African Mayors at Climate Congress Urge Nations to
Make Equitable Global Deal at UNFCCC in Durban

2011/03/03

 

A declaration by African local governments calling on nations to deliver an equitable and comprehensive global deal at the United Nations climate talks to be held in Durban later this year, came out of the Local Climate Solutions 2011 Congress this morning (3 March 2011).

 

The African Mayors Climate Change Declaration urges nations to recognise Africa’s local governments as pivotal partners in implementing climate change action and to build and develop a just and pro-poor framing of the global response to climate change.

 

The Final Declaration can be viewed here in English or French.

 

This declaration will be delivered to the high level segment of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of the Parties 17 (UNFCCC COP17) to be held in Durban at the end of the year, by the host Mayor. 

 

The LOCS2011 Congress was coordinated by ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, an international organization with more than 1200 local government members, in partnership with the City of Cape Town.

 

ICLEI Secretary General, Konrad Otto-Zimmermann, said “Local Governments are at the coalface of climate change. It is at this level of government, closest to the people and communities, where climate change adaptation and mitigation solutions can be found. Cumulative local action driven by local governments in their communities are key to solving the global climate change challenges,” he said.

 

“African cities indicated strongly that they wanted to work closely together, drawing strength from each other.”

 

“LOCS provided an excellent platform for the leaders of African cities to meet and discuss challenges and solutions in the African context, with input from international experts. ICLEI’s sister organizations and representatives from United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) Africa and Local Government Associations from South Africa, Botswana and Rwanda also made use of this Pan-African platform provided by ICLEI,” said Otto-Zimmermann.

 

Mayors and African leaders from more than 50 cities in 25 African countries attended the LOCS2011 Congress. 

 

Otto-Zimmermann said: “As ICLEI we are delighted with the inputs and comments by the various African local leaders into this declaration. We feel it is a strong and worthwhile declaration. Half of the world’s population live in cities, and this figure continues to grow exponentially especially in Africa, nations need to realise the potential of working closely with city leadership.”

 

Development aid agencies and business leaders met with the mayoral delegates in the Mayor Round Table session, to discuss better integration between the difference sectors, and how to build world class cities of the future.

 

South African National Government was represented by Deputy Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, Rejoice Mabudafasi, who spoke about the leading role cities need to play in support of their national governments.

 

More than 60 international organizations were represented, with international leaders such as Green Peace International’s Executive Director, Kumi Naidoo, in attendance. Naidoo said climate change was too big a challenge for only one sector to deal with and that all sectors should work together towards the goal of reducing humanity’s carbon footprint on the planet.

 

United Nations (UN) agencies supported the Congress, including the UN Human Settlements Programme, UN-HABITAT, and UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR), which launched their ‘Making Cities Resilient: My city is getting ready’ campaign for Africa at the LOCS2011 Congress, with three African cities signing up immediately: Entebbe, Walvis Bay and Swakopmund.

 

In the closing plenary this morning, final statements and comments from mayors and leaders were still being incorporated into the declaration text.  

 

Mayors of Swakopmund, Walvis Bay, both of Namibia, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, and Yaounde, the capital city of Cameroon, all gave statements on climate change issues they are experiencing in their cities, and the various programmes and projects they are involved in to deal with these issues. These mayors emphasised the need for African cities to work closely together to ensure African cities learn from each other and move forward successfully.

 

Speakers closing the congress included National Government’s  Surprise Zwane, Department of Environmental Affair’s Assistant Director for Decision Supply Tools, who said national government now sees local government, no longer as another separate sphere of government as was the case, but rather as one government, which deals with national and local priorities.

 

Executive Secretary of Botswana Association of Local Authorities (BALA), Kethomilwe Moletsane, said: “Take action and act locally.”

 

Sélga Ligoussou, from the National Association of Local Governments in Benin, said: “We need to forge partnerships with ICLEI and other partners. All the local governments’ concerns are the same throughout Africa, population increase and urbanisation, so if we have good practices in one area in Africa we should be able to duplicate this everywhere in Africa. We need to get organised ourselves as African local governments so that we can go forward together.”

 

South African Local Government Association (SALGA) infrastructure services executive director, Mthobeli Kolisa, said: “What is the role of Local Government in context of responding to Climate Change? In my view the impact and response to Climate Change is going to happen at the local level and therefore we need to see Climate Change mitigation at the local level. “

 

Kolisa said Local Governments also needed to work to ensure that their communities fully understood the issues of climate change so that they could informatively join the debate on the issue.