Climate Change News update

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1.United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
Countdown to Copenhagen:
http://unfccc.int/2860.php

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2.Accra Climate Change Talks 2008
The latest round of United Nations climate change negotiations took place in Accra, Ghana, from 21-27 August. The Accra Climate Change Talks took forward work on a strengthened and effective international climate change deal under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, as well as work on emission reduction rules and tools under the Kyoto Protocol. This is part of a negotiating process that will be concluded in Copenhagen at the end of 2009. Over 1600 participants attended the Accra meeting, which was the third major UNFCCC gathering this year.The venue for the sessions was the Accra International Conference Center (AICC). A limited number of side events and exhibits focused on the Accra Climate Talks took place.
http://unfccc.int/meetings/intersessional/accra/items/4437.php
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3.African countries ask for climate change funding
UN: Africa needs at least $1 billion a year to manage the effects of climate change such as sinking islands, changing farming techniques and relocating people from areas affected by extreme weather.

AP/Michael von Bülow 02/06/2009 10:30

Africa contributes little to global warming but suffers disproportionately from its effects, the continent's environment ministers said Friday, calling for more money and support from rich nations ahead of a landmark climate conference. The ministers, meeting in Nairobi, said they will ask for funding from rich nations at December's U.N. conference in Copenhagen of 190 countries. They did not give a figure, but the U.N. says Africa needs at least $1 billion a year to manage the effects of climate change such as sinking islands, changing farming techniques and even relocating people from areas affected by extreme weather. Buyelwa Sonjica, South Africa's water affairs and environment minister, said she wants "stronger leadership from the developed world ... I am not sure it is there yet." In recent years, Africa has begun to experience the effects of a swiftly warming planet, exacerbating an already existing litany of woes on the world's poorest continent. (Photo of Buyelwa Sonjica: Scanpix/AFP)
Read more
AP: African officials ask for climate change funding
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4. African environment ministers reach significant climate change accord – UN
29 May 2009 – The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) today announced a landmark agreement reached by over 30 African ministers to mainstream climate change adaptation measures into national and regional development plans, policies and strategies.
The Nairobi Declaration adopted at the Special Session of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) aims to ensure adequate adaptation to climate change in the areas of water resources, agriculture, health, infrastructure, biodiversity and ecosystems, forest, urban management, tourism, food and energy security and management of coastal and marine resources.
The Declaration also calls on the international community to support the continent in implementing climate change programmes while at the same time achieving sustainable development, with an emphasis on the most vulnerable, such as women and children, who bear the brunt of the impact of global warming.
“Africa’s environment ministers have today signalled their resolve to be part of the solution to the climate change challenge by forging a unified position, within their diversity of economies, in advance of the crucial UN climate change convention meeting in Copenhagen in just 192 days time,” said UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.
The head of UNEP, which hosts the AMCEN secretariat, added that the “development prize for Africa is an acceleration of clean and renewable energy projects and payments for carbon-storing ecosystems from forests up to eventually perhaps dry land soils, grasslands and sustainable agriculture.”
Mr. Steiner stressed that Africa has “shouldered its domestic and global responsibilities. It is now time for other continents and countries, especially the developed economies, to now seriously shoulder theirs.”
According to UNEP, Africa has the lowest per capita greenhouse gas emissions rate, but bears the highest impact of climate change. It is predicted that some African countries will suffer reduced harvests of up to 50 per cent from rain-fed agriculture by 2020. During the same timeframe, between 75 million and 250 million people are expected to be exposed to increased water stress due to changes in the continent’s environment.
Since the Kyoto Protocol – a UN treaty designed to limit greenhouse gas emissions – was drawn up in 1997, there has been some progress in acknowledging the need to support adaptation in developing countries. However, little has been done, with the cost of adaptation in Africa estimated between $1 billion to $50 billion per year.
The AMCEN gathering brought around 300 African negotiators, high-level experts, civil society organizations and ministers together with a view to work towards a shared vision on climate change and develop a single African voice in Copenhagen and to advance the continent’s interests in negotiations for the climate change regime beyond 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol expires.
The Declaration highlights the need for a coherent financial mechanism to battle climate change, with equitable governance and simplified access procedures.
In this regard, African ministers are advocating for the improvement and modification of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in order to ensure equitable geographical distribution of projects that contribute to sustainable development efforts on the continent.
They are also calling for the expansion of eligible categories to benefit from carbon credits and other international incentives to include sustainable land use, agriculture and forest management, in order to promote agricultural productivity in a way that improves resilience and adaptation to climate change.
They recommend that the Group of Eight (G-8) industrialized nations implement the recommendation to create a regional climate centre in Africa to improve climate risk management and to carry out the regional strategy for disaster-risk reduction.
As well as pressing for modification in the CDM and other international incentives – such as carbon credits – to include sustainable land use, agriculture and forest management, the ministers called on developed countries to set ambitious targets to reduce their emissions by 2020.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=30965&Cr=climate+change&Cr1

