Africa Climate Week in Accra, Ghana, got firmly underway with the commencement of the high-level segment at the capital’s Convention Center.
Speaking at the Opening Ceremony — President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo; Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation; Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng; Mayor of Accra, Mohammed Adjei Sowah, COP24 President, Michał Kurtyka and UN Climate Change Deputy Executive Secretary, Ovais Sarmad – affirmed the need to foster cooperation from all countries and non-Party stakeholders globally to meet the 1.5C temperature goal inked in the Paris Agreement.
The event takes place in the shadows of Cyclone Idai, which has hit Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Malawi, affecting more than 2 million people – a stark reminder of the moral imperative to act on climate change, which experts say is exacerbating such storms.
Media, policymakers and private sector representatives huddled into the Main Hall to welcome the President of the Republic of Ghana who said that, against the backdrop of the disastrous cyclone, Africa Climate Week must “provide more practical solutions to channel financial means towards national climate ambition.” The International Finance Corporation has already put a figure on the investment opportunity of financing these solutions, estimating that the NDCs of 21 emerging market economies alone represents $23 trillion by 2030.
The President – who is both the host of the event and an Ambassador for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – also used his keynote speech to underscore how “climate change is the biggest threat to the attainment of the whole development agenda.”
There are some positive signals: the World Bank announced $22.5 billion over 2021-2025 in climate support in Africa – a commitment which acted as a precursor to their co-hosting of a ‘Carbon Pricing Day’ on the margins of the Africa Climate Week, highlighting how innovative policies and programs can mobilize climate investments, drive social benefits, and reduce carbon pollutions
Africa Climate Week will conclude on March 22, where its outcomes will be presented to the Special Envoy for UN Climate Action Summit, Luis Alfonso de Alba, as a critical input to the Secretary-General’s event on 23 September.
Africa Climate Week is the first of three annual regional climate events this year – the latter two being the Latin America & Caribbean Climate Week and the Asia Pacific Climate Week – information around each of these events will be released shortly. The Africa Climate Week is being orchestrated by a number of core partners, including World Bank Group, African Development Bank, West African Development Bank, CTCN, UNEP, UNEP DTU Partnership, UNDP, IETA, Marrakech Partnership and UN Climate Change.
Original source: UNFCCC
Published on 20 March 2019
