The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in cooperation with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), International Trade Centre (ITC), World Trade Organisation (WTO) and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) held a joint side event panel discussion at COP 22 in Marrakech, Morocco on Saturday 12 November on the topic: “Implementing the Paris Agreement: UN agencies’ dialogue on impacts of mitigation measures and linkages with trade.”
Although the Paris Agreement itself does not include any trade-related provisions, international trade does play a role when looking at the impact of the implementation of mitigation actions
The Paris Agreement paves the way to shift the global economy towards a low-carbon development path. Given the transformative nature of this process, self-determined and increasingly ambitious mitigation actions will have a vast impact on the global economy, both positive and negative.
Although the Paris Agreement itself does not include any trade-related provisions, trade does play a role when looking at the impact of the implementation of mitigation actions. For example, subsidies for low-carbon technology may affect competitiveness, alter demand and supply, and ultimately impact trade.
Trade also brings opportunities for and synergies with economic transformation, as enhanced mitigation ambition by Parties will call for commensurate actions to promote economic diversification and to address the impacts on the workforce in all countries, especially developing countries.
Rich discussions were held between the panelists and the audience on understanding the impacts of mitigation measures, including their interaction with trade, and their role in ensuring sustainable development and economic transformation.
The key message from the event was that it is important for trade and climate change organisations, Parties and stakeholders to work together to explore the role of trade in delivering countries’ climate action plans, known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), and leveraging the complementary benefits of climate policies.
For a country that was an exporter of sugar as far back as the 16th century, Morocco should by now be among the world’s leading producers and exporters of the produce.
A sugar production plant
But there are no traces of that early achievement as the Moroccan sugar industry is said to be totally in shambles, no thanks to unsavoury weather conditions brought about by the changing global climate.
Today, the cultivation of the crop is said to be restricted to a few locations in northern and southern parts of the country, while no trace of the crop is found in its earliest stronghold, the Agadir province, where the pioneer sugar factory was operating in the 16th century.
“In the 16th century, this place (Agadir province) used to have the sugar factory, and Morocco was exporting sugar. It created jobs for the people while the country earned foreign exchange from its importation. It has folded up due to climate change causing excessive evaporation and leaving the soil with insufficient water for the crop to survive,” Professor Ahmed Oghammou told a team of media executives who are Fellows of the Internews’ Earth Journalism Network (EJN) to 22nd Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP22) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) holding in Marrakech, Morocco.
The Fellows were on a field trip. Prof. Oghmmou is of the Department of Biology, Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakech.
It was discovered that Agadir and locations around it, bordering Marrakech and Casablanca, were completely taken over by the desert, turning the place into a barren land.
Local farmers are struggling to bring back life to lands with agriculture supports from government to encourage irrigation farming, which however will not be for sugar cane.
Morocco’s fortune from sugar kept plummeting such that the nation could not even meet local demand, let alone for export.
It was gathered that, in a recent move, the government announced plans to withdraw subsidy from sugar cane cultivation and channel the money to other more profitable areas, including health.
“Not sugar cane alone, so many indigenous crops are affected,” adds Prof. Oghmmou. “We have very big problem of lack of rains. And we have very high evaporation. So, only crops that are adapted to little precipitation can survive. We have dry season in summer. For example, between May, June, July, August, may be September, no rain in these places. We used to have snow which checked evaporation. But, that, too, is rare – and all because of climate change.”
Reports show that the country produced 470,000 metric tons of sugar at the end of the 2014/2015 planting season, which was considered not even enough to meet local consumption, thus prompting the Kingdom to resort to imports to make up for its sugar deficit.
In 2014, the country could only cover 40% of its consumption.
But Mounir Hassan, an official from the Morocco’s Inter-Professional Federation of Sugar (FIMASUCRE), announced during the International Sugar conference in Marrakech last year that “the Moroccan government has invested more than MAD 5.5 billion for the upgrade and modernisation of the manufacturing base”. The Morocco based sugar producer will continue its efforts in order to increase the domestic production of sugar to exceed the national needs by 56% by 2020”.