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5.Africa to present common voice at climate conference

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African countries are expected to present a common voice at the forthcoming conference on climate change to be held in December in Copenhagen, Demark, a Nigerian official said in Abuja on Wednesday.

Victor Fodeke, Head of the Climate Change Special Unit in the Federal Ministry of Environment, said Nigeria's position on climate change is not different from the position of most African countries.

He said presenting a common voice at the talks is necessary for African countries, which, like other developing countries, contribute a meager 3 percent of green house gases but are the most vulnerable to the impact of climate change.

Fodeke said Africa's position at the conference would be geared at strengthening the continent's resolve to adapt to policies that would help it to curtail the adverse impact of climate change.

He said such policies should be proactive, in order to help the continent manage the adverse consequences of climate change.

Fodeke added that to mitigate the effects posed to Africa by climate change, African leaders have to reach the conclusion that four issues must be addressed in the efforts to combat climate change.

He listed the issues as adaptation, mitigation, capacity building and technology transfer.

Fodeke said the issues would constitute the four pillars in negotiations with developed countries to assist African countries absorb the impact of climate change, and challenge the developed nations to honor their commitment to Africa.

"It is important for developed countries to make short term commitments to Africa that are measurable, verifiable and reportable,'' the News Agency of Nigeria quoted him as saying.

The climate change expert said unlike the developed nations, Africa does not possess the technology and know-how to absorb the adverse impact of climate change.

"That is why Africa is more vulnerable to climate change, because it does not possess the capacity and technology to tackle its adverse impact,'' he added.

(Xinhua News Agency June 11, 2009)
http://www.china.org.cn/environment/news/2009-06/11/content_17927158.htm

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6.Statement to the Special AMCEN Session on Climate change

by Mithika Mwenda, PACJA Coordinator

Your Excellency the President of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment;

Distinguished Delegates;

The able Secretariat of UNEP/ROA;

Ladies and Gentlemen;

The Pan African Climate Justice Alliance is delighted to have the opportunity to address this important Forum in such a historic and important year as we marshal our troops to win a climate change deal in Copenhagen that assures vulnerable people in Africa descent livelihoods.

Achieving a deal that is fair, equitable, ecologically just and adequate will not be easy, but it is almost indispensable. Copenhagen, thus, must be a key turning point for climate justice – a crucial milestone on the journey to stabilizing the Earth’s climate and securing the rights and aspirations of all people.

The injustice of climate change in Africa

The global impacts of, and responsibilities for, climate change are unequally shared. The tragic irony is that those with the least responsibility for climate change stand to suffer most from current and future consequences. Without intervention, climate change is likely to exacerbate existing global inequalities. The developmental gains secured in Africa are at risk of being wiped out and the challenge of achieving sustainable development, particularly the Millennium Development Goals, will become even more difficult and urgent.

The 53 African countries are responsible for less than 4% of global emissions and have over 15% of the global population. The developed countries have emitted almost three quarters of all historical emissions but they represent less than one fifth of the world’s population. Africa is not historically responsible for climate change, but must all take responsibility for responding to its impacts and demanding climate justice from developed nations.

Gender

Climate change impacts men and women differently. The majority of the poor in Africa are women, and we believe that women are the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. It is our submission that climate change response strategies need to take the specific needs of women into account – this must go beyond rhetoric and become a fundamental and practical element of all African climate change response strategies and actions.

