In the assessment reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, it has been consistently demonstrated that warming throughout Africa, consistent with anthropogenic climate change, has increased considerably over time. Future impacts are also likely to be overwhelming and substantial, causing wide fluctuations in thermal and precipitation dynamics. In response to the current and future impacts of climate change, the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change agreed to submit intended nationally determined contributions as the new global climate governance framework to limit the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2oC above pre-industrial levels. With the signing of the Paris Agreement on climate change, those contributions became nationally determined contributions, on which the global climate actions will be built after 2020. As of June 2018, of the 54 African countries that are signatories to the Paris Agreement, 44 have submitted their nationally determined contributions to the Framework Convention. Having embraced the green growth pathway outlined in Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want and the Paris Agreement, the imperative for African countries is to re-examine their options for the implementation of nationally determined contributions under the changing global political landscape to effectively promote climate resilience and low carbon emission development. Translating nationally determined contributions into concrete actions, however, requires, among other things, implementation plans that prioritize specific sectoral climate actions and predictable finance flows, sustained capacity-building and the transfer of relevant technologies from developed countries. This, in turn, calls for serious dialogue and interaction between policymakers, scientists and researchers, as well as other stakeholders, to support the translation of the nationally determined contributions into action plans and programmes. The seventh Conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa will therefore bring together various stakeholders to interrogate Africa’s nationally determined contributions and define actionable climate agendas. This gathering will build on the sixth Conference, which focused on understanding the implementation implications, challenges and opportunities of the Paris Agreement in the context of Africa’s development priorities prior to it coming into effect on 4 November 2016. In keeping with the Conference’s founding philosophy, the seventh meeting is intended to facilitate science-practice-policy dialogue. Three themes will guide this dialogue: advancing the implementation of the nationally determined contributions in Africa, the role of climate information and services in support of those contributions and climate finance for them. By uniting different platforms, parallel sessions and exhibitions for dialogue and interaction, the seventh Conference will facilitate and enrich the sharing of lessons from the implementation of nationally determined contributions, key research findings and outreach and policy uptake, as well as stimulate investment.
Nationally determined contributions of Africa
Partnerships with regard to nationally determined contributions
- To provide space and facilitate science-practice-policy dialogue to unpack the options available for the implementation of the contributions in Africa
- To address the missing links for enhanced uptake and use of Climate Information and Services into development planning, policy and practice in Africa, including sectoral contributions
- To understand the various options to finance climate action, including the modalities for unlocking available and new forms of climate finance, such as leveraging market mechanisms for climate actions and sustainable economic development.
Advancing the implementation of nationally determined contributions in Africa
- Explore the various policy options that Africa can adopt in order to support and ensure the implementation of the Paris Agreement in realistic, equitable and effective ways, consistent with Africa’s sustainable development objectives
- Provide the opportunity for countries to share their experiences and challenges with nationally determined contributions preparedness in the context of the Talanoa dialogue
- Identify various possibilities contained in the Paris Agreement and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Sustainable Development Goals, Agenda 2063, the Addis Ababa Actions of the Third International Conference on Financing for Sustainable Development and other development frameworks to ensure that climate change is mainstreamed into all development processes
- Discuss the need to raise the levels of ambition by all stakeholders, such as national and local governments and municipal authorities, civil society and the private sector.
- Identify the role of climate information services in the implementation of nationally determined contributions, especially its contribution to appropriate adaptation planning in a changing climate
- Explore ways of enhancing the uptake and use of Climate Information Services in development planning, policy and practice, including nationally determined contributions in Africa
- Identify an integrated approach for co-designing, co-producing and co-communicating climate services in support of the implementation of nationally determined contributions
- Discuss the potential opportunities for and challenges of private sector participation in the production and delivery of public goods, including climate information and services
- Showcase and share best practices for the development of climate services on the continent.
- Explore Africa’s options in mobilizing domestic and other sources of finance for climate action and sustainable economic development
- Explore policies, frameworks and mechanisms needed to secure climate finance to implement African nationally determined contributions
- Interrogate opportunities in the private sector to secure climate finance investment to facilitate the implementation of nationally determined contributions.
- Policymakers and technocrats, including African parliamentarians and representatives of the ministries of finance and economic planning of various African countries, the African Group of Negotiators on climate change and Gabon (which has expressed much interest in the Africa Adaptation Initiative)
- Research institutions and scientists: Climate Research for Development in Africa and academia, including universities, regional climate centres and research centres
- Civil society organizations
- Development partners international organizations
- Private sector.