Make or break a climate-resilient world
Make or break a climate-resilient world
The Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS) took part in the Sharm El-Sheikh 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27), which was convened with the aim of building on the COP26 outcomes and showcasing the climate action.
The event brought together more than 45,000 participants to share ideas, come up with the adequate solutions and forge partnerships. Indigenous peoples, local communities and the civil society, including women and youth, came to explain how they are addressing climate change and share how it impacts their lives.
Decisions were taken and reemphasized the critical importance of empowering all stakeholders to engage in climate action for the benefit of nature and the populations.
A participation that made it possible for the Organization to note that :
Many expectations are yet to be fulfilled,
Despite the developed country Parties pledge to mobilize jointly US$100 billion per year by 2020, COP27 expressed serious concern that this goal has not yet been met. Developed countries were urged to meet the goal and multilateral development banks and international financial institutions called on to mobilize climate finance.
Even though GHG emissions were expected to be reduced and last year’s agreement at COP26 “phase-down-of-coal” phrase was repeated, it appeared that there was no real progress made on moving away from fossil fuels or cutting fossil fuel emissions since COP26 ; this was considered bad news for a rapidly warming world.
That being said, a handful of positives came out of the event,
COP27 ended with the historic decision of establishing and operationalizing a loss and damage fund for vulnerable countries and the US$230 million pledge to the Adaptation Fund to help vulnerable communities adapt to climate change, an important point of progress.
Besides, a number of announcements for a brighter future were heard, as is the case with the final agreement that highlights that US$4 to US$6 trillion a year needs to be invested in technology and infrastructure until 2030 to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.
The Conference was also the occasion for UNEP to launch the first comprehensive Global Peatlands Assessment in almost 15 years, which stresses their importance to both biodiversity and sequestering carbon and highlights the need to invest more for their preservation.
The UN Secretary-General unveiled a US$3.1 billion plan to make sure that everyone is protected by early warning systems as a plan to speed up the deployment of “transformative” technologies.
The OSS has called for more climate action to Africa,
Africa is the continent hit hardest by Climate Change and its impacts even if it has the smallest share among all world's regions greenhouse gas emissions.
The OSS, an AF and GCF accredited entity and a connector between the Climate Funds and its members, expressed its aim to see adaptation finance for Africa, become a priority, given its vulnerability to climate change.
Africa should be at the center of all adaptation plans and should benefit from a substantially increased share of international climate finance flows, given the scale of its adaptation needs and its renewable energy potential.
The OSS called upon the developed countries to deliver on their climate finance promises to support the just transition to a low carbon and climate resilient Africa.
It restated its commitment to fully support the African countries and to place Climate Finance and adaptation on top of its concerns. It also expressed its determination to consolidate its action with a view to identifying immediate actions to be implemented and to including initiatives and programs that can have a transformative impact on the continent.
