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Africa Climate Meeting In Progress In Nairobi

Panelists and delegates agreed knowing the interconnectedness of issues related to water (SDG 6: Clean water and sanitation), food security (SDG 2: Zero hunger), and energy (SDG 7: Affordable and clean energy), for instance, to the NDCs and Agenda 2063, was essential to manage the continent’s environmental resources in an integrated way.

“Taking into account the interdependencies and interrelatedness of environmental resources, it is essential that we have efficient and cost-effective strategies through the nexus approach for achieving the SDGs and Africa’s Agenda 2063, the Africa we want, especially given the new dire IPCC climate,” said Economic Commission for Africa’s Nassirou Ba.

Mr. Ba, an Economic Affairs Officer with the ECA, and fellow panelists in a session discussing the nexus, agreed political will is what Africa needs if it is to achieve sustainable and equitable development and ensure it leaves no one behind as espoused by the landmark Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development.

Africa's Top Environment and Climate Change Journalists Honoured At Climate Conference

Nairobi — Africa's top environmental journalists were honoured last night at a glitzy ceremony at the ongoing Seventh Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA - VII) conference in Nairobi.

The overall winner of the African Climate Change and Environmental Reporting (ACCER) Awards was Ethiopian Demis Mekuriyaw, who was praised by the judges for outstanding coverage of environmental issues in his country.

"Mekuriyaw is a highly organized and efficient journalist, whose thorough and precise approach to projects has yielded excellent results. He went out of his way on a shoe-string budget to report on climate change and environmental issues affecting his country," the judges said.

Economic Commission for Africa will continue to explore ways to help Africa fight climate change & build resilience, says Africa Climate Policy Centre (ACPC’s) Murombedzi

Devolved governance is playing a crucial role in helping Kenya come up with ways to mitigate effects of climate change at community level, says Mr. Keriako Tobiko, the country’s Environment and Forestry Cabinet Secretary.

In a speech presented during the country’s first National Conference on Climate Governance in Nairobi, Mr. Tobiko said five counties in Kenya were successfully applying a model of devolved climate finance and making a huge difference on the ground.

The County Climate Change Fund mechanism integrates climate risk and empowers poor and vulnerable communities in the face of climate change. The counties have put in place structures and processes to enable them to access and manage climate finance in transparent and accountable manner

African Group Outlines Expectations for COP 24

11 October 2018: African countries have solidified their position and articulated their expectations ahead of the 24th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 24) to the UNFCCC in December 2018, which is expected to finalize implementation guidelines for the Paris Agreement on climate change.

The announcement came during the seventh Conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa, which convened in Nairobi, Kenya, from 10-11 October 2018. African experts identified priorities and expectations for the continent.

Climate Change means more landslides; what’s Uganda’s long term strategy?

In Africa, countries that have experienced such severe landslides in recent years include Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Cameroon, South Africa, DRC, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Uganda. Over 4,000 people have died in the past 10 years and millions of dollars of resources lost because of landslides each year in Africa.

Why UN climate science reports have Africa-shaped gaps

Africa is home to one in six of the world’s people and rising. From its sensitive ecosystems to booming cities, the continent is vulnerable to climate change and increasingly important to tackling it.

Yet fewer than one in ten contributors to a landmark UN report on the science of 1.5C global warming launched this month were African, of whom many were based at universities outside the region.

Seventh Conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA-VII)

10-12 October 2018. Seventh Conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA-VII), Translating nationally determined contributions into concrete actions, 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. 

'Climate change moving faster than we are,' says UN Secretary General

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has said that if the world doesn't change course by 2020, we run the risk of runaway climate change.

Mr Guterres said he was alarmed by the paralysis of world leaders on what he called the "defining issue" of our time.

He wants heads of government to come to New York for a special climate conference next September. More...

Liberia: Environmental Protection Agency Launches Climate Change Policy and Response Strategy

Monrovia – The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with support from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) through the National Adaptation Plans (NAP) project will on Wednesday, August 15, launch the National Policy & Response Strategy on Climate Change.

The NAP project is funded by the Green Climate Fund (GCF).

According to the EPA Communication Specialist, Danise Love Dennis, the event takes place by 11: 00 AM at the Bella Casa Hotel in Sinkor, Monrovia.

The policy was developed with the support from the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa beginning September 2016. It was subsequently validated on January 27, 2017 at a national stakeholders’ meeting. More....

America’s Dropout from the Paris Agreement Signals Important Lessons for Africa

The decision by President Donald Trump to ditch the Paris Climate Agreement to which United States is a signatory might have been a courageous effort to deliver on an election promise but, on a close examination, current estimates on disasters linked to climate vagaries show that his advisers got both the science and the math wrong when they touted economic gains as the main reason for the withdrawal.

Though predictable to the last minute, the announcement to withdraw nevertheless triggered a fiery of reactions with chilling waves of concern across the world; generating different interpretations and contextualization based on its implications and consequences both within and outside the US. More ...

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