Africa Climate Week Ends With Increased Momentum For Climate Action Ahead Of COP27

This year’s Africa Climate Week (ACW 2022) ended last weekend in Libreville, Gabon, having helped build important regional momentum in the fight against climate change ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference COP27 in Egypt in November.

According to a statement by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the event brought together more than 2,300 participants from governments, multilateral organizations, the private sector and civil society in person, with many more joining the over 200 individual sessions virtually.

The meeting explored two key themes that are critical for Africa and indeed the world – striving for a global average temperature rise of 1.5 degrees Celsius and attaining a resilient future.

The opening session featured a ministerial dialogue on the challenges of mobilizing and accessing climate finance at scale to spur the implementation of countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and priority national climate plans and strategies.

According to the African Development Bank, Africa will need as much as $1.6 trillion between 2020-2030 to implement its climate action commitments and NDCs.

Egypt’s Foreign Minister and COP27 President-Designate, Sameh Shoukry, said: “The discussions at Africa Climate Week have reiterated the need to further accelerate climate action on all fronts, namely in adaptation, loss and damage, climate finance, and adopting more ambitious mitigation measures to keep the 1.5-degree target within reach. The geopolitical realities and energy crisis confronting the world have opened the door for backtracking on climate commitments and we must do everything to ensure this does not happen. COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh will strive to continue the vital dialogue needed to move from ambition to action. Working with all parties to deliver implementation that will see a just and managed transition to a new and sustainable economic model to save lives and livelihoods.”

Lee White, Gabon’s Minister of Water, Forests, the Sea, and Environment, said: “Here in Libreville, we have truly seen the powerful potential of regional collaboration to create credible and durable responses to climate change. As we head towards COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, in just a few weeks’ time, regional collaboration needs to be stronger than ever. COP27 must be the implementation COP, where we show how the Paris Agreement will be achieved through policies and programmes, through innovation and transformation.”

By Tribune Online
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