UN Climate Action Summit 2019: The Major Announcements
UN Climate Action Summit 2019: The Major announcements At the Opening of the UN Climate Action Summit 2019 on 23rd september 2019, ahead of the 74 UN General Assembly, leaders of the developing and developed countries made commitments. New initiatives have been designed to be scaled-up to deliver impact at the global scale needed. The Secretary-General urged governments, businesses and people everywhere to join the initiatives announced at the Summit, and promised to “keep pushing” for greater ambition and action. The Secretary-General committed the UN system to support implementation of plans presented at the Summit, with an initial report to be delivered at COP25 in Santiago, Chile. What are exactly the commitments? France announced that it would not enter into any trade agreement with countries that have policies counter to the Paris Agreement. Germany committed to carbon neutrality by 2050 12 countries made financial commitments to the Green Climate Fund, the official financial mechanism to assist developing countries in adaptation and mitigation practices to counter climate change. This is in addition to recent announcements from Norway, Germany, France and the United Kingdom who have recently doubled their present contributions. The United Kingdom made a major additional contribution, doubling its overall international climate finance to L11.6 billion for the period from 2020 to 2025 India pledged to increase renewable energy capacity to 175gw by 2022 and committed to further increasing to 450GW, and announced that 80 countries have joined the International Solar Alliance. China said it would cut emissions by over 12 billion tons annually, and would pursue a path of high quality growth and low carbon development. The European Union announced at least 25% of the next EU budget will be devoted to climate-related activities. The Russian Federation announced that they will ratify the Paris Agreement, bringing the total number of countries that have joined the Agreement to 187. Pakistan said it would plant more than 10 billion trees over the next five years. The private sector take the lead A group of the world’s largest asset-owners — responsible for directing more than $2 trillion in investments — committed to move to carbon-neutral investment portfolios by 2050. 87 major companies with a combined market capitalization of over US$ 2.3 trillion pledged to reduce emissions and align their businesses with what scientists say is needed to limit the worst impacts of climate change – a 1.5°C future. 130 banks – one-third of the global banking sector – signed up to align their businesses with the Paris agreement goals For the Energy Efficiency Michael Bloomberg will increase the funding and geographic spread of his coal phase out efforts to 30 countries....
New York-Climate Action Summit 2019: more ambitions are needed
New York-Climate Action Summit 2019: more ambitions are needed Ahead of the 74 session of the United Nations General Assembly, an United Nations Climate Action Summit opened with anger ““Nature is angry,” said Antonio Guterres. Youth activist Greta Thunberg told leaders “How dare you gamble with our future and continue talking about fairytales of eternal economic growth?” COP 25 to be held in December and subsequently the UK Presidency of COP26, must ensure that governments deliver the adequate response to the emergency and ambition that puts the world on a 1.5C degrees trajectory, said Climate Action Network International. To the view of the International Policy Advisor of CAN, Lucile Dufour, strong policies to reach ambitious targets are needed : “France, as well as other developed countries, should be reminded that true climate leadership means concrete and urgent actions at home, not shiny speeches in front of world leaders.” For Mohamed Adow, International Climate Lead, Christian Aid, leaders clearly failed : “the few actions that have been announced are far from world changing and that is what is required”. What are the ongoing commitments? Over 100 business leaders delivered actions to align with the Paris Agreement targets, and speed up the transition from the grey to green economy, including asset-owners holding over $2 trillion in assets and leading companies with combined value also over $2 trillion. Many countries and over 100 cities – including many of the world’s largest – announced significant and concrete new steps to combat the climate crisis. 77 countries committed to cut greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, while 70 countries announced they will either boost their national action plans by 2020 or have started the process of doing so. Many smaller countries, including Small Island Developing States and Least Developed Countries, were among those who made the biggest pledges, despite the fact the they have contributed the least to the problem. A few small island states and developing countries, as well as businesses, stepped up and committed to enhancing their targets based on science. Others, like Sweden, Luxembourg and Denmark pledged to double their contribution to the Green Climate Fund. These countries demonstrated much-needed leadership and underscored the feasibility of climate action and ambition. They showed that the energy transition is ongoing and irreversible. The issues Although, companies and governments boosted climate action momentum, and demonstrated growing recognition that the pace of climate action must be rapidly accelerated, some governments continue to ignore science and fail to present ambitious climate commitments. Despite the alarm of climate change, fossil fuel producers are still allowed to brazenly continue business as usual and generate profits at the expense of...
New toolkit launched to guide governments to drive economies through tourism
New toolkit launched to guide governments to drive economies through tourism By Duncan Mboyah A new tool kit has been launched to guide African governments to drive their economies through tourism. The tool kit will guide protected area authorities to attract new international investment to fund national parks while also conserving environments and providing socio-economic benefits. “The kit provide models on protected areas in Africa and gives predicted revenue increases of between four and eleven times within a decade,” Dr. Lauren Evans, Director of Conservation Science at Space for Giants notes during the launched in the sidelines of the summit on wildlife conservation in Zimbabwe.Dr. Evans observes that Africa’s unique diversity of wildlife and habitat has the potential to radically transform the continent’s economy. She says that it is encouraging that a few state protected areas are meeting their potential as engines for growth and presents a major opportunity for governments. “Cared for and sustainably developed, these are national assets that can provide significant financial and social returns now and long into the future,” she adds. Bringing new private sector investment Presenting a paper, Building a Wildlife Economy: Developing Nature-Based Tourism in African State Protected Areas, Dr. Evans notes that national parks and other state-owned conservation areas could significantly multiply the revenue they pump into African economies. The paper says that bringing new private-sector investment to underfunded protected areas to capitalize on surging interest in nature-based tourism would help fund conservation without draining state finances, while driving sustainable local and national development. Oliver Poole, executive director of the Giants Club, says that the paper details not only the boost to an African country’s economy that comes from developing tourism to its national parks in a sustainable way, but also the steps that governments can best take to secure that share of the tourism market. “If governments implement the toolkit laid out in this report they will not only help secure the long-term future of their wildlife and the landscapes they rely on but also will draw on foreign investment, create jobs and raise the GDP of their nation,” he adds. The authors notes that four of every five tourists to sub-Saharan Africa visits to view wildlife while the number of tourists is set to double to 134m by 2030. Sustainable Tourism creates jobs Tourism already drives 8.5 percent of Africa’s GDP and provides 24 million jobs while spending on tourism, hospitality and recreation could double to more than $260 billion by 2030. They however called for urgent improvement of the economy and ecological value to save wildlife and landscapes that are under a cute threat. The paper states found out that some...
