CLIMATE NEWS NETWORK AFRICA

By Charles Ogallo This year's Green Energy Africa Summit returns to Cape Town, South Africa from 10 – 11 October 2023. The high-level gathering advocates for policy reforms and the harmonisation of Africa's natural resources.  It's outcome will help pave way for a just energy transition to ensure Africa remains competitive and attractive to global finance. Under the theme, “Unlocking Africa’s Sustainable Energy Potential”, the Green Energy Africa Summit, will provide unrivalled opportunities through an active two-day programme for stakeholders across the energy value chain to collaborate, offer solutions and build partnerships to help unlock Africa's true socioeconomic potential.  The Summit will come few weeks after the  Climate Change Summit set for Nairobi, Kenya early September and aims to address the increasing exposure to climate change and it's associated costs both globally, Africa in particular, according to host country's President William Ruto "C

A team of African civil society groups at COP27 in Sharma el Sheikh, Egypt  By Charles Ogallo African civil society groups have expressed disappointment with the progress and expected outcomes from the 27 th Conference of Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change taking place in Sharma El Sheikh, Egypt. United under the Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance, the CSOs said contrary to expectations by Africa, COP27 would soon end, leaving millions of Africans with unresolved climate-related miseries. Mithika Mwenda, the Executive director, PACJA said Africans leave COP27 a disappointed lot. “We came with the hope that the momentum created by the discussions in the year ahead of COP27 under the facilitation of UNFCCC, the COP Presidency and the facilitation of friends of the COP will materialize with concrete outcomes in Egypt. But unfortunately, the end of COP is an anti-climax,” said Mithika. Mithika said people facing starvation in the Eastern and Horn of Africa

By Charles Ogallo  Africa could capture up to 10 percent of global green hydrogen market, helping to create up to 3.7 million jobs and adding as much as US$120bn to gross domestic product (GDP) by 2050, report released at COP27 shows. The landmark report issued jointly by Masdar and its Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW) platform on the sidelines of the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27 also shows Africa’s plentiful solar and wind resources could be leveraged to produce 30 to 60 million tons per annum (mtpa) of green hydrogen by 2050, about 5 to 10 percent of global demand. “Africa’s Green Energy Revolution: Hydrogen’s role in unlocking Africa’s untapped renewables,” says the report produced with analytical support provided by McKinsey & Company. An African hydrogen industry with that production capacity would likely create 1.9 to 3.7 million jobs and boost GDP by as much as US$60 to 120 billion by 2050, the report finds. Speaking at the launch of the r

By Charles Ogallo Scientists are now calling on policymakers to build climate resilience and environmental sustainability into healthcare systems that reflect the uncertainties of climate change impacts and development choices, and their varied effects on humans, animals, plants and ecosystems. They say compounding risks due to climate change are adversely impacting human, animal and environmental health. The risks have the potential to slow advances made in population health over the last decades and disrupt functioning health systems across the globe, according to  new report launched Thursday November 10, by leading scientists during UN Climate Change in Sharma el Sheikh, Egypt, The scientists challenged COP27 participants to “Consider the current cost of climate inaction on human, animal and environmental health systems and re-examine budgets and financial incentives to ensure adequate investment in prevention and addressing vulnerabilities” The  10 New Insights in Climate Science

By Charles Ogallo Bureaucracy remains a major threat to African local communities’ access to climate finance, a situation affecting their efforts to adapt and mitigate climate change, according to a session of the 27 th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Participants in the session heard that grass-root African communities have ideas on leading local action that could help them adequately adapt to climate change, but they face difficulties in accessing needed financial support. The session, organized by the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt focused on closing the gap between grassroots, intermediaries and financial service providers. Panelists noted the tough conditions some financial providers demand from grassroot communities, most of who do not have adequate financial literacy but have bankable ideas in adaptation. "Such conditions make it very hard for community groups access needed

  By Charles Ogallo The Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit (ICIEC), Signed a Landmark MoU with Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) Member States Utilizing ICIEC’s De-risking Solutions. The MoU was signed on November, 9  by Mr. Oussama Kaissi, Chief Executive Officer of ICIEC, and Mallam Samaila D. Zubairu, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the AFC, in Sharm El Sheikh during the occasion of the COP27 gathering. The two parties agreed Tuesday to cooperate in promoting joint action in the origination, financing and execution of Climate Change projects through ICIEC’s credit and investment insurance support in African Member states AFC is the leading multilateral infrastructure development finance institution in Africa . ICIEC and peer multilaterals have an important role in contributing to the international climate finance ecosystem. It is committed to further boosting its green and sustainable financ

By Charles Ogallo Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) Friday November 4 in Sharma El Sheikh, Egypt handed over three-month long Climate Justice Torch campaign messages to the Egyptian Presidency of the 27 th Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, with calls for immediate actions to address adverse effects of climate change in the continent. PACJA is a consortium of more than 1000 organizations from 48 African countries that brings together a diverse membership drawn from Grassroots, Community-based organizations, Faith-based Organizations, Non-Governmental organizations, Trusts, Foundations, Indigenous Communities, Farmers and Pastoralist Groups with a shared vision to advance a people-centered, right-based, just and inclusive approach to address climate and environmental challenges facing humanity and the planet. Mithika Mwenda, the Executive Director of PACJA while handing over the torch to the COP27 presidency, said the torch has been m

By Charles Ogallo  This year's United Nations Climate Change Conference COP27 opened Sunday, November 6 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt with the key aim of ensuring full implementation of the   Paris Agreement ,  according to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change-UNFCCC . Paris Agreement, the  legally binding international treaty on climate change   was adopted by 196 Parties at COP 21 in Paris, on 12 December 2015 and entered into force on 4 November 2016 to  limit global warming  to well below 2,  preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius , compared to pre-industrial levels. UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell said in his opening address said “COP27 sets out a new direction for a new era of implementation: where outcomes from the formal and informal process truly begin to come together to drive greater climate progress — and accountability for that progress. Stiell asked governments to focus on three critical areas at COP27. The first is a transformational