Experts have said that a lot of investment may be required to bring the Moroccan sugar industry back to the good, old days, but it is going to be a lot of hard work, involving recovery of degraded lands and increase in water availability.
A month after the Governor of Lagos State, Akinwunmi Ambode, announced government’s intention to demolish “shanties” along waterfronts across the state – and just days after the Lagos State High Court issued an injunction restraining the same – the authorities appear to have moved into action.
What is left of the Otodo Gbame community after the inferno
In the early morning hours of Wednesday, 9 November 2016, a gang of boys with reported ties to a powerful royal family, entered Otodo Gbame community – a fishing settlement on the edge of the Lagos Lagoon in Lekki Phase I, made up predominantly of Eguns and other ethnic minorities in Lagos – and began setting fire to houses in the community.
The police reportedly arrived the scene shortly thereafter but, according to eyewitness reports, instead of addressing the situation, opted to lend assistance to the spreading of the fire.
Megan Chapman, Co-Director of Justice & Empowerment Initiatives (JEI), said in a statement: “They shot into the community and chased away persons bringing water to quench the fire. They helped to set more structures on fire. Four persons – two women, one man, and one child – reportedly drowned as they rushed into water.
“It was only when help from other Egun communities around Lagos Lagoon such as Makoko and Oke Ira Nla arrived that residents began succeeding to put out the fire and police turned back.
“By the time JEI arrived in the Otodo Gbame, about a third of the community – an estimated 800 structures – had been razed to the ground and fires were still smouldering across the community. An estimated 10,000 people rendered homeless in a matter of hours tried to recover what properties they could and dozens of people huddled in boats off the shore of the community.
“At least 15 police vehicles were on ground and, around 1:30pm, the Commissioner of Police Fatai Owoseni arrived on the scene in person for ‘inspection’ and to order the community sealed.
“Interviews with affected residents throughout the day confirmed the complicity of the police in the spreading of the fire and loss of life in the early part of the day. They also indicate that police are working in tandem with those that initiated the fire to serve private interests of Otodo Gbame’s wealthier and more powerful neighbours. Residents pointed fingers at the Elegushi Chieftaincy Family and to the neighbouring International Children’s School.
“On 7 November 2016 – just two days before – Hon Justice Onigbanjo of the Lagos State High Court issues an injunction restraining the Lagos State Government and the Lagos State Commissioner of Police from demolishing waterfront communities – including Otodo Gbame – or evicting residents therefrom or otherwise giving effect to the 9 October 2016 eviction threat.
“As evening fell in Otodo Gbame, tens of thousands of residents – some newly homeless and some terrified but lucky to still have their homes – tried to get some rest after the wearying day. JEI-trained paralegals had delivered a copy of the subsisting injunction to the local Ilasan Divisional Police Station to ensure their awareness and pasted the order around the community.
“Shortly after midnight on 10 November 2016, however, JEI received reports from numerous residents of Otodo Gbame that a bulldozer with an escort of at least four police vehicles had started working to destroy remaining homes. There has been no indication that our efforts to notify the Nigerian Police Force at various levels – from Zone II Command to the Complaints Response Unit (CRU) in the office of the Inspector General of Police – have stopped the demolition ongoing with blatant impunity and disregard for life and wellbeing of citizens.”
According to Edukpo Tina, a young woman in Otodo Gbame interviewed in the early morning of 10 November by JEI, “Police came again after midnight with caterpillar [bulldozer] and started breaking everywhere, putting fire on peoples’ houses. They are seriously beating our people and threatening to shoot unless we leave. All of us are on top of water now, there is nowhere to go.”
According to JEI-Nigeria, it strongly condemns the actions of the Nigerian Police Force and any branches of the Lagos State Government or private parties at whose behest the NPF may be working.
