Political Economy of Climate Change Governance in Selected African Countries

Like any other aspect of public policy implementation, the implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) necessitates an appropriate regulatory and policy framework. The extent to which a country’s regulatory and policy framework meets the requirements associated with implementing current climate change policies gives an initial measure of its appropriateness. Nonetheless, NDCs implementation is likely to present challenges that are distinct from those posed by prior climate change policies, in that NDCs goals typically will require more rapid, more coordinated action compared to traditional climate change goals. For this reason, only a case-by-case review of the specific regulatory requirements that NDCs implementation aligns to, will provide a true measure of the appropriateness of the specific regulatory framework under review. The integration of climate change concerns into sectoral policies can be defined as the process through which sectoral policy plans and strategies are revised to achieve a satisfactory trade-off between the priorities driven by sectoral development goals and those that are driven by climate-change management goals. In addition to its horizontal dimension, within equivalent governance levels, sectoral integration processes have a vertical dimension spanning different levels of governance. As with the implementation of any policy plan that affects multiple economic sectors and stakeholder groups across different governance levels, the implementation of NDCs can be mainstreamed into sectoral development plans. Climate Compatible Development (CCD) aims to deliver adaptation and mitigation without compromising development progress.

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