African High-Level Representatives discuss joint positions on climate change
30 March 2010, Lilogwe, Malawi, and Nairobi, Kenya
From 25 to 30 March, African high-level representatives held several meetings to discuss a joint strategy on climate change and development, particularly in regard to the ongoing climate negotiations. The meeting series started with a meeting of the Committee of Experts of the African Union (AU), followed by the 2010 Joint Annual Meetings of the AU Conference of Ministers of Economy and Finance, and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) Conference of Ministers of Finance, Planning and Development. The later took place in parallel to the meeting of African Climate Change Negotiators in Nairobi, Kenya.
Committee of Experts meeting
- Local governments met with the national delegation of Nigeria at the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen in December 2009
25-28 March, Lilogwe, Malawi
During the meeting, a experts discussed a report titled “Climate Change and Development in Africa”. The report includes policy recommendations on integrating climate change needs into national decision making in order to strengthen Africa’s coordination and negotiation structures and mechanisms in light of the lessons learned at the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen, to ensure Africa’s effective participation and to refine its position in the upcoming international climate negotiations (see also Climdev-Africa Programme for capacity building for climate change negotiatiors);
The report also requests further reforms in the current governance system for climate change financing and the quick operationalization of the Copenhagen Green Climate Fund, as well as technical, institutional and managerial capacity-building to effectively access and use these funds. Finally, the report notes the need to develop a sub-programme on climate change and development at UNECA to ensure the sustainability of ongoing interventions aimed at addressing the climate change challenge in Africa.
Joint Annual Meetings of the AU Conference of Ministers of Economy and Finance and UNECA Conference of Ministers of Finance, Planning and Development
29-30 March, Lilogwe, Malawi
During this high-level meeting, Abdoulie Janneh, UN Under-Secretary-General and UNECA Executive Secretary stressed the need for Africa to act collectively in order to reduce its vulnerability to external shocks, while ensuring that international processes take account of its interests and concerns, in particular in the context of the climate change. Janneh remarked that Africa’s decision to negotiate “as one” at the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference enabled the continent to “move from being victims to active participants in shaping a post-Kyoto climate change regime.” He called on finance ministers to ensure sufficient resources to meet the costs of mitigation and adaptation, while ensuring that the potential contribution of carbon trading to development financing is actualized.
Cheick Sidi Diarra, Under-Secretary General, Special Adviser for Africa and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (SIDS), stressed that developed countries should support LDCs to adapt to climate change through providing adequate, predictable, sustainable financial resources aimed at reducing vulnerability and to enabling them to strengthen their resilience to climate change, as called for in the Copenhagen Accord.
African Climate Change Negotiators meeting
- Local governments met with one of South Africa’s chief negotiators during the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen in December 2009
29-30 March 2010, Nairobi, Kenya
About 40 African climate change negotiators met in Nairobi, Kenya, to discuss - inter alia -the implementation the preparation of a comprehensive framework of African climate change programmes and its associated frameworks of sub-regional climate change programmes.
The meeting was jointly convened by the African Union Commission (AUC) and the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN). The meeting was co-financed by AMCEN and the AUC through the AUC Capacity Building Programme on Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs), which is an European Commission-funded programme for African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. The main objective of this programme is to enhance developing countries’ capacities to meet their obligations under MEAs.