The group adds: “We decry the extremely false and misleading press release issued by the Nigerian Police Force in the late afternoon of 9 November 2016 that seeks to characterise the police’s actions as a ‘rescue,’ while announcing that the community in question will be taken over by the Lagos State Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development and remaining structures will be demolished.
“We note that there is absolutely no legal basis for eviction or taking over of land in the aftermath of either security or fire incident. We further note there have been no statutory or paper notices whatsoever served on any residents of Otodo Gbame. Rather, the police are acting completely outside the scope of the law and in overt disregard for a subsisting order of court. We call on all conscientious citizens concerned for democracy and rule of law to join in condemning this action.”
While bodies of two persons drowned on 9 November have been found, others are however still missing.
Indeed, many of the evictees remain in the evicted areas, living in unsavoury conditions and subjected to regular police harassment. On Saturday 12 November, police reportedly came into the community and arrested two women for undisclosed reasons, and allegedly chased others into the lagoon. As at Saturday, about 100 structures on water were remaining where many were still squatting.
Last night (on Sunday), there were unconfirmed reports that the police visited the community yet again, allegedly setting fire to the remaining houses and have arrested someone obviously still staying there. It was gathered that when police came, he tried to show them a copy of the injunction protecting the community, but he was said to have been handcuffed and taken to the station.
On Friday, 11 November, the police reportedly went to a neighbouring informal area called Ebute Ikate and gave everyone three hours to pack out. Bulldozers came in with police and people not in uniform who were said to have started demolishing the entire area, affecting hundreds of houses and shops.
Following the alleged forced eviction, affected residents of Otode Gbame, those from nearby Ebute Ikate and indeed members of the Nigerian Slum/Informal Settlement Federation will on Tuesday (15 November, 2016) stage a mass peaceful protest to the Governor’s Office at Alausa in Ikeja, the Lagos State capital.
“The peaceful protesters will include evictees from Otodo Gbame and residents of other waterfront communities and other Federation member communities across Lagos standing in solidarity with a number of civil society supporters,” stated Chapman.
More reactions have trailed the shock emergence of businessman and Republican candidate Donald Trump as the President-elect of the United States of America, who defeated Democrat, Hillary Clinton.
Environment Minister, Amina Mohammed, briefing the press in Abuja on Friday. She claims the Trump climate denier stance has no basis in reality
Experts have expressed views bordering on the fact that a Trump presidency could portend great danger to the widely-accepted Paris climate change agreement, which commits all Parties to limit global temperature at 1.5 C in order to significantly reduce risks and impacts of climate change.
However, several commentators have expressed fears that the emergency of Donald Trump as the President-elect of the US could scuttle the climate change deal. Mr. Trump has never hidden his disdain for issues related to climate change, which he described during one of his campaigns as a “hoax”.
Addressing journalists on Friday in Abuja on Nigeria’s participation at the UN climate change talks (COP22) holding in Marrakech, Morocco, the Minister of Environment, Mrs. Amina Mohammed, expressed similar concerns about Trump’s position on the phenomenon.
She said the earlier he (Trump) understood that those things he said during the campaigns had no basis in reality, the better for the US and also for the global community.
According to the minister, so many evidences abound across the world to convince anyone that climate change is real.
She said, “We congratulate the American people for their process with democracy. That has really tested them. We are looking to see exactly what it is President-elect, Donald Trump, is going to do in reality.
“In his election campaign, he said a number of things that gave grave concern to governments around the world. You cannot say that climate change is not real today. Science has proven it, so also has the extent of human suffering and attendant loss of lives and valuable property, given credence to it.
“We can make those connections. This agreement has gone very far, we want US to be part of this because they will benefit as well as us. Our job, when we go to COP this time, is to sit with the delegation and make sure they know the importance of transitioning to the President-elect with clear indications of how important it is to remain at the table with their commitments.”
Mohammed, however, said if the US refused to be persuaded, the world would not wait, saying that “it will not have effect if they don’t go the way they are supposed to go.”
