Newsletter 75: UN Climate Change High-Level Champions
High-Level Climate Champions
H.E. Ms. Razan Al Mubarak and Ms. Nigar Arpadarai are the High-Level Climate Champions for #COP28 and #COP29.
Africa’s Moment is Upon Us
Africa Climate Week is the first of four Regional Climate Weeks coordinated by the UN Climate Change. It is taking place from 4-8 September 2023 in Nairobi, Africa, hosted by the Government of Kenya. The climate weeks, which will also take place in the Middle East and North Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Asia-Pacific, provide vital opportunities to rally policymakers, cities, subnational regions, business, investors, practitioners, and civil society to address barriers and unlock climate solutions in regions. The climate weeks will also contribute to the Global Stocktake process, concluding at COP 28, by bringing focus to specific, region-relevant, forward-looking actions to accelerate progress towards a resilient 1.5 C trajectory.
Both UN Climate Change High-Level Champions will be attending in Nairobi, as a culmination of their engagement to galvanise stakeholders, from all levels of governments to civil society groups to investors, over preceding months in support of climate action and nature restoration opportunities in Africa. An overview of the High-Level Champions’ engagement at the Africa Climate Summit and Africa Climate Week is available here.
Transforming Africa into a green powerhouse
This is Africa’s moment. There is now an enormous opportunity for the continent to show its importance as a driver of global markets on energy, heavy industry and the burgeoning market for ecosystem services, as a key solutions provider for a net zero and resilient future. For example, according to the IEA, Africa could supply the entire world with affordable low-carbon energy in the form of hydrogen. In addition, Africa could power its rising industry and provide green energy to 600 million Africans who today do not have access to electricity, plus approximately one billion people without means of clean cooking.?
The UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for COP 27, Mr. Mahmoud Mohieldin, as well as Ms. Frannie Leautier, CEO of SouthBridge Investments, recently wrote an article in ‘African Business’ on how African countries, such as Egypt, Morocco, Mauritania and Kenya, could be electrified with renewable power. In doing so, they would create the conditions to produce, use and export green hydrogen. These solutions and many others can combine to power Africa’s economic growth, as well as helping regions such as Europe to realise their climate commitments.?
Realising Africa’s bioeconomy opportunity
After renewable energy, the next best action to support halving net emissions by 2030 is to halt the destruction of forests and instead invest in Africa’s abundant nature and the ecosystem services that it provides. Africa is home to many critical biodiversity hotspots and more than 20% of the world’s protected areas, yet it receives less than 3% of global climate finance. This has to change. The continent is particularly well placed to develop a bioeconomy; by capitalising on restoring and protecting vital carbon sinks. Sustainably managing Africa’s natural gifts would allow numerous Sustainable Development Goals to be met by 2030, while creating jobs, improving health and food security, as well as generating wealth by connecting smallholder farmers to new bio-based value chains.?
To realise the opportunities for Africa’s bioeconomy, it’s critical to draw upon the traditional knowledge of Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and farmers who understand the importance of working with nature, not against it.?
Pioneering African climate solutions
In the wake of the shocking recent wildfires and flooding - in Europe and North America - it’s crystal clear that financing climate adaptation and mitigation is far more cost-effective than financing crisis responses to shocks (not accounting for the tragic human toll of extreme weather events). That’s why the High-Level Champions are supporting actions for investment of public and private finance into projects in developing countries. This drives major impact - firstly in boosting the economy and resilience of regions, as well as supporting the globally-agreed mission to curtail the climate crisis.?
Africa Climate Week is no exception - it will showcase a pipeline of 15 shortlisted projects that can be quickly activated across the continent. For example, investors will be presented with the following bankable opportunities:
Numerous game-changing African projects are seeking projects to raise investment by COP 28, with funding requirements ranging from $3 million to $200 million. For example, a new series of videos below demonstrates the wide range of qualified investment opportunities.
Guest interview: Susan Chomba, Global Director of Vital Landscapes at the World Resources Institute (WRI)
Susan leads the institution’s work on Forests, Food systems and People which includes forest landscape restoration, sustainable agriculture/food systems and thriving rural livelihoods in Africa. Susan is a distinguished global ambassador for the Race to Zero and Race to Resilience under the High-Level Champions.
Realising Africa’s latecomer advantage - empowering a global climate leader in waiting
In her role at the WRI, Ms. Susan Chomba leads the Food, Land and Water programs in Africa under the Vital landscapes pillar. Susan is leading the nature track and has contributed to the Food Systems as a whole at the Africa Climate Summit and the Africa Climate Week next week. Here, Susan explains her vision for the summit - and the opportunity to transform Africa’s food systems - while setting in motion a reset of the global food system as a whole.?
