DECLARATION OF THE FIRST AFRICA ACTION SUMMIT
FOR CONTINENTAL CO-EMERGENCE
By African heads of State
We, the African Heads of State and Government, meeting in Marrakesh on 16 November 2016, at the invitation of His Majesty Mohammed VI, King of Morocco, for the First Africa Action Summit, held on the sidelines of the 22nd Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP22)
stress that:
– Africa, which has contributed the least to global greenhouse gas emissions, is the continent most affected by climate change and its impacts on its territories, the consequences of which may jeopardize peace, security and sustainable development in Africa;
– African regions have voluntarily launched adaptation and mitigation initiatives with a view to enhancing resilience and promoting sustainable development;
reaffirm:
– the importance of adequate implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, based on the Rio principles, particularly that of « common but differentiated responsibilities » to rise to the challenge of climate change;
– the concrete and substantial commitment of African countries to contribute to global efforts to combat climate change;
– our ambition to make climate action a lever of emergence in order to build an inclusive, sustainable development model that meets the legitimate aspirations of African populations and safeguards the interests of future generations;
– our desire to work together collectively towards an Africa that is resilient to climate change and that shapes its destiny, through sub-regional and regional approaches;
Commit to:
– promoting the adaptation measures and policies required, making sure they also serve as catalysts for profound economic and social structural transformation in Africa;
– consolidating our respective commitments to tackle the effects of climate change in order to give more coherence to our strategies and move forward together;
– speeding up the implementation of initiatives that have already been identified or launched, not only by building on our own resources, but also by mobilizing multilateral and bilateral donors as well as non-state actors. These include:
* initiatives aimed at enhancing our continent’s resilience to the threats of climate change, in particular the « Africa Adaptation Initiative », the « Adaptation of African Agriculture » initiative, known as « Triple A », the « Great Green Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel » project, the « Security, Stability and Sustainability » initiative, the « Rural Resilience » initiative and the « Forests in the Mediterranean Region and the Sahel » initiative;
* initiatives in favor of an African sustainable co-emergence, in particular the « Africa Renewable Energy Initiative », the « Conservation of the Lake Chad Basin Ecosystem », the « Blue Growth » initiative, the « African Clean Energy Corridor » and the “Blue Fund for the Congo Basin” ;
– encouraging and facilitating the participation of the private sector in mobilizing additional capabilities and funding to rise to the challenge of climate change;
call on our strategic partners to:
– strengthen our cooperation so as to respond to the African ambition for the achievement of inclusive sustainable development;
– provide effective and concrete support for the fulfillment of this ambition by increasing public funding, facilitating access to climate finance and rebalancing financing to promote adaptation, capacity building and technology transfer.
While thanking His Majesty Mohammed VI, King of Morocco, for taking the initiative to convene this Africa Action Summit for the continent’s co-emergence,
And underscoring the importance for the continent to speak with one voice in order to defend its interests more efficiently,
we call on the King of Morocco, together with the Chairman of the African Union, to work for the implementation of this Declaration, particularly with regard to the coordination of and follow-up to priority initiatives in the areas of combating climate change and promoting sustainable development, as well as to mobilizing the continent’s bilateral and multilateral partners and decide, to this end, the establishment of three Committees dedicated to:
* The Sahel region, presided by the Republic of Niger.
* The Congo Basin region, presided by the Republic of the Congo
* The Island States, presided by the Republic of Seychelles.
