Wednesday, December 16, 2015
PAMACC on Radio France International
Journalists from across the globe gathered in Paris over the
past two weeks to cover the Cop21 climate change conference. Africa has
been high on the agenda during the conference with discussions about
financing for clean energy initiatives and preparing for the impact of
global warming. But coverage of these stories is frequently dominated by
the powerful western media. So what do African journalists think, what
are their audiences interested in and what has it been like for them to
cover Cop21? RFI spoke with three journalists from the Pan African Media Alliance for Climate Change (PAMACC)
Friday, December 11, 2015
Africa demonstrates the possibility of a green economy
By Isaiah Esipisu
As
curtains close on the 21st session of the Conference of Parties
(COP21) on climate change in Paris after 12 days of negotiation, Africa has
demonstrated to the world that it is possible to invest and develop using
climate friendly means.
With
clear examples, several African countries demonstrated how they have invested
in climate friendly projects such as renewable energy, climate smart
agriculture, agroforestry, tree reforestation, and many other projects that
limit emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
African Civil Society says the draft outcome of COP21 is unacceptable
The
much-awaited draft text on the UNFCCC Conference of Parties (COP21) is out, but
members of the civil society from Africa feel that it is unacceptable.
“We
need to articulate our objection to our respective parties as chances of accessing
the plenary are slim,” said Mithika Mwenda, the Secretary General for the Pan
African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) – an umbrella organization that brings
together over 1000 nongovernmental organisations from Africa.
Wednesday, December 9, 2015
Draft agreement on COP 21 Climate Change negotiations in Paris
After 10 days of negotiations, climate scientists, politicians, gender representatives, representatives of indigenous people have finally come up with a draft text that will be the basis for a new deal to be struck in the in Paris.
Click here to see the text
Click here to see the text
Solving climate crisis will require more dissemination of skills
PARIS France, (PAMACC News) – As Africa
prepare to embark on the path towards green development, technocrats on the
ninth day of climate change negotiations in Paris have observed that there will
be need to invest much more in training particularly the youth, who are drivers
of the future economy.
In
an event hosted by the Africa Development Bank (AfDB) to discuss skills and
human capital development for green growth and climate adaptation in Africa,
Guy Ryder, the Director General for the International Labour Organisation (ILO)
said that solving the climate crisis and solving the global unemployment crisis
are two interrelated challenges that must be integrated.
Tuesday, December 8, 2015
Climate Information to be used for Adaptation
PARIS, France (PAMACC News) – Availing
climate information to households on the ground is one of the best ways of
adapting to climate change; delegates at the 21st session of climate
negotiations (COP21) have been informed.
Speaking
at a side event on the eighth day of the negotiations in Paris, scientists,
lawyers, policy makers donors and members of the civil society observed that
there exists a gap, which makes it difficult for climate information to flow
from the scientists and members of the community.
Can Africa’s regional flagship programme change its development narrative?
By Elias NtungweNgalame
PARIS, France (PAMACC Africa) - ‘If we want Africa to achieve land
degradation neutrality by 2030, if Africa must transform its agriculture and
drive its development priorities to acceptable levels, then we have to take the
regional flagship programmes outlined by NEPAD and partners very serious »
cautioned Estherine Fotabong, Director of Programmes NEPAD Agency, as she opens
the curtains for a panel discussion on Africa’s Green Growth Strategies at a
side evet at COP21 December 5, 2015.
Monday, December 7, 2015
Zambia stands with Africa for greater climate financing transparency
By Friday Phiri
PARIS, France (PAMACC News) - Zambia supports the position of the African Group of
Negotiators for greater transparency on the global financing mechanism in the
new climate agreement that is being negotiated in Paris, France.
Highlighting some key emerging issues as outlined by the
AGN’s briefing to the African Ministerial Conference on Environment-(AMCEN) at
the Africa Pavilion, Zambia’s focal point person at the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Richard Lungu said greater
transparency in the new agreement will be a crucial component in moving forward.
Paris talks: Its a binding legal agreement or nothing—African ministers
By Sellina Nkowani
PARIS, France (PAMACC News) - African environment ministers under
the auspices of the African Ministerial Council on Environment (AMCEN) have
restated their resolve to collectively demand for a binding legal agreement
from the ongoing Paris climate conference.
The ministers met today on the sidelines
of the COP21 conference after a brief meeting with UN Secretary General, Ban
Ki-moon.
The meeting which was also a
platform for ministers to get updates from the African Group of Negotiators
(AGN) on the on-going negotiations was attended by over 50 environment
ministers from Africa.
Entrepreneurs showcase climate smart technologies that have changed lives in rural Africa
A boy using solar light to study at home |
PARIS, France (PAMACC News) - Small innovation projects by
Africans in Africa are already changing lives of poor people on the ground,
hence, an indication that the continent is already moving forward while at the
same time offering solutions to climate related challenges.
