Climate change in Africa News

[Global Witness] Responding to the call from climate leaders for urgent overhaul of UN climate processes, Dominic Kavakeb, Co-Director of Campaigns at Global Witness, said:

[Liberian Investigator] Baku -- The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of Liberia is advocating for the inclusion of climate change and security considerations in the country's Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs). This initiative is being presented at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Conference of Parties Twenty-Ninth Session (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan.

[Earthlife] South African grassroots environmental justice activists from Limpopo, Gauteng, and Eastern Cape have landed at COP29!

[UN News] As negotiations over how to tackle climate change head into their fifth day in Baku, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has expressed solidarity with young climate advocates at COP29, who told him they are frustrated by the lack of political action on the crisis.

[New Times] Rwanda is exploring innovative approaches to mobilise $6.2 billion climate finance, from 2024 to 2030, as part of implementing the newly adopted Climate and Nature Finance Strategy at speed.

[New Times] Existing national climate goals, commonly known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), are 'not nearly ambitious enough' to limit global warming to below 1.5 degrees Celsius, according to the World Resources Institute (WRI).

[Nile Post] The UN Secretary-General's High-Level Expert Group on Net-Zero Emissions Commitments of Non-State Entities (HLEG) has issued a sharp warning to global policymakers, stressing that existing policies fall short of the 1.5°C climate target established by the Paris Agreement.

[Premium Times] During the opening plenary on Monday, the COP29 organisers hinted that the negotiating priority at the conference is to achieve a new climate finance goal.

[Greenpeace] As COP29 discussions continue in Baku, Greenpeace Africa strongly opposes the push for unreliable market-based mechanisms as a solution to the climate crisis, warning that they undermine real climate action to address the growing crisis facing African communities.

[UN News] UN refugee agency, UNHCR, on Thursday launched the Refugees for Climate Action initiative in a bid to mobilise the world's forcibly displaced to join the fight against global warming.

[African Arguments] Half of all Multilateral Development Banks' climate finance goes to Europe. Just 4% is grants. We don't just need more but better climate finance.

[IPS] Global warming is no longer just an issue for the environment but a crisis of life itself. Yet, African governments' climate action strategies, specifically those submitted under the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), remain disproportionately focused on emission reductions--an approach that fails to address the most pressing health needs of African communities. For many Africans, it's hard to explain why their leaders prioritize reducing emissions, which are rather low and insignificant when the

[The Conversation Africa] The realities of climate change are hitting home for many people living in the global south. Food security, water access and health have been jeopardised by the increased temperatures, extreme weather events and sea level rise.

[allAfrica] Johannesburg -- allAfrica's Nontobeko Mlambo attended the 20th African Investigative Journalism Conference (AIJC), held at Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg, which is the largest gathering of African investigative journalists on the continent.

[263Chat] Global climate activists intensified their demands at COP29 in Baku, calling for developed countries to take accountability for climate change impacts that continue to devastate communities across the Global South.

[New Times] African economies lose up to 5% of GDP, on average, annually because of climate-related disruptions and, while they require adequate, predictable and accessible finance, the structure of existing climate finance continues to perpetuate inequities.

[IPS] Baku -- Three days into the landmark COP29 conference, the co-chairs of the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) have arrived at a workable basis for discussion on the summit's top priority goal--a new climate finance goal. The COP29 Presidency says the draft will, moving forward, "guide conversations around potential landing zones and help identify concerns."

[The Conversation Africa] In October 2024, the African penguin became the first penguin species in the world to be listed as critically endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

[Daily Maverick] Both Brazil and South Africa are countries with some of the highest levels of structural inequality and persistent systemic racism, which shows the unequal burden carried by racialised and marginalised populations in the global South.

[WHO] Honourable Minister Babayev,