In two months stakeholders from all sectors will gather in Ghana to participate in the first regional climate week of 2019. The Africa Climate Week will take place with the theme: “Climate Action in Africa: A Race We Can Win”.
The provisional program for Africa Climate Week 2019, hosted in Accra, Ghana from 18–22 March, has just been published online, and displays a dynamic schedule of activities that will demonstrate enhanced ambition across the continent.
Hosted by the Government of Ghana, the event arrives in the wake of the COP24 and is the first major climate event in 2019 that will promote the results of the COP, the so-called “rulebook” of the Paris Agreement, as the foundation to practical implementation the Paris Agreement.
As part of the organising group, UNEP DTU Partnership will be joining the Africa Climate Week.
“The regional climate weeks offer countries an opportunity for discussion of specific aspects of climate change affecting them. They give a voice to developing countries and focus on their challenges on a regional level.
The climate weeks build on the past 12 years regional carbon forums, and have evolved from a three day event focusing on mitigation policies and instruments, including markets and carbon pricing to a full week event encompassing broader themes and involving a much wider selection of stakeholders,” says head of Programme Miriam Hinostraza from UNEP DTU Partnership.
Ramping-up national ambition to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, adapt to the inevitable impacts of climate change and support developing countries in climate action is critical if we are to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement.
An obvious stage to precipitate momentum
In terms of climate action, 2019 is already being hailed as the year of ambition. This is why United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres is convening a landmark Summit in New York this September to spur global leaders to pledge stronger commitments to reduce emissions and strengthen resilience.
In acknowledgment of this Summit as the ‘headline event’ of the year – and recognizing that the Regional Climate Weeks are the obvious stages to precipitate momentum in developing countries leading up to September – Africa Climate Week has firmly aligned itself with the New York summit in September.
The climate week will be matching its overarching theme “Climate Action in Africa: A Race We Can Win” with that of the September summit and has selected three of the summit’s six ‘transformational areas’ as the focus of its thematic sessions: Energy Transition, Nature-Based Solutions, and Cities and Local Action.
Meanwhile, the high-level segment of the Africa Climate Week will bring together Ministers and senior leaders – including UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa – and focus on areas such as: visions for Nationally Determined Contributions enhancement and implementation; carbon pricing and markets, as well as the operationalization of the ambition cycle in the Africa region.
The first of three annual regional climate weeks
Governments, private sector and other non-Party stakeholders will gather in Accra throughout this Climate Week to promote the critical work under the three transformational areas via the three levers of policy, technology and finance.
The Africa Climate Week is the first of three annual regional climate weeks. Every year the Regional Climate Weeks will be held in Africa, Latin-America and Caribbean, and Asia-Pacific.Regional, and will support the implementation of countries’ NDCs under the Paris Agreement and climate action to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals. In so doing, they bring together a diverse array of international stakeholders in the public and private sectors around the common goal of enhancing climate action.
The Regional Climate Weeks are being orchestrated by a number of core partners, including World Bank Group, African Development Bank, West African Development Bank, CTCN, UNEP, UNEP DTU Partnership, UNDP, IETA, Marrakech Partnership and UN Climate Change.
Register for the event here
For media enquiries about the Africa Climate Week, please contact:
Climate-Week@unfccc.int
