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African governments and civil society join the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (SB50) in Bonn, Germany, amid highly disturbing memories of the recent impacts of extreme weather events on the continent, particularly in Mozambique, Malawi and in Zimbabwe.
The African continent is under more extreme pressure than ever because of these extreme events.
African civil society, under the umbrella of the Pan-African Alliance for Justice and Climate (PACJA), called for urgent climate action and support to deal with such extreme events.
Last year, in Katowice, a call was made for a comprehensive and balanced program of work on the Paris Agreement that takes into account equity and justice and serves as an anchor for the implementation of the Paris Agreement.
But this ambition remains to be realized.
In a press release signed by Mithika Mwenda, executive director of PACJA, African civil society organizations outlining the expectations of the Bonn climate talks:
Loss and damage
We call for a commitment to the implementation of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage and need a predictable financing approach for loss and damage in Africa. Africa continues to suffer huge economic losses in billions of dollars from climate change impacts, coupled with unquantified social losses, as a result of climate-induced displacement of people, triggering conflict. In Mozambique, 3 million people are affected, with damage estimated at 1.4 billion USD and losses at 1.4 billion USD. Recovery and reconstruction are estimated at USD 2.9 billion. In Malawi, the president said the state of national disaster caused by devastating floods, which affected more than 870,000 people. According to an badessment by the World Bank and UNDP after the disaster, it would take about US $ 222 million for the recovery. In addition, in Zimbabwe, the drought caused by El Nino has affected 5.3 million people and 234 million are needed to avoid hunger. It is disturbing to continue to hear the response regarding loss and damage as insurance. This might be possible in developed countries, but NOT in developing countries, especially in Africa, it is an exaggerated dream.
Climate finance
We expect climate finance to remain a crucial negotiating topic. We expect that a clear agreement on achieving the commitment of US $ 100 billion a year for the financing of the fight against climate change by 2020 be adopted, which should include a Ambitious replenishment of the Green Climate Fund (GCF). The parties should also agree to discuss a new financial financing goal for the post-2025 climate for $ 100 billion USD. Unless there is a direct and explicit link between Articles 9.5 and 9.7 and Article 13, much of this exercise will consist of a superficial presentation without any meaningful evaluation of the support provided. As an African civil society, we believe that the modalities of accounting for the financial resources provided and mobilized through public interventions through the transparency framework to be used by developed country Parties should reflect the information provided in the communication. indicative biennial support.
Adaptation
Adaptation being one of the fundamental elements of the Paris Agreement, it is necessary to obtain clear results to operationalize the Adaptation component of the Agreement, to strengthen the flows of aid to adaptation actions. developing countries. A clear result is needed to enable the implementation of the communication on adaptation with clear and consistent information that will allow to evaluate the overall progress made in achieving the overall goal of the project. ;adaptation.
Mitigation
We should identify clear options on issues related to the scope of NDC mitigation, take additional steps on clarity and understanding information without undermining the obvious flexibility and differentiation of NDCs between developed and developing countries. under Article 4.3, with clear results for developed countries as the lead for mitigation measures, and developing countries using improved means of implementation to increase their ambition.
Agriculture
Agriculture is a key economic driver in Africa. We welcome the progress made so far in the adoption of Decision 4 / CP.23 on the Konrovia Joint Work Program (KJWA), which represents a major step forward in the negotiations on agriculture in the UNFCCC framework. Its implementation will require joint efforts of the two subsidiary bodies, as well as the bodies established under the Convention and other relevant stakeholders. We recognize the importance of Koronivia's joint work on agriculture to make recommendations on strengthening the resilience of agricultural and food production systems, as well as on sustainable and predictable access to adequate means of implementation. including technology transfer and predictable and adequate funding.
Capacity? building
We emphasize that there is a need to strengthen the long-term capacity of developing countries, including by strengthening the capacity of climate change institutions; capacity building should at all times be country-driven and country-driven. In addition, capacity building should take a multi-stakeholder approach, including all stakeholders and supportive legislation to facilitate this. We call for providing support for the Capacity Building for Transparency Initiative (CBIT), for securing additional resources and for keeping promises of existing voluntary contributions. We also call for the provision of financial resources to support country-led capacity building initiatives.
Sex
We note the importance of gender considerations in policies that support adaptation, mitigation, financing, development and technology transfer activities, including capacity-building, and we recognize the progress made in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals. implementation of gender-related decisions under the Convention. We call on the Parties to redouble their efforts to ensure that women are represented in all aspects of the Convention process, and gender mainstreaming in all the processes and activities of the Convention. Convention.
Fresh energy to push negotiations
We call on the parties present in Bonn, Germany, to show renewed energy and advance the negotiations to achieve concrete results that will address this serious concern of Africa. The world is watching our ambition in the implementation of the Paris Agreement, because it will determine whether we are serious about solving the climate change problem or whether it is pure rhetoric.
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