Shortly before the entry into force of the historic Paris Climate Change Agreement on November 4, West African countries are stepping up cooperation to ensure that climate action can be properly measured, reported and verified, and have agreed a new network to do so. The Paris Agreement provides a robust transparency and accounting system, which will provide clarity on countries’ ...

Cities now have an unprecedented opportunity to transform and decarbonise their energy supply and use, according to a new report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). “Renewable Energy in Cities”, released on Tuesday on the sidelines of the Habitat III Conference in Quito, Ecuador estimates energy use in 3,649 cities and explores their potential to scale-up renewable energy by ...

Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), and John Kufuor, former President of Ghana and Co-chair of the Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition, on Monday in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire hosted the first official meeting of the African Leaders for Nutrition. The Champions of the African Leaders for Nutrition also include Hery Rajaonarimampianina, President of ...

Civil society organisations (CSOs) have accused some developing countries of insecurity and double standards by implementing projects that increase greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions into the atmosphere in their quest for industrialisation. They singled out Nigeria and Morocco as countries that are investing in coal production. The activists thus called for more financing to African countries to implement low-carbon development pathways. ...

Lagos State Government on Tuesday clarified its decision to demolish illegal structures and shanties erected along the river banks and under high tension cables across the state, citing security concerns and flagrant abuse of its building regulations as its core reasons. Addressing journalists at the Bagauda Kaltho Press Centre in Alausa, Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Steve Ayorinde, said that ...

Kenya is among 15 African countries that have been commended for ratifying the Paris Agreement on climate change by representatives of over 1,000 civil society organisations (CSOs) in Africa, ahead of the Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA) conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In the same vein, Kenya’s Cabinet last week approved the National Climate Change Policy Framework, which ...

Secretary General of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo, has congratulated Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), on the entering into force of the Paris Agreement, as well as the effective support provided by the UNFCCC secretariat in the process. Mr Barkindo, a Nigerian, made the submission last ...

“Ignoring land degradation neutrality (LDN) could be political suicide,” said Monique Barbut, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), emphasising the real benefits populations will feel in terms of climate change, rural employment and food security. LDN is one of the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). At the opening of the 15th session ...

A central component of the Paris Agreement is to strengthen transparency requirements to better hold countries accountable for their commitments. National transparency mechanisms provide information to track Parties’ progress in implementing their nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and will help strengthen Parties’ capacities to measure and optimise their efforts to address climate change. Peru has now taken an important initiative to ...

A new online knowledge hub launched on Tuesday provides an unparalleled view of multilateral, national and sub-national efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The International Institute for Sustainable Development’s (IISD) SDG Knowledge Hub consolidates the organisation’s Policy & Practice knowledgebases – and the tens of thousands of published articles contained within them. Focused on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable ...