PACJA holds High-Level Stakeholder Forum on COP 27 in Gabon

26 August 2022, Libreville, Gabon: Africa is a region with special needs and circumstances under international climate law. The region suffers more severe climate change impacts than most parts of the world mainly because it is exposed to unrivalled weather extremes; is heavily dependent on climate-sensitive sectors such as rain-fed agriculture for economic services and livelihoods; and has the least capacity to respond adequately to climatic stresses due to chronic poverty.

Because the continent is warming roughly 1.5 times faster than the global average, it suffers disproportionally from the severe impacts even at safe global warming thresholds of 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius.

Recognizing this exceptional blend of circumstances in international climate change negotiations is critical for raising climate action ambition, especially in prioritizing the financing of adaptation and loss and damage.

Acknowledging Africa’s special needs and circumstances singles the continent out from other developing regions and positions it for climate action that responds directly to its unique challenges, including and exceeding those it shares with other developing regions.

But efforts to implement this recognition have been unsuccessful despite the provisions of Article 4.1. (e) of the UNFCCC, which had been upheld in several COP decisions and reports until the Paris Agreement.

In the meantime, Africa has suffered a heavy toll of impacts with loss and damage across communities and critical development sectors. With only 4% of global emissions, the continent least responsible for climate change is ironically the most affected by the climate crisis.

Every future model forecasts “widespread and severe impacts” on the continent even with the best mitigation effort. Manifestations of climate change in health is increasingly becoming apparent and documented, but there is limited mobilization among health actors to strongly advance response actions.

Addressing the climate crisis can only succeed if the international community addresses the climate injustices faced by Africa. After the failures of previous COPs to truly address this concern, COP27 presents a unique opportunity to put Africa at the centre of negotiations and decisions. African civil society organizations are mobilizing to make COP27 the “African People’s COP”.

An African people COP is one that truly takes on board African voices and needs, way beyond the hosting of the Conference on African soil.

The Africa Climate Week presents a unique opportunity for communicating the outcomes of the discussions to key regional decision-makers.

Against this backdrop, PACJA is convening a High1 UNFCCC Art 4.1 (e) 2 Nicholas Chan. 2021. “Special Circumstances” and the Politics of Climate Vulnerability: African Agency in the UN Climate Change Negotiations, Africa Spectrum. Vol. 56(3) 314–332 DOI: 10.1177/0002039721991151 Level Stakeholders’ Forum on 29 August 2022 in the prelude to the Africa Climate Week billed for Libreville, Gabon.

The Forum shall bring together key stakeholders to continue the dialogue of shaping African needs and demands ahead of COP27.

The high-level forum shall pursue the objectives of:

1. Engaging and empowering stakeholders to drive climate action across countries, communities and economies.

2. Heighten the political mobilization for the cause of climate justice, setting the agenda for the ACW and priority discussions and commitments that should be secured in this space

3. Strengthen our core messages for COP27 related to various thematic and negotiation streams as well as approaches for achieving Africa’s aspirations in COP27

4. Amplify our pan African mobilization through the Climate Justice Torch The convening shall generate the following outputs:

• Stakeholders with capacity to drive pan african action for climate justice in COP27
• The main output of the Forum shall be the “Libreville Communiqué on COP27”, outlining urgent actions needed to make COP27 an African People COP.

In order to achieve the above objectives, the high-level forum will have a deep dive on how to actualize the strive for implementation of progressive measures on Africa as a Continent with Special Needs and Circumstances. It will further look into the status and strategies for advancing the Adaptation and Loss and Gender Agenda in UNFCCC process, with a much more explicit focus on securing progressive commitments on loss and damage in COP27 and securing equitable and Just Energy Transition in Africa.

The Communique will also scale up climate finance ambition and making climate finance accessible to communities in the frontline of climate crisis. The convening must identify strategies for influencing COP27 to implement influencing strategies that make climate financing much more accessible to communities in the frontline of climate crisis v. Generate and Adopt Libreville Communique that provides broad position for Africa in climate negotiations