Eighth Conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa

28 - 30 August 2019. Eighth Conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA-VIII)

Theme: Stepping up climate action for a resilient Africa – a race we can and must win.
Partners: organised by The African Union Commission, the Economic Commission for Africa and the African Development Bank, in collaboration with the Government of Ethiopia and the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance
Objectives:

• Provide updates on the status of global climate governance (the Paris Agreement, the Kyoto Protocol, the Doha Amendment thereto and the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage Associated with Climate Change Impacts) 
• Assess the status of the climate response, both globally and within Africa,
  
• Consolidate key commitments and actions to tackle climate change by African countries and various non-State actor constituencies, as well as major concerns as inputs to the Climate Action Summit
• Explore the linkages between the Paris Agreement, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Agenda 2063 of the African Union and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development for the following three purposes: 
• Inform Common African positions towards the twenty-fifth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change; to improve understanding of the revision of nationally determined contributions for better coherence, alignment and flow of resources for implementation; and to develop robust strategies for climate response and resilience.

Extract of the programme

Plenary 2: High-level segment: Climate change and the sustainable development global agenda

• co chair HE Dr. Frehiwot Woldehanna, State Minister of Energy Sector, Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Energy, Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia 
• co chair HE Ambassador Josefa Sacko, Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, African Union Commission
• Eighth Conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa Dr. James Murombedzi, ECA and Dr. Godfrey Bahigwa, AUC 
• Update on the 2019 Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development (ARFSD) and the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development Representative of the Bureau of the fifth session of the Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development

Plenary 3: 

• The geopolitics of global warming and the implications for Africa’s development - Dr. Joseph Mukabana, Senior Scientific Officer, World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
• Climate research in Africa and contributions to the IPCC process: Introducing the Climate Research for Development in Africa (CR4D) programme - Dr. Richard Anyah, Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, University of Connecticut, United States of America

Session 8: Nature-based solutions 

Forests and land-based ecosystems, smart agriculture and food systems, regeneration of life in rivers, lakes and oceans and enabling of all people to connect to nature Country inputs: Botswana, Cabo Verde, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar 

• Dr. Solomon Dawit, Regional Program Leader, Change Agriculture and Food Security Programme (CCAFS) - East Africa 
• Mr. Elvis Tangem (see picture), Coordinator, Great Green Wall Initiative, AUC

Session 9: Resilience and adaptation

Integrating climate risks into public and private sector decision-making to assure sustainability of food, water and jobs for the future, as well as to prevent disasters and to enable a quick recovery in the aftermath, especially for the most vulnerable groups.

• Dr. Kanta Kumari Rigaud, Lead Environment Specialist & Regional Climate Change Coordinator, Africa Region, World Bank 
• António Palazuelos Prieto, Cabo Verde 
• Dr. Aboubacar Diaby, Head of the Monitoring and Evaluation, Africa Risk Capacity
• Nassirou Ba, Economic Affairs Officer, ECA