ACPC retools to strengthen implementation of the Paris Agreement for transformation

(G20 - Hamburg 2017) Africa’s development agenda is framed by the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the continent’s wider development blueprint – Agenda 2063. Attaining the development objectives captured in these agenda cannot be done without responding appropriately to thechallenges and opportunities posed byclimate change; a new climate economyapproach is required – i.e. one in whicheconomic growth and sustainability areseen as two sides of the same coin.

The Paris Agreement on climate change represents a pipeline of hope for Africa in particular, and developing countries in general. It signaled a new dawn – a political endorsement of a development model that is not achieved at the expense of resource efficiency and growth. In short, the Paris Agreement was a political triumph to nudge solidarity from nation states through the recognition that the magnitude of the problem warrants greater urgency and a collective responsibility for global leaders to recalibrate economies to a temperature guardrail of below 2 degrees. A key outcome of the 2015 Paris Agreement was the adoption of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) as the mechanism by which all signatories to the agreement would address climate change mitigation and adaptation actions. But African countries will need analytical, policy  and investment support to implement their NDCs within the context their national development plans. 

The African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC) of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) serves as the secretariat and the analytical arm of the Climate for Development in Africa (ClimDecAfrica) initiative – a joint programme of the African Union Commission (AUC), the ECA and the African Development Bank (AfDB), mandated by African Heads of State and Government to provide a solid foundation for Africa’s response to climate change impacts. The ACPC has capitalised on experiences garnered from the implementation of the first phase of the ClimDev-Africa initiative to retool and frame its new 5-year programme strategy (2017-2021) in ways that enhance the implementation of the Paris Agreement in Africa on the one hand, and; on the other hand facilitate the development and implementation of responses to the impacts of climate change on the continent. As a dedicated climate centre within the ECA aimed at integrating climate change into the structural transformation agenda of the Commission in support of its social and economic development mandate, the ACPC has a strategic and unique position both in terms of convening power and its pool of intellectual and scientific base to effectively support the transition of Africa’s economies towards climate-resilient development. Read more...