Ministers from governments across Africa have renewed their call for a strong, new universal climate-change agreement and increased flows of funds, including through market and finance opportunities, sufficient to fulfil Africa’s development aspirations, at the day-long Ministerial segment at Africa Carbon Forum 2015 hosted by the Kingdom of Morocco.
With countries set to approve a new climate-change agreement under the United Nation’s (UN’s) Climate Change Conference, or COP21, in Paris, in December, African Ministers stressed the region’s readiness and requirement for accelerated private and public financing of low-carbon developments.
Africa, with its vulnerable populations and vast potential, perhaps, had the most to lose from climate change and the most to gain from an effective climate-change agreement.
“In these last eight months before Paris, focus must shift from restating negotiating positions to finding common ground solutions,” UN Framework Convention on Climate Change deputy executive secretary Richard Kinley noted.
According the International Energy Agency, over 620-million people in sub-Saharan Africa, about two-thirds of the population, were without secure access to electricity. Some 730-million people in the region, about four-fifths, still relied on cooking mostly with wood, harming health and destroying vital forest cover.
During the closing session of the forum on April 15, African Development Bank environment and climate-change manager Kurt Lonsway explained that the seventh Africa Carbon Forum reiterated the need to have adequate, predictable, sustainable climate finance resources to address Africa’s challenges in transitioning to low carbon development, promoting smart agriculture and sustainable urban development.