In an event at the African pavilion
on the onset of the second week of climate negotiations in Paris, entrepreneurs
demonstrated that it was possible and affordable to introduce people in remote
rural areas to climate friendly sources of energy.
From East Africa for example, Chad
Larson, the Finance Director for the M-KOPA company showcased how his firm has
combined innovative micro-finance system with mobile telephone money transfer
to provide solar home systems to tens of thousands of poor people in the
region.
Civil society organisations demonstrate over slow pace of the climate Paris talks
By Isaiah Esipisu
PARIS France (PAMACC News) – African civil society organisations at the ongoing Conference
of Parties (COP 21) in Paris today took to the streets to protest against what
they called unnecessary delay of the negotiations.
Speaking to the press just after the protest, Sam Ogallah
of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance said that the civil society will
not be deceived by technical or procedural tricks. “The negotiations on a new
climate deal are struggling due to trust issues and unnecessary delay,” he
said.
US and UK government led initiatives join hands to light up Africa
Eric Postel (left) and Nick Hurd after signing the MoU |
PARIS, France (PAMACC News) – Two government led initiatives from
the United States of America and the United Kingdom have joined hands to
provide millions of people across Africa with clean energy generated from wind,
solar, hydropower, natural gas and geothermal resources so as to reduce the
amount of greenhouse gases emitted, and reduce the number of trees cut down
every day in search of fuelwood and charcoal.
The new partnership between the
UK’s Energy Africa campaign under the Department For International Development
(DFID) and the US’s Power Africa initiative will leverage much-needed private
investment, develop networks to share power across borders and harness
geothermal resources to boost access to electricity across the continent.
Experts: Africa has the potential to lead the way towards a low carbon growth
By Isaiah Esipisu
Experts discuss possibilities of financing low-carbon growth in Africa |
PARIS, France (PAMACC News) - Experts
at the ongoing climate change negotiations in Paris have pointed that Africa
can easily become the world leader in
low-carbon development if it shuns the traditional methods of growth by taking
advantage of the existing opportunities.
“Over
three quarters of the energy infrastructure we need in Africa, as estimated the
New Climate Economy have yet to be built.” said Dr Ngozi Okonjo-lwela, during a
side event hosted by the UN Economic Commission for Africa, the New Climate
Economy and DFID at the Africa Pavilion.
“This offers Africa the opportunity to lead in terms of the transition,”
she added.
Sunday, December 6, 2015
Africa needs more funding for adaptation
By Protus Mabusi
PARIS, France
(PAMACC News) – More finance, capacity building for communities and
institutions and use of technology are vital to making Africa adapt to climate
change.
Speakers during a side event
on "Climate Change Adaptation funding in Africa: Experience from the Least
Developed Countries Fund (LDCF) and Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF) and
African Development Bank (AfDB)" have expressed the need for more money for
adaptation and resilience building since Africa bears the brunt of climate
change.
Saturday, December 5, 2015
EU and partners push for Post COP21 climate finance to developing countries
By Elias NtungweNgalame
PARIS, France (PAMACC News) - Blending projects with climate change
finances is helping to bring many climate change related projects to life in
many regions of the globe thanks to a dedicated commitment and engagement by
the European Union.
At a European
Union side-event dubbed ‘EU and International Climate Finance; delivering and
leading ahead’, at COP21 Paris on December 4, 2015, the officials expressed the
need to mobilize finances to support climate related projects on mitigation and
adaptation especially in developing countries.
World Bank announces $600M support for Hydrometeorology in Africa
Photo: turbosquid.com |
By
Friday Phiri
PARIS,
France (PAMACC News) - The World Bank in partnership
with the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the World Meteorological
Organisation has announced a six hundred million programme to improve
hydrometeorological services in 15 West African countries.
The Programme dubbed, Strengthening Climate Change and
Disaster Resilience in Sub-Saharan Africa, aims at improving meteorological
services in Africa where most countries have poor infrastructure and lack
modern technology for reliable and timely capture and transmission of meteorological
information to the public.
INDCs: Absence of data, means of implementation may affect Africa
By Sellina Nkowani
Although the objective of the
Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) is definitive, most of
them lack both practical and technical methods of implementation.
The INDCs combine the top-down
system of a United Nations climate agreement with bottom-up system in elements
through which countries put forward their agreements in the context of their
own national circumstances, capabilities and priorities, within the ambition to
reduce global greenhouse gas emissions enough to keep global temperature rise
to 2 degrees Celsius.
Financing water is key to Africa's transformation - Experts
By Atayi Babs
PARIS, France (PAMACC News) - Experts at the ongoing Paris climate
conference have underlined the need to prioritise climate finance for water and
climate change adaptation in Africa.
At the high-level
event with the theme "Seizing Opportunity for Africa: Prioritising Water
in the new Climate Financing Mechanism," hosted by the African Development
Bank (AfDB), Han Seung-soo, Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for
Disaster Risk Reduction and Water, called for more balanced thinking with a
view to changing the current trend in climate change negotiations where
mitigation always receives more attention than adaptation.