Calling on Annex 1 Mitigation action

PACJA believes that the proposals by developed countries in the climate negotiations, on both mitigation and adaptation, are inadequate. They seek to pass on the costs of adaptation and mitigation, avoiding their responsibility to finance climate change response efforts in Africa. As the basis of a fair and effective climate solution, we call on Annex 1 countries to acknowledge and repay the full measure of their climate debt to African countries. We also call on Annex 1 countries to collectively agree to cut their emissions to at least 45% below 1990 levels by 2020 and at least 90% by 2050 - with all reductions to be achieved within those countries, not through carbon offsetting.

We note with concern that the draft declaration for this AMCEN meeting only refers to emissions cuts that are “towards the upper end of the 25-40% range”, once more leaving a loophole to be exploited by those who are not interested in taking action.

Adaptation

PACJA would like to highlight the following points:

Adaptation finance must be additional to existing ODA commitments and in the form of grants and not loans.
Adaptation should foster the realisation of fundamental human rights and should build social, economic and environmental resilience.
The financial governance of adaptation funds must be representative, robust and accountable and under the auspices of the UNFCCC. The governance structure should include civil society representation.
Furthermore, Africa is one of the world’s most important reservoirs of soil and other terrestrial carbon, estimated to account for at least 20% of the world’s entire stock of forest carbon and a great share of its agricultural carbon with very large potential for additional sequestration and other mitigation efforts.

We recommend that the programmmes and the structures currently being developed, including the proposed mechanism for crediting reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) be suited to the conditions that prevail in Africa. It is essential to ensure synergy between REDD and the full range of agriculture, forestry and other land uses (AFOLU). Further more, deforestation and other land uses change are currently estimated to account for over 30% of green house gas emissions.

The Global Environment Facility (GEF)

PACJA realises that while new funding mechanisms are being put in place, some interim measures will have to exist. If the GEF is to be used as one of the interim financing mechanisms, its governance must be given a significant and rapid overhaul to make it more efficient and easier to access. There is widespread frustration with, and distrust towards, the GEF in Africa. One member of our alliance related that in his country, people joke that it is easier to get a camel through the eye of a needle than it is to get money out of the GEF.

African Governments’ support for climate change negotiations and national action

The recent global financial crisis and enthusiasm with which the developed nations responded with generous bail outs and other rescue measures demonstrate their capacity to deal with emergencies. However, their reluctance to exhibit similar response to the climate-induced catastrophes in Africa clearly shows their lack of good faith. Our negotiators must not fail to bear that in mind while dialoguing for a post-2012 climate change agreement.

Recognizing that African governments are the primary duty bearers for our peoples, PACJA urges them to demonstrate leadership on climate change by:

Developing an international engagement strategy that puts pressure on the industrialized countries primarily responsible for historic emissions to repay their adaptation debt to developing countries by committing to full financing and compensation for the adverse effects of climate change on all affected countries, groups and people;
Ensuring that our climate change negotiation teams are well supported and resourced, both financially and in terms of skilled experts.
Ensuring consistency and continuity of skilled African negotiators at UNFCCC meetings.
Urgently establishing and implementing national climate change strategies in a consultative, multi-stakeholder manner, ensuring buy-in from all ministries. These strategies must be gender sensitive.
Ensuring that climate change is mainstreamed in all national developmental agenda.
Madam President, distinguished delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen, PACJA thanks AMCEN and the African Group of negotiators for their continued effort and leadership in consolidating a common negotiating position, which, no doubt, will tilt the scale towards a pro-people agreement once the community of nations gather in Copenhagen later in the year. We have the numbers, and this is the time to put them into use. The African civil society, and indeed the people of Africa, will be watching the run up to Copenhagen and the work of our delegations and Governments with keen interest and expectation. PACJA is willing to constructively engage with you, and continually contribute to this effort wherever possible, and wherever called upon to.

Thank you.
http://www.unep.org/roa/Amcen/Amcen_Events/3rd_ss/Docs/Speeches/PACJA.pdf

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• Scientists to Create First-Ever Detailed Digital Map of Sub-Saharan Africa’s Depleted Soils
• Global Climate Talks Must Address Agriculture OneWorld.net (U.S.)
• Global Climate
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