She added, “I hope his rhetoric that we had in the campaign is where he begins to change and he faces realities and knows that much of it cannot be sustained in the reality of today. We are concerned, but we believe we can make him see the light.”
The minister also confirmed that President Mohammadu Buhari, who is leading the delegation from Nigeria to Marrakech, would fulfil his promise by ratifying the climate change agreement during the meeting.
According to her, those who will accompany the President on the trip include: ministers holding related ministries, members of the National Assembly, governors, a team of national negotiators, CSOs, states and the private sectors.
In a related development, environmentalist and climate change negotiator, Prince Lekan fadina, stated that the issue of climate change being a global concern is reflected in the historic acceptance of the Paris Agreement.
His words: “It’s not child’s play to say it is one of the greatest challenge of this generation. It is on record that never in the history of global diplomacy has a treaty been ratified and accepted by the whole world within one year. It shows how important, serious and the need to face its challenges. I honestly believe that there is a wide difference between politicking and governance and this point was underscored by the US President-elect when he said in his acceptance speech that he will be President of all Americans. l believe we should hold him to that statement because he has a responsibility to ensure and sustain the livelihood of the people who live in a world that is threatened by climate change and its attendant consequences.
Prince Lekan Fadina
“It must be stressed that countries negotiated, signed and ratified the climate change issue after extensive discussion, realignment of views and other diplomatic ways of addressing a topic of concern to the world. As a participant and negotiator for many years on climate change, one can say that the Americans not only participated in the COP sessions but provided leadership to ensure that we get to where we are today. It is necessary therefore to guide, inform and educate the American President-elect as to where we are coming from, where we are and the next steps to ensure the success of the Agreement and survival of humanity.
“After all, we are all ‘Trustees’ and we must ensure the future of the generations after us including the children and grand-children of the President-elect. The message from the President of COP22 to Trump was timely and to the point. We must follow this path and ensure that he not only supports and acknowledges all the efforts of the American leadership and other world leaders who have played and continue to play significant roles. ln this regard, he must not only strive to make the world a safer and better place, but use his wide experience as a businessman to champion and drive the process the same way he was able to drive the movement of change that propelled him to the corridors of power.
“I will appeal that we all keep hope alive and, through all available means, get to Trump to share our vision and be an active partner in the process.”
Shell Companies in Nigeria (SCiN) continued to earn more recognition for their sustainable development efforts as they took home two trophies at the 10th edition of The Sustainability, Enterprise and Responsibility Awards (SERAs)-Corporate Social Responsibility Awards in Lagos on Friday. Shell Nigeria’s kinetic pitch won in the SERAs 2016 Innovation Award category, beating seven other nominees, while the Afam VI Power Plant won Shell Nigeria the Best Company in Climate Action Award against five other competitors. The awards follow similar recognitions under on the SERAs platforms since they were instituted in 2006.
Shell Nigeria’s Social Performance Discipline Adviser, Hope Nuka; General Manager, External Relations, Igo Weli; External Relations Communications Manager, Sola Abulu; General Manager, Deepwater Production, Effy Okon and Head, Business Relations, Alan Udi acknowledge the Best Company in Climate Action Award won by Shell at the SERAS 2016 awards ceremony at MUSON Centre on Friday.
Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company’s (SNEPCo) General Manager, Deepwater Production, Effy Okon, led Shell Nigeria’s team of General Manager, External Relations, Igo Weli; External Relations Communications Manager, Sola Abulu; Head, Business Relations, Alan Udi; and Social Performance Discipline Adviser, Hope Nuka, to receive the awards.
A total of 26 awards were won by corporate organisations and individuals in recognition of their sustainable development and social investment efforts in Africa, including the President of Botswana, Ian Khama.
Country Chair, Shell Companies in Nigeria and Managing Director of The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd (SPDC), Osagie Okunbor, commented: “We are pleased at the recognition of our modest contributions towards a better life for our people. CSR is part of the DNA of the Shell business and we are striving to improve our partnership with NGOs, government and communities to ensure our people participate more in the execution of programmes and own them for greater sustainability. We see the latest SERAs laurels as a call to continue on this path.”