Afrique et des inquiètudes à Paris
Par Diane NININAHAZWE
Les membres éminents du Groupe
des Négociateurs Africains (AGN) et des dirigeants de la société
civile se disent inquiète quant à l’avancement des négociations en cours
sur le climat qui se tiennent à Paris.
Lors d'une réunion en marge de la
Conférence des Parties de la CCNUCC tenu ce jeudi soir, sous le thème
"Paris Résultat et adaptation aux besoins de l'Afrique," Le
Proffesseur Seth Osafo, négociateur du Groupe africain (AGN) a liée
les obstacles actuels aux efforts visant à obtenir de lapart des pays qui n’ont
pas ractifié le Protocole de Kyoto un nouvel accord.
Friday, December 4, 2015
Climate Science Plans for Africa
By Aaron
Kaah Yancho
Africa
has lost close to 9billion US dollars to climate related challenges since 1980.
Yet more near future climate change related challenges are expected to retard
the development of the continent.
Rain fed Agriculture is dwindling and more
people are likely to die from starvation and malnutrition. Floods and droughts
are bound to multiply.
Thursday, December 3, 2015
Preparing the next generation for climate change negotiations
By Isaiah Esipisu
Some of the lawyers participating in the YAL programme |
PARIS France (PAMACC News) – Political
leaders, civil society organisations and scientists at the ongoing climate change
negotiations in Paris have lauded the Young African Lawyers (YAL) programme on
climate change initiative, saying that the young experts hold the key to the
future climate governance.
“When
we invest in protecting the climate, we are investing in the future, and
therefore it is important to invest in young African lawyers so that they can
take over from the current negotiators,” said Mithika Mwenda, the Secretary General
for Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA).
Africa’s contribution towards Mitigating global Emissions
By
Sophie Mbugua
A section of a geothermal power plant in Kenya |
PARIS, France (PAMACC News) - African
heads of state announced plans for a gigantic renewable energy initiative that
would provide as much as 300gigawatts of renewable energy – twice the continent’s
total current electricity supply – by 2030.
African Renewable Energy Initiative (AREI) driven
by African countries announced at the start of the two-week United Nations
climate negotiations in Paris, aims to achieve 10gigawatts of new renewable
energy by 2020 and mobilize the potential to generate 300gigawatts by 2030.
Kenyan County government sign a water deal with the World Bank Group
PARIS, France (PAMACC News) - Mombasa
Governor Ali Hassan Joho has signed a 200 million USD loan agreement with the
World Bank that will guarantee water for Kenya’s urban areas.
Joho
who signed the pact on behalf of the Council of Governors (COG) at the ongoing
climate conference in Paris, France lauded the initiative, terming it a
solution to the country’s persistent water problems.
African’s Gov’t share stakes on Lake Chad at COP21
By Elias Ntungwe Ngalame
PARIS, France (PAMACC News) - African governments especially
those of the Lake Chad Basin region want to secure the future of the precious
but dwindling water body.
The officials and experts have
expressed the need for adaptation actions as a priority to save the Lake and
the lives of the over 20 million people living in the area.
Members of the Lake Chad Basin
Commission at the presentation of a new plan of action to revive the lake at
COP21 in Paris, December 2, 2015 said the local economy of the people in the
region depended on the lake activities like fishing, agriculture and
pastoralism going on in the upper catchment of the lake.
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
Leaders call for a legally binding deal at Paris COP21
By Isaiah Esipisu
African leaders at COP21 in Paris |
PARIS, France (PAMACC News) – Political leaders,
the civil society organisations and religious leaders from Africa have told the
team of negotiators at the ongoing Conference of Parties on Climate Change
(COP21) in Paris that the only agreeable outcome must be legally binding, and
one that offers solutions to African needs.
“Agriculture
is central to Africa’s development, yet it is one of the most vulnerable
sectors to the impacts of climate change and it is also a sector that has huge
potential for international trade,” said Carlos Lopes, the Executive Secretary
of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).
AfDB Pledge affirmative climate finance action to boost agriculture business for women
By Elias Ntungwe Ngalame
“It is amazing that many women in
Africa continue to use hoes to till the soil in their small scale farms in
communities in Africa in this age of technological advancement,” wondered
Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma as she addresses officials at the launch of the African
Renewable Energy Initiative at COP21 in Paris, France.
“We are calling on the President of
the African Development Bank to ensure that funding for the purchase of such
archaic working tools for women becomes history,’’ Zuma pleaded.
New finance package to Tackle Urgent Climate Challenges Unveiled
By Sophie
Mbugua
As
nations of the world gathered on Monday in Paris to reach a new and universal
climate change agreement, Germany,
Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland has announced a new $500 million initiative
that will find new ways to create incentives aimed at large scale cuts in
greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries to combat climate change.
The initiative developed through the World Bank Group
will measure and pay for emission cuts in large scale programs in renewable
energy, transport, energy efficiency, solid waste management, and low carbon
cities.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)