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By Victor MUJIDU
The Africa Climate Summit 2023 is a showcase of global solutions, innovations, and projects, aiming to mitigate climate change challenges. The Summit serves as an inspiring testament to what can be achieved when aligning visions, pooling resources, and acting with urgency.
As a pivotal moment for the African region and the world, the Africa Climate Summit is profoundly exciting to see how it will unfold and hopefully mark a turning point in the fight against climate change in the African region.
The inaugural Africa Climate Summit organized by the African Union in collaboration with the government serves as the first-ever summit to be held in Nairobi, hosting more than 20,000 delegates from 136 countries.
Twenty-three heads of State and government, including United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, global leaders, development partners, civil society organizations, researchers, academia, and relevant stakeholders, among others turned up to the three-day Climate Summit event.
Apart from showcasing the progress and possible future outcomes, the ACS is looking forward to setting a footprint in converging common priorities for global discussions that include; UNGA, G20, World Bank Group (WBG), and International Monetary Fund (IMF) annual meetings, COP28 and beyond.
Possible Achievements
The Climate Summit is expected to come up with outputs that will enable the continent to propel in the right direction of decarbonization.
Among the outputs in line with the discussion include a Pathway to a new global financial deal that includes “at scale” and fit-for-purpose financing instruments/products to serve specific growth goals, announcements on tangible progress on ongoing major continent-wide/ global initiatives, and new partnerships/ initiatives; and roadmap for implementation of key declarations.
Others include Investment commitments, including showcasing multi-billion-dollar worth of green investment deals on the continent across all thematic sectors of the summit and African Leaders Nairobi Declaration on a Green Growth and Climate Finance Agenda and Solutions for Africa and the World.
Africa Climate Change Summit Objectives
The summit is a call to action by African Union Member States and supporting partners to champion its delivery. It seeks to launch a new ambition for Africa and invite partnerships with the rest of the world.
Importance of Mitigating Climate Change
The Summit will provide an opportunity for an African Leaders Nairobi Declaration on Green Growth and Climate Finance Solutions, and for a Call to Action for African Union Member States and supporting partners to champion its delivery.
The summit will enable African countries to define detailed plans, shape their associated tools and investments, inform and push for reforms of the international financial architecture, and share innovation, knowledge, experience, and practical approaches to deepen and expand understanding of climate challenges and opportunities.
Reflection on the COP27
The highlight of COP27 was the historic decision to establish a fund for responding to loss and damage. During the COP27 Summit held in Glasgow, Egypt the delegation agreed to establish a Loss and Damage Fund where the larger developed countries contribute funds to help the smaller developing countries to adapt to the impacts of climate change.
China, the U.S., India, Japan, and Russia were regarded as the major pollutants of the environment due to their bulky industries that emit greenhouse gases (GHGs).
However, the major failure was the inability of many countries to accept that their current emissions targets (NDCs) would not achieve the 1.5C goal by 2030. Even worse, some countries attempted to renege on this deal made at COP26 under the Paris Agreement.