Increasingly, the world is waking up to Africa’s potential as a pivotal leader in the climate crisis. Why is Africa central to the climate change conundrum?
Africa does not bring all of the historical baggage of major emitting countries to the climate crisis. The entire continent contributes less than four per cent of global greenhouse gases, an amount that is absorbed by African forests currently. So, Africa comes to the table with an even ledger in terms of carbon debt. This allows African countries to see two things clearly.?
Firstly, we must avoid coupling the growth of our economies with volatile, polluting fossil fuels. Secondly, we must protect Africa’s existing ability to act as a carbon sink - and more than this, on the way to 2050 we must massively boost the capacity of natural systems to absorb the emissions already locked into the atmosphere.?
I call this “Africa’s latecomer advantage” - it’s a clear perspective that a different path is vital and possible. But make no mistake, Africa cannot realise the opportunity by itself.??
What are the key opportunities for Africa?
Africa has all the ingredients of a global climate leader. Firstly, Africa’s natural resources are unsurpassed, accounting for 30% of the world's mineral reserves, many of which are critical to renewable and low-carbon technologies, such as electric vehicles. The continent is also home to vast areas of uncultivated land and forests, for example, the Congo Basin absorbs four per cent of global carbon emissions annually - even more carbon than the Amazon. These factors add up to huge potential for Africa to pioneer climate mitigation, direct carbon capture, and the transformation of global food systems.?
Secondly, Africa is projected to overtake Asia as the world's fastest-growing region, with a ready market of over 1.4 billion people, twice that of Europe. As Africa also has the youngest population in the world, we’re not entrenched in conventional ways of working. With the right steer new innovation can be designed by Africa’s young people and rapidly scaled across the countries of the continent.
What are the key food challenges faced by Africa?
Africa is one of the world’s critical bread baskets but it’s facing a perfect storm leaving nearly 290 million Africans facing hunger. Almost 60% of arable land on the continent is degraded - and rising, largely due to failed industrial farming methods, placing yields on a downward trajectory.
Climate change is exacerbating food shortages. Agriculture is also one of the sectors most vulnerable to climate change, especially droughts and cyclones, which is increasing in frequency and severity in the Horn of Africa countries, such as Kenya, Ethiopia, and South Sudan. Cyclone Freddie was also one of the most dangerous cyclones of the last few decades; having a massive effect on food security in countries like Malawi. And when extreme weather events of this scale hit, they wipe out previous attempts to bolster food security.?
Simultaneously, the cost of traditional fossil fuel-based fertiliser has soared in African countries such as Kenya, due to the war in Ukraine. With yields falling, prices rising, and without adequate support systems, African farmers are increasingly clearing areas of forest, wetlands and grasslands to feed themselves, which drives further biodiversity and habitat loss. To break this cycle, we must urgently scale-up innovative, regenerative and agroecological practices.?
And lastly, the global food system, including the processing, transport, and retailing of food, is responsible for at least a third of GHGs. So, it’s impossible to meet the 1.5 target unless we address emissions from the food system as a whole - from farm to fork - including food production, transport, processing, through to retail. The good news is that the solutions to decarbonising the core emissions of food production, can also enable land degradation to be addressed, while drastically improving the resilience and health of African communities.
How can the upcoming Africa Climate Week catalyse African climate leadership?
The summit is a major moment to unify African stakeholders to address the climate and finance issues ahead of the COP 28 climate talks. Crucially, the summit is open to all. It’s not just about politicians negotiating at a top-level - it’s an opportunity for the voice of private sector actors, especially smallholder farmers, to be heard. This is crucial. Also, it’s an opportunity to match up innovative ideas and new models with investors that are seeking bankable, long term solutions to the climate crisis. The summit should connect large-scale investors with small-scale innovators on the ground in Africa, so that investment is not just absorbed by big-scale corporate players. We need to consciously catalyse small-scale initiatives, allowing them to grow and attract investors of their own.?
What does success look like for this Africa Climate Week?
Beyond the talks, I want to see changes in policies, new deals for sustainable innovation on energy, food systems and nature. I want to see more positive engagement with civil society, with new faces bringing forth innovative ideas, more innovators farmers, smallholder farmers, and Indigenous Peoples explaining what they’re already doing and what help they need, so that we can link them up with investors, and policymakers. Every segment of African society can be involved, and by working together we can put tangible outcomes on the table.
