The AGN consists of climate change negotiators of every African country. One country is selected to chair the group for a period of two years. The current chair is from Sudan. AGN is represented by the relevant lead coordinator in thematic negotiation sessions. The AGN gets its direction from the African Ministers of Environment (AMCEN), the CAHOSCC and the African Union Assembly.
Since the establishment of ClimDev-Africa, the African Group of Negotiators on climate change has sought and obtained technical assistance from the programme, before and during each annual Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Traditionally, ClimDev-Africa has hosted the AGN mid-year where priority support needs are identified.
ClimDev-Africa has supported the AGN at recent COP meetings as follows:
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At COP16 in Cancun Mexico (2010), delegations from ECA, AUC and AfDB teamed up to support the African Common Position that they had helped to draft; and in Durban South Africa (2011) the three ClimDev-Africa partners jointly put up an “Africa Pavilion” from where the African voice resonated to participants from all over the world.
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At the Doha Qatar COP meeting, ClimDev-Africa participation in general and assistance to the African Group of Negotiators (AGN) in particular got more substantive in the sense that it produced at least three results that could easily contribute towards concrete outputs within the ClimDev-Africa work programme.
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ClimDev-Africa also successfully supported African Group of Negotiators (AGN) to the 19th session of the UN Conference on Climate Change (COP19) in Warsaw Poland, through articulation of positions, drafting relevant texts and convening of preparatory workshops and meetings. This contributed to the decision on the follow up actions related to various issues such as next phase of the Nairobi Work Programme, agriculture in adaptation work programme, loss and damage, etc
Two major events were held to consolidate the continent’s participation in the negotiation : (i) the African Day and (ii) the Dinner Dialogue. The Africa Day event was on the theme: “Climate Change and Agriculture in Africa’s Development”; while the theme of the Dinner Dialogue event was “Science for Development: Can Africa Sustain its Transformational Development Without Investing in Climate Science”.
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Climate Change Negotiations
