With the theme: ‘Stepping Up Climate Action for Resilient Economies in Africa’, the Conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa aims to foster articulations for the environment by 2020. It also broadens Africa’s voice at the New York summit in September, creating a union among African countries.
“The conference is important as it will discuss the impacts of climate change on the continent. Just earlier in the year we had cyclone Idai that killed thousands in Southern Africa and destroyed infrastructure estimated to be worth over a billion dollars. Those are real consequences that are impacting people’s lives on the continent which will be discussed during the meeting, among other topics,” says Mr. James Murombedzi, Chief of the African Climate Policy Center (ACPC) of United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).
The event will take place at the African Union Conference Center in Addis Ababa from 28 to 30 August. According to Mr. James Murombedzi, everything is ready for the Eighth Conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA VIII).
The conference, intends to examine the Africa’s Nationally Determined Contributions and define additional actionable climate interventions to alleviate the impacts of climate change on ordinary people.
“I want to hear about how we are going to stop the increase in emissions by 2020, and dramatically reduce emissions to reach net-zero emissions by mid-century.” said United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres.
Mr. Guterres has convened the Climate Action Summit in September. He has also called on world leaders to come to the meeting with concrete, realistic plans to enhance their nationally determined contributions by 2020, in line with reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 45 per cent over the next decade, and to net zero emissions by 2050 as called for by the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report.
The Climate Action Summit is organized along six key themes: climate finance and carbon pricing, energy transition, industry transition, nature-based solutions, infrastructure, cities and local action, resilience and adaptation.
The 8th CCDA Conference is organized by the African Climate Policy Center (ACPC) and convenes under the auspices of the Climate for Development in Africa (ClimDev-Africa) programme. ClimDev is a consortium of key African development institutions, including the United Nations Economic Commission for África (ECA), the African Union and the African Development Bank.