To read the full interview, including details of the AFR100 and Niger’s Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) restoration projects, please click here.
A video excerpt of the interview can be found here, or please click the picture below:
ACTO Summit: Drawing on Indigenous knowledge to save the forest?
The Amazon rainforest is crucial to a stable global climate. And so, the recent Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organisation (ACTO) Summit was a vital moment to focus leaders’ minds on their duty to protect the rainforest from further damage from deforestation and the impacts of a warming climate. The Summit, held in the Brazilian city of Belém in August 2023, gathered Heads of State from the eight countries spanned by the Amazon, plus international leaders, and civil society, including Indigenous Peoples who have traditionally been overlooked in climate action campaigns.
On the coinciding International Indigenous Peoples’ Day, the High-Level Champion for COP 28, H.E. Ms. Al Mubarak strongly advocated for Indigenous Peoples, the true guardians of the forest, who can draw on centuries of knowledge of protecting their ancestral lands. Indigenous Peoples make up just 6% of the global population, yet their lands are home to an astounding 80% of the world's biodiversity. To empower Indigenous Peoples, H.E. Ms. Al Mubarak called for direct access to finance for Indigenous Peoples and the integration of the food and forest agendas.
H.E. Razan Al Mubarak commented:?
“It is time to embrace a rights-based approach to climate justice that centers on the Indigenous Peoples from the Amazon basin… In doing so, we can ensure Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities have the agency and support needed to protect their lands, livelihoods, and, ultimately, the health of our planet.”
This sentiment was echoed by Brazilian President Lula da Silva, who called for a fairer share of benefits from the Amazon's natural resources - and international finance - to go to forest communities, as part of a "just ecological transition."
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The summit's final declaration did not address a range of urgent priorities, including a proposed goal to end deforestation by 2030, plus ending oil development and illegal gold mining in the Amazon. It’s paramount that stakeholders rally behind the solutions to these issues at the upcoming Latin America and Caribbean Climate Week (LACCW 2023): Panama City, in 23-27 October, and further at COP 28.?
However, the ACTO declaration’s strong support for Indigenous Peoples’ rights and protections was welcomed as a starting point by Indigenous leaders and environmental groups, although they called for promises to be followed up with action.?
Declaration Puts Food on the Table at COP 28
The Leaders Declaration on Food Systems, Agriculture and Climate Action, recently launched at the UN Food Systems Summit+2 (UNFSS+2) in Rome on 24-26 July, strongly urged nations to align their food systems with their climate commitments.
As a co-chair of the Food Systems and Agriculture Agenda at COP 28 (alongside the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and Boston Consulting Group), the High-Level Champions’ are now rallying leaders from across food value chains, from farmers, manufacturers, financiers to civil society, to fast-track the regenerative transition of agricultural landscapes and food systems. Together, these actors can drive major progress across food production, consumption, loss and waste. Food systems are not only vital for meeting societal needs and enabling adaptation to climate impacts but are also responsible for significant greenhouse gas emissions – representing up to 33% of total global emissions. By engaging food system players in this way, nations can correctly understand the opportunity to drive down emissions in our food systems, allowing them to, in turn, strengthen country climate commitments.
Aligning food systems with nature not only yields ecological and health benefits – but also? helps to maintain soil health and increase long term crop yields, reducing the cost of inputs like fertiliser, boosting resilience, and meeting growing demand for sustainably produced foods. As Gonzalo Munoz, former UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for COP25 recently highlighted, “Embracing these solutions can be a win-win-win situation: a healthy planet, healthy people, and a healthier bottom line.”
The Declaration preceded a forecast that global heating is likely to disrupt food supplies well before temperatures rise by the 1.5C target; threatening global agriculture faster than previously expected. The warning, issued by Alain-Richard Donwahi, who led last year’s UN Convention to Combat Desertification summit, COP 15, is yet another key reason for the food value chain to collaborate to create a food system that is resilient to increasing water scarcity.
Race to Zero latest developments:
Race to Zero welcomed the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) as an Accelerator of the Race to Zero after many years of collaboration. WBCSD is a global community of leading businesses driving systems transformation for a world where more than nine billion people can live well, within planetary boundaries, by 2050. Watch this space for a bigger announcement at New York Climate Week.?
Giki, the corporate climate action platform and programme and Race to Zero member, hosted a webinar on the Employee Race to Zero; a new initiative for the 8,300 for Race to Zero member companies that are seeking to educate and engage their employees on sustainability.? ?
