SUPPORTING AFRICA'S ADAPTATION AGENDA
AAI's reflections of COP29
By AAI communication Team
The 29th Conference of Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) took place from 11-22 November, 2024 in Baku, Azerbaijan. And Africa’s flagship initiative on adaptation, the Africa Adaptation Initiative (AAI) was ably represented at the conference as per its mandate to support African countries with the overall aim of enhancing concrete adaptation action and address loss and damage in the context of the implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), the African Union’s (AU’s) 2063 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Head of delegation and coordinator of AAI, Ambassador Seyni Nafo led the team to a series of side events, internal meetings, and forums. This was undertaken collaboratively with other development organizations such as the Adaptation Consortium, International Solar Alliance, Pan Africa Climate Justice Alliance, Amref Health Africa and youth organizations like Youth Adaptation Finance.
In an interview with Globe Watch before COP 29, Amb Nafo laid the overarching objective of the AAI in pushing and advancing the adaptation agenda for Africa. Ambassador Nafo stressed that while access to climate finance remains a major challenge to enhancing adaptation in Africa, lack of political goodwill from the global community presents an even bigger challenge. He pointed out that Africa was experiencing climate impacts faster and more intensely than any other continent, eroding the continents GDP growth especially the Agricultural sector’s contribution.
"40 percent of the GDP of most African countries is from Agriculture, a sector that is hard hit by climate change. Thus, climate change is a triple tragedy for the African continent. Firstly, we did not create the problem, and yet we are most affected. Secondly, solving the climate challenge requires global solidarity for mitigation and adaptation levels," explained Ambassador Nafo, further stressing the importance and urgency for Africa to secure adequate financing during the COP 29 meeting.
Unfortunately, the outcome of the much publicized New Quantified Goal on Climate Finance (NCQG) was far less that the expected. After protracted negotiations that went into an extra day beyond the scheduled closure of the conference, parties acrimoniously agreed to a 300 billion dollars package of climate finance per year by 2035, far less than 1.3 trillion dollars that was put on the table by developing country parties (the African Group of Negotiators on Climate Change-AGN, the Group of 77 and China, the Least Developed countries-LDCs) among others) . In his closing statement, AGN Chair, Ali Mohamed expressed dissapointment with the NCQG figure describing it "too little, too late and too ambiguos."
"For years, Africa has sounded the alarm on the inadequacy of climate finance. At this COP, we achieved progress in some respects, but we appear to be regressing in others. The commitment to mobilise enhanced finance by 2035 is too little, too late, and too ambiguous in its delivery. Let it be clear that, the agreed figure of $300 billion per annum is inadequate, and must be reviewed in 2030 to align with needs of developing countries," said the AGN Chair.
In terms of side events, the AAI team, lead by Ambassador Nafo participated in a series of meetings to advocate for better global climate governance and strengthen deeper diplomatic ties to strengthen Africa’s adaptation agenda. The cross-cutting thematic focus of the meetings was on mobilizing climate adaptation finance, sustainable water management, renewable energy, technological innovations for climate, and locally led adaptation initiatives.
SIDE EVENTS
Focus on Finance
AAI and the West African Development Bank (BOAD) hosted a side event on unlocking private sector finance for Africa adaptation. Experts were drawn from the two organizations and Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) Limited. The experts provided insights on best practices that their organizations were implementing on Climate finance.
One such reflection was from Eric Amoussou who is the Head of the Climate Finance portfolio at West African Development Bank (BOAD), who highlighted the bank’s focus on impact over financial returns as observed in other commercial banks. Key discussion areas that arose from the event include the need for governments to take the lead on detailed climate studies for actionable climate adaptation initiatives.
Another side event on catalyzing climate resilience in Africa was organized in collaboration with the Adaptation Consortium. The event's main objective was to jointly share experiences on locally led and innovative global finance models. At this event, it was discussed and collectively agreed that there was a great need for direct accessibility of climate financing by grassroot organisations who are closer to the people suffering negative consequences of climate change and requiring urgent adaptation support. The meeting also agreed to ensure multi funding sources for sustainability.
Focus on water
The AAI team participated in a sustainable water management side event with a specific focus on Tunisia’s innovative water strategy, 2050. Water Day at COPs was officially launched at COP 27 in Sharm El Sheik, Egypt in recognition of the centrality of water in climate change—too much water causing floods while too little causing droughts. In both situations, the hydrological cycle is greatly affected by climate change and leads to various negative effects for affected communities.
In the plenary discussions, the key discussion focused on how Tunisia could be a pioneer of water resource management and how financial partnerships could be forged between international experts and national stakeholders. The general call from the discussion was for a collective and concerted effort towards ensuring water security in the face of climate change.
Focus on technology
Technology transfer is one of the three key pillars of support in the convention and the Paris agreement in addition to finance and capacity building. Thus, technology also took center stage in the discussions as AAI engaged in an event on how Africa could leverage technological innovations in enhancing adaptation efforts in the continent.
