African environment ministers have called upon their governments to create an enabling environment for investments in low emission development to ensure that nations’ climate actions become a tool not just for reducing emissions, but also for supporting accelerated socio-economic progress.
Participants attending a high-level ministerial meeting on the margins of the 17th ordinary session of the Africa Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) discussed the European Union (EU) and UN Environment Programme (UNEP) EU-UNEP Africa Low Emissions Development (LEDS) project, sharing the results, successes and innovations of the project as well as lessons on how it can be scaled up to unlock continent-level investments in national climate action commitments, formally know as Nationally determined Contributions (NDCs).
Africa is the region with the highest rates of ratification of climate action commitments under the Paris Agreement; the Africa LEDS project is a flagship that has demonstrated how countries can establish a structure where these commitments can provide benefits for both climate action and socio-economic progress on the continent.
Key stakeholders participating in the high-level breakfast included representatives of countries that implemented the Africa LEDS project, all AMCEN Member States, a representative from the European Union – which financed the project – and representatives from the African Union and UNEP, the project’s lead implementer.
Speaking on behalf of Cameroon, the Secretary-General of the country’s Ministry of Environment, Ms. Prudence Galega, said: “Through the project, the country’s capacity for bridging science-policy implementation gaps in NDCs implementation was enhanced on multiple levels.”
Expressing appreciation to the European Commission (EC) for investing in low emissions development in Africa and to UNEP for its technical support, countries called for the replication of the successes of the Africa LEDS project continentally as part of the framework for NDCs implementation in Africa.
Speaking at the event, UNEP Deputy Executive Director Ms. Joyce Msuya thanked countries for implementing the project and the EC for its partnership.
“To support the transition of the successes of the Africa LEDS project from project level towards scaling up, where it becomes a framework for NDCs implementation, it was important to examine how to get there,” she said. “Such a transition requires clarity in establishing what worked and what did not work; appreciating the differing country contexts is critical to scaling up these successes across the continent.”
The ministerial meeting also saw the affirmation of the “Accra Action Agenda on Low Emissions Development Strategies (LEDS) For Africa” adopted by state and non-state actors from project and non-project countries during the project close-out meeting in June 2019.
Original source: UN Environment
Published on 18 November 2019
