COP27: Expertise France mobilised in the fight against climate change
A key climate event, COP27 follows on from the publication of the sixth IPCC report and the mixed results of COP26. The signing of the Glasgow Pact by 197 countries has endorsed a series of non-binding commitments to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 45% by 2030 compared to the level in 2010. Furthermore, countries managed to finalise the Paris Rulebook, for example, by introducing the updating of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) with the aim of raising the objectives for the reduction of GHG emissions of each country. Yet these commitments made in Glasgow are deemed insufficient to manage to limit global warming to 1.5°C: it is expected to reach 2.4°C by the end of the century, based on the current data of the NDCs.[1]
In this context, COP27 needs to be more ambitious and focus the negotiations on the latest IPCC report published in April 2022. Organised in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt, it is presented as the new “African COP”, six years after Marrakesh, and needs to provide a response to Africa’s priorities. These needs especially concern access to climate finance, while climate change already costs Africa between $7 billion and $15 billion a year. Eleven years after the financial commitments of Copenhagen, the commitment made by developed countries to mobilise $100 billion a year to support the efforts of developing countries to tackle climate change has still not been achieved. In this context, a “pre-COP” was held in early October in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It laid out the main priorities of COP27: finance and support of the transitions of countries of the Global South based on the principle of climate justice.
Expertise France is assisting countries and partner regional organisations with this collective dynamic and with the implementation of more ambitious low-carbon and climate-resilient development trajectories. With a mandate from the French Government and alongside the European Union, the agency works closely with its partners to achieve the climate targets in all sectors and on every continent. Expertise France assist the delegations of partner countries in international negotiations, contributes to the development of dedicated strategies and action plans and helps communities, via civil society organisations, the private sector and sub-national governments to adapt to the effects of climate change.
In the run-up to the 27th annual UN climate conference under the presidency of Egypt, which will be held in Sharm el-Sheikh from 7 to 18 November 2022, a look back at the activities implemented over the last few months.
Assisting ECOWAS with the definition of its climate strategy
On 29 April 2022, the 15 Ministers of Environment of ECOWAS Member States validated the ECOWAS Regional Climate Strategy, a document by which the regional institution pledges, alongside and in support of its Member States, to make the climate a priority for political action in the region. This regional climate strategy defines institutional arrangements for the establishment of good climate governance in the ECOWAS Commission and in its relations with Member States.
Expertise France assisted ECOWAS with the preparation of this first regional climate strategy in the context of the GCCA+ West Africa project financed by the European Union. For a year and a half, a team of multidisciplinary experts provided support to the ECOWAS Commission’s Department of Agriculture, Environment and Water Resources (DAEWR), which was responsible for coordinating the preparation and consultation process associated with the preparation of the document.
The support to ECOWAS for the implementation of the Paris Agreement provided by the project was implemented through various activities: institutional capacity building, facilitation of access to climate finance, support for innovation by financing pilot projects for climate-smart agriculture and support for the dissemination of these good practices, production of and access to scientific data, etc.
Expertise France has also helped ECOWAS to develop and operationalise the ECOWAS Regional Support Group for International Climate Negotiations (GRANIC). Its purpose is to facilitate more effective regional coordination in negotiations in order to better represent West African interests in the group of African negotiators and ensure greater unity and regional solidarity in the negotiations.
Read also: “Expertise France is assisting the ECOWAS Commission with the development of its Regional Climate Strategy”
CoM SSA: Real progress in Togo, Mali, Kenya and Uganda
The “Covenant of Mayors in Sub-Saharan Africa” (CoM SSA), an initiative financed by the European Union to support Sub-Saharan African cities in their fight against climate change and in their efforts to ensure access to clean energy for their citizens, is implemented by four European agencies, including Expertise France and AFD. Since its launch in 2019, CoM SSA has facilitated real progress in over seven partner African cities: in Togo, the project is supporting the preparation of climate-energy plans in the municipalities of Kloto and Tchaoudjo and the coordination of a national support process for the 73 CoM SSA signatory cities. These municipalities, which face the same issues, have benefited from training to more effectively integrate issues related to climate change in their territorial planning and have worked together on the identification of adaptation and mitigation projects.
In Mali, progress is being made with the preparation of climate plans, despite a complicated political and security situation. The plan for the Ségou region was validated in July and its implementation has started, while the Bamako plan should be finalised in the coming weeks.
In Kenya, Expertise France has assisted Kisumu County with the preparation of its climate plan and the implementation of pilot projects which have demonstrated the local government’s ability to take ownership of the climate issues in its territory. The pilot projects selected and implemented by Kisumu County include the construction of a bio-digester, the installation of a nursery, the establishment of an early warning system to better inform people about climate-related risks and awareness-raising on household waste sorting.
Finally, in Uganda, the cities of Kampala and Kasese, which already have climate action plans for energy, are being assisted with their implementation. A system to monitor air quality is being developed in the Ugandan capital in order to identify the main air pollutants and propose relevant lines of action to improve the health of residents in the Ugandan capital.
In addition to these two projects, Expertise France has continued to assist a number of countries with the implementation of their climate ambitions, on issues related to biodiversity conservation, in particular through the Post-2020, BIODEV2030 and EUROCLIMA+ projects.
Expertise France mobilised for COP27
Expertise France, represented by Jérémie Pellet, Chief Executive Officer of the agency, and Nicolas Chenet, Director of the Sustainable Development Department, will be fully mobilised for COP27. They will be accompanied by representatives from several project teams.
Indeed, Expertise France will be contributing to the organisation of about fifteen side-events, in particular:
- On 8 November, the EUROCLIMA+ project will take part in the side-event: “Biodiversity and Climate Change: Challenges and Measures in the Sectors of Agriculture, Forestry and Protected Areas”
- Two days later, on 10 November, the closing workshop of the GCCA+ WA project will be held with the participation of all the stakeholders of this regional project
- Finally, on 15 November, the Post-2020 project will be organising an event to demonstrate the importance of a coherent integration of climate and biodiversity issues in urban planning.
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[1] Data from the Climate Action Tracker research group based on the sum of NDCs.