Race to Resilience latest developments:
The Resilience Hub is returning to the annual Conference of the Parties (COP) for its third year. Through the partnership with the UN Climate Change High-Level Champions, the Resilience Hub pavilion will continue to serve as the home of the Race to Resilience campaign. This year the Hub will feature a diverse program – available online and in-person, that places resilience front and centre on the climate action agenda at COP 28, delivering on the mission of the partners to accelerate knowledge, action on and investment in climate resilience.?
Race to Resilience partner updates:
Solution Stories:?
Learn more about the Race to Resilience partners leading action from the ground -
Partner: Insuresilience
Partner: Initiative 20×20
Partner: Global Mangrove Alliance
Keeping up with the Champions:
H.E. Ms. Al Mubarak joined leaders including the President of Slovenia and a range of the country’s Government Ministers, plus the International Resource Panel at UNEP, to mark the annual day when humanity's demands on nature exceed Earth's biocapacity. H.E. Ms. Al Mubarak’s address can be found here.
Mohieldin joined the GFANZ Africa Network Board Members in a virtual meeting to advance discussions on regional Climate Finance priorities ahead of the Africa Climate Summit (ACS) and Africa Climate Week (ACW) during the first week of September in Nairobi, Kenya.
The High-Level Champions in partnership with Sharing Strategies have convened the third of their series of Sharing Actions Africa meetings to discuss the upcoming ACS in Kenya. During the meeting, Mohieldin shared his views around the ideal narrative of the Summit encompassing the intersection of climate and SDGs, followed by a presentation from Joseph Ng’ang’a, Africa Climate Summit CEO.
Both Champions attended two days of talks held in Abu Dhabi, where they? highlighted the importance of blended finance for climate action. The talks were convened by the COP 28 Presidency, with delegates including the UN Special Envoy on Climate Action & Finance, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank.
Mohieldin highlighted the status of the centrepiece of the climate finance landscape, the Green Climate Fund (GCF) - in a Financial Times column. The article explained that new finance commitments at the upcoming GCF pledging conference on October 5th in Germany can provide a key signal to the developing world, ahead of COP28.
Mohieldin participated in a virtual roundtable meeting convened by GFANZ in collaboration with the UN Climate Action Team to discuss the establishment of a global coalition of organisations providing capacity building support to emerging markets and developing country financial institutions to facilitate their transition.
On the sidelines of the UN High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development 2023 in New York, Mohieldin met Noor Bint Ali AlKhulaif, Bahraini Minister of Sustainable Development. They discussed Bahrain’s progress against its dual goals of boosting economic development, and meeting the sustainable development goals.
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East Africa Climate Change Network
1 年As an African do you ever have a moment when you think 'enough is enough'? There is so much going wrong in Kenya, East Africa ?and the entire Africa region. There is so much foreign interests and secrets in the wrong hands causing poverty, unemployment, destitution and yet, every day, there are new stories of people fighting back. The people who believe in fighting for the common good of all is Bunge La Mwanainchi and East Africa Climate Change Network, one such grouping wrestling power back where it belongs - in the hands of the many, not a few. They have embarked on pushing for the review and revocation of Colonial 1929 Nile Treaty Agreement signed between the Egypt and British government, the Brits signed the agreement on behalf of its colonies countries. Egypt as of today total country wealth per capita is equivalent to the entire 8 East Africa Countries combined. Help sign the petition for revocation agreement to the Speaker of Kenya National Assembly. https://secure.avaaz.org/community_petitions/en/kenya_parliament_speaker_hon_moses_m_wetangula_revoke_the_colonial_1929_nile_treaty_to_pave_way_for_nature_based_solution_1/fHEahgb&utm_source=sharetools&utm_medium=
East Africa Climate Change Network
1 年Fellow Climate Change,human rights activists and Environmental rights advocates its shoking that a few days before Africa Climate Summit begins our Kenya Parliament is pushing for cooperate capture agenda, good freinds i can bet a trillion,the world over we cannot stop effects and problems related to Climate Change without having effective institutionalized Public Participation Laws.Its 5th time we are petitioning the Kenya Parliament to formulate Public Partipation Act. View our Petition dated yesterday submitted and aknowledged by Kenya National Assembly Speaker. https://climatechangenetwork.blogspot.com/2023/09/climate-change-kenya-parliament-is.html
CEO @ Founder Solar Interchangeable Panels IncThermal Growhouses or Farms , US Patent in Energy & Agriculture, Energy Effective solutions , Project Planning,US Patent sustainable,emissions, climate change.
1 年We have no choice now, but to block the sun from hitting our planet, even if it’s just for a little while to give our trees a chance to grow up