The African Development Bank will double its climate finance commitments for the period 2020-2025, the Bank’s President announced at the One Planet Summit taking place in Nairobi. 
 

Akinwumi A. Adesina said that the Bank would commit at least US$25 billion towards climate finance.

Speaking at a plenary in the presence of Heads of State, including President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, and French President Emmanuel Macron, Adesina also announced the Bank is on course to achieve its target of allocating 40% of its funding to climate finance by 2020, a year ahead.

The Bank’s commitment on the target, the highest among all multilateral development banks, has progressed steadily from 9% in 2016 to 28% in 2017 and 32% in 2018.

Considering Africa’s high vulnerability despite contributing the least to climate change, the African Development Bank has successfully raised its adaptation finance from less than 30% of total climate finance to parity with mitigation in 2018. The African Development Bank will continue this trend into the future.

“The required level of financing is only feasible with the direct involvement of the entire financial sector,” said Adesina. “Consequently, the Bank launched the African Financial Alliance for Climate Change (AFAC) to link all stock exchanges, pension and sovereign wealth funds, central Banks and other financial institutions of Africa to mobilize and incentivize the shift of their portfolios towards low carbon and climate resilient investments.”

The Bank made another milestone announcement. “It is not good enough to simply ask countries to stay away from polluting technologies,” Adesina said. “We have to be proactive in exploring alternatives. We will therefore be launching the ‘green baseload’ facility under the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA 2.0) to provide concessional finance and technical assistance to support the penetration and scale-up of renewable energy, to provide affordable and reliable renewable energy baseload.”

Several donors, including Canada, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Italy, the UK and USAID have indicated their interest in this transformative instrument, which will also help to replace coal. The African Development Bank has played a critical role in building Africa’s clean energy capacities. The Bank’s last investment in a coal project was 10 years ago. Additionally, and in line with its ambitious New Deal on Energy for Africa, 95% of all Bank investments in power generation over the 2016-18 period have been in renewables.

The “Desert to Power” program, a $10 billion initiative to build a 10 GW solar zone across the Sahel—the largest in the world— would provide electricity for 250 million people.  Together with partners such as the Green Climate Fund and the EU, the Bank has now financed the first project under this Initiative: The Yeleen Rural Electrification Project in Burkina Faso.

Key Bank projects include the co-financing of the 510 MW Ouarzazate Solar Complex in Morocco, one of the largest solar complexes in the world.

Campaigners to One Planet Summit ask for real climate solutions for Africa

National and business leaders, as well as prominent figures of youth and civil society, will come together in Nairobi for the One Planet Summit, under the theme of “Africa’s Pledge”. 350Africa and other climate groups will march from the YMCA to the University of Nairobi to call for real climate solutions for the continent.

The much-publicised event has in fact left climate campaigners concerned that the Summit will be another lost opportunity to advance meaningful climate action on the scale and timeline needed to avoid the worst case scenarios of climate change in Africa. 

Kenya President Uhuru Kenyatta will be hosting the 3rd edition of the One Planet Summit, which is convened by French President Emmanuel Macron, with the support of the World Bank and the United Nations.

Officially, the meeting aims to highlight "the unique role of Africa as a global partner facing both challenges and opportunities, especially in the area of innovative solutions for adaptation and resilience" and to promote "the concrete actions needed to accelerate the global transition to a low-carbon economy ".

The World Bank Group is stepping up its climate support for Africa by providing $22.5 billion for Africa for climate adaptation and mitigation for the five years from 2021-2025. This more than doubles the commitment to climate-related projects over the last five years.

The funding is part of the Bank Group’s 2025 Targets to Step Up Climate Action, launched in December 2018 during the UN’s COP24 in Poland. It will help African countries manage the risks of a changing climate while unlocking new investment opportunities. IFC and MIGA, the Group’s private sector arms, will also continue to ambitiously grow their climate activities in Africa.

“People across Africa are already experiencing the growing impacts of climate change. This region is particularly vulnerable to increasing floods, droughts and destructive storms,” said Interim President of the World Bank Group, Kristalina Georgieva. “We have to do more and do it faster, or millions of people could be plunged into poverty. That’s why the World Bank is providing more money to build resilience and help communities cope with the effects of climate change in Africa.”

President Macron launched this initiative in December 2017 to accelerate the implementation of the 2015 Paris Climate agreement, which has seen slow progress, especially in decarbonizing the world economy, helping vulnerable countries and financing the low-carbon transition, particularly in Asia and in Africa.

Landry Ninteretse, Regional Team Leader for 350Africa, said, “Accelerating the global transition towards low carbon emissions means phasing out all fossil fuels projects. Globally, coal plants are being shut down one after another and strong commitments are being made by leaders in the global “North”.

However, Africa remains the only continent where coal seems acceptable, and continues to grow, while it’s the most vulnerable continent to climate change. Ending all coal projects in the short term and committing to not financing any new coal infrastructures is the only meaningful promise we’re expecting from this Summit. Anything short of that would amount to just paying lip service to climate action.”

Clémence Dubois, campaigner at 350 France, said: “French President Macron is convening a summit to advance climate action in and for Africa, while French oil giant Total is still extracting fossil fuels from Western Africa and many large French companies are still involved in fossil fuels extraction and production across the continent. African communities will never be safe from the worst impacts of climate change, as long as fossil fuel operations are rapidly phased out. If Macron is serious about being a climate champion, he should have a chat with French companies still polluting Africa and exploiting its resources. This is the pledge we’d like to see.”