“Young African Scientists are engaging to make Africa Disaster Resilient Ready!” MARYANNE MURIUKI
“Young African Scientists are engaging to make Africa Disaster Resilient Ready! “ MARYANNE MURIUKI Last may, 15 young scientists from Tunisia, Morocco, South Africa, Central African Republic, Madagascar, Kenya, Tanzania, Cameroun, Congo, Uganda, Burundi, Ghana, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, and South Sudan have been selected by the African Union to be part of the African Youth Advisory board in Nairobi with the aim to facilitate the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 which is a 15-year, voluntary, non-binding agreement which recognizes that the State has the primary role to reduce disaster risk. Maryanne Muriuki, a 28 years old young woman from Nyandarua County in the Central Province in Kenya was among these 15 young scientists. She was recently interviewed by Era Environnement. ERA ENVIRONNEMENT: How were these 15 young scientists of the African Youth Advisory board selected? MARYANNE MURIUKI: The board comprises of 15 young people between 18 and 35 years. We all come from various disciplines, but all our efforts are towards Disaster Risk Reduction. We also represent various disciplines, including academia, the private sector, civil society, and government. We also represent all the regions of Africa, East, West, Southern, Northern and Central. We are a total of 7 women on the Board! All of us are passionate and are involved in the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR 2015-2030), and closer home, are in alignment with the AU Programme of Action (PoA). ERA ENVIRONNEMENT: How this board will enhance the capacity building of African youth on their activities related to the prevention of natural disasters? MARYANNE MURIUKI: This is a good question. African Youth Advisory Board-Disaster Risk Reduction will organise capacity building workshops in collaboration with the African Union Commission (AUC), Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and other relevant institutions centred on the four priorities of action Sendai Framework for African Union Youth and Young Politicians. We will also leverage on electronic and non-electronic platforms to share capacity building information on Disaster Risk Reduction. Already, we have engaged quite a number of African youth in Disaster Risk Reduction through our social media platforms. African Youth Advisory Board-Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) will also facilitate intergenerational capacity building in Disaster Risk Reduction between youth practitioners and experienced Disaster Risk Reduction practitioners at different levels of engagement. Finally, the Board will create avenues for the interaction of youth and youth organisations in DRR with related disciplines such as Climate Change, Urbanisation and Sustainable Development for cross discipline building of capacities. ERA ENVIRONNEMENT: What was the outcome of the meeting in Nairobi ? MARYANNE MURIUKI: We have set targets for the coming six months, basing on the four priorities for Action: Understanding disaster risk, Strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk,...
UNFCCC: In Preparation for COP 25
UNFCCC: In Preparation for COP 25 By ERA ENVIRONNEMENT with UNFCCC The 50th session of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA 50) and the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI 50) will be held in Bonn, Germany, from 17-27 June 2019, in preparation for COP 25. The Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice is one of two permanent subsidiary bodies to the Convention established by the Conference of the Parties /Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris. It supports the work of these bodies through the provision of timely information and advice on scientific and technological matters as they relate to the UNFCC, its Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreeement. Vulnerability and Adaptation among the discussion This year, the technical discussion will be about vulnerability, and adaptation to climate change, science and review with research and observation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C. Also up for discussion are methodological issues under the Convention, including a training programme for review experts for the technical review of greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories of Annex I Parties* to the Convention (developed countries). Under methodological issues under the Kyoto Protocol, SBSTA 50 will address: land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF); and implications of including reforestation of lands with forest in exhaustion as afforestation and reforestation clean development mechanism (CDM) project activities. Keys to achieve NDCs Regarding methodological issues under the Paris Agreement, SBSTA 50 has on its agenda issues related to, inter alia, reporting of information: on anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of GHGs; to track progress made in implementing and achieving Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs); and on financial, technology development and transfer and capacity-building support. On matters relating to Article 6 (cooperative approaches) of the Paris Agreement, the SBSTA will address: guidance on cooperative approaches; rules, modalities and procedures for the mechanism established by Article 6; and the work programme under the framework for non-market approaches. The SBSTA will also discuss market and non-market mechanisms under the Convention, including a framework for various approaches, non-market-based approaches, and a new market-based mechanism. SBI 50 will include: a multilateral assessment working group session under the international assessment and review (IAR) process; and a facilitative sharing of views under the international consultation and analysis (ICA) process. How the SBI will work? The SBI will address issues related to reporting from and review of Annex I Parties, including, inter alia: status of submission and review of seventh national communications and third BRs; compilations and syntheses of second and third BRs; the report on national GHG inventory...