Africa Climate Talks: Ahead of CO27, PACJA urges Governments to accelerate climate action

Maputo, Mozambique July 27 2022: The 27 Conference of Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change set for Egypt in November is a unique opportunity to accelerate progress in climate action and mobilize the partnerships needed for Africa’s rapid, inclusive, green, and resilient development, Alvin Munyasia, of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance has said.

Speaking at the African Climate Talks for the Eastern & Southern Africa sub regions in Mozambique hosted by the African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC) of UNECA in collaboration with Eduardo Mondlane University and PACJA, Munyasia added that COP27 does not need Africa’s policymakers to be passive recipients of what “others” can do for Africa in COP27.

The theme of the Africa Climate Talks is “Science driven climate action for a just transition and human security”

“Africans should be well prepared and organized. They should have a unified, active, and consistent voice about the dire consequences of climate change for the continent and the urgency to take action,” advised Munyasia.

Munyasia said PACJA’s engagements all across Africa have demonstrated that the continent demands urgent intervention and frank negotiations on loss and damage, given the evidence already provided by the sixth African Regional report of the IPCC, majorly on the African Continent.

The 4th Africa Climate Talks (ACT!) as part of the build-up to the tenth conference on climate change and development in Africa (CCDA-X) and the 27th Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC (COP27). This year’s ACT! consist of two rounds of regional dialogues organized in hybrid format. The event in Maputo is the first for the Eastern and Southern Africa subregions and the second will hold in Niger for Central, Western and Northern Africa subregions.

The ACT! webinar series brings together different perspectives and stakeholders to stimulate a pan-African discourse aimed at contributing to the emergence of an African narrative on climate change and development, drawing on lessons and experiences of civil society groups, academics, researchers, youth, the private sector and climate change negotiators. ACT! articulates opportunities that could be translated into policy options by African decision makers to build more resilient societies and economies, while enhancing environmental integrity.

The ClimDev-Africa partners have convened three past ACT! sessions, which aimed at stimulating a wide-ranging discourse informed by emerging African common positions on a range of pertinent issues in the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC, and at creating platforms for the discussion of African perspectives on key issues in the linkages between climate change and Africa’s transformative development trajectories.

The specific objective of the 4th ACT! is to interpret the science emerging from the IPCC reports and the resulting implications for climate action, energy transition, human insecurity, food security and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) in Africa. The discourse is being guided by the theme of the talks i.e. “Science driven climate action for a just transition and human security”, which will dovetail into the tenth CCDA deliberations and shape Africa’s priorities at COP27.

To ensure there is adequate discourse and engagement on the foregoing regional climate change challenges, the event deliberations are organized into the following topics:

• Implications of IPCC AR6 on Africa’s development aspirations;
• Milestones and imperatives of climate action and a just energy transition;
• Unpack the regional perspectives of the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) in Africa;
• State of discourse on loss and damage, and article 6 of the Paris agreement;
• Challenges and strategies for addressing disaster displacement and climate induced food and human insecurity;
• Riding the climate change, recovery from Covid-19 and economic storm;
• Perspectives and key messages to shape Africa’s priorities at COP27.