The SERA–CSR Awards is an annual event to celebrate organisations investing resources in the improvement of lives of stakeholders and through their social performance and investment programmes contributing to the development of Africa. This is the first edition to recognise individuals and organisations outside Nigeria.
Shell companies in Nigeria pursue a variety of social investment projects, with particular focus on community and enterprise development, education and health. In 2015 alone, Shell-operated ventures contributed $145.1 million to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) as required by law while $50.4 million was directly invested by the SPDC JV and SNEPCo in social investment projects. Collectively, this makes Nigeria the largest concentration of social investment spending in the Shell Group.
About 105 Parties have now deposited their instruments of ratification of the Paris Agreement.
Patricia Espinosa, UNFCCC Executive Secretary (left), and Salaheddine Mezouar, President of COP22 and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of the Kingdom of Morocco. Mezouar says over 100 countries have so far ratified the Paris Agreement
COP22 President, Salaheddine Mezouar, who made the disclosure on Saturday in Marrakech at a press conference held in the company of UNFCC Executive Secretary, Patricia Espinosa, disclosed that the development constituted an important political signal in the fight against climate change.
The press conference was held to mark the halfway point of COP22 and to take stock on progress made at the Marrakech Climate Change Conference ahead of the High-Level Segment scheduled to take place on November 15, with an opening ceremony in the presence of His Majesty (HM) King Mohammed VI of Morocco, UN SG Ban Ki-moon, scores of Heads of State and Government and participating delegations.
The opening day of the High-Level Segment will include the reading of the “Call of Marrakech”, which is a call to action that is a result of a highly inclusive consultative process among Parties. November 15 will also mark the first session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA1).
Mezouar called on all remaining parties to follow suit as soon as possible in order to keep up the important climate action momentum. Nigeria has said that it will ratify the agreement next week.
At the halfway point of COP22, slated to wrap up on November 18, the COP22 President spoke with a positive tone, saying, “Negotiations are going will and are exemplified by a highly inclusive and consultative process among all Parties.”
He underscored positive actions taken by civil society in the lead up to and during COP22, pointing to the remarkable commitment and engagement of the youth population, who participated in the Conference of Youth (COY12) in Marrakech from November 4 to 6, and who have been highly active in both the Blue and Green Zones during the first week of the COP.
The COP22 President also pointed to the fact that progress is being made on the Paris Agreement rulebook and that important announcements would be made next week regarding capacity building for developing countries. He also underscored the importance of making headway during the UN Climate Conference on the question of climate finance especially as it relates to matching bankable projects with climate funds and mobilising private sector finance to leverage public money.
Following several questions from journalists on the U.S. Presidential election results, the COP22 President answered, “The American peopled are very engaged and committed to the fight against climate change.”
In her remarks, Ms Espinosa thanked Mezouar for his leadership as COP22 President, disclosing: “More than 90 countries have moved from Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) to formal Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). This transition has happened in record time which confirms the world’s commitment to addressing climate change.”
A noteable amount of funding has been set aside for Nigeria and other African countries to implement their climate adaptation projects in key areas such as food production, building resilient cities and accelerating renewable energy development.
Chairperson of GEF, Naoko Ishii. She says African countries can access the organisation’s adaptation fund
Known as “Opportunity of the Commons”, the fund which is managed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), aims at assisting poor and developing nations to move at the same pace with their developed counterpart in addressing challenges posed by climate change and subsequently ensuring healthy economies.
Chairperson of GEF, Naoko Ishii, said in a presentation on Saturday that the organisation was focusing attention on African countries because of the huge opportunities that abound on the continent.
She spoke during an orientation course for the Internews’ Earth Journalism Network (EJN) Fellows to the UN climate talks (COP22) holding in Marrakech, Morocco.
“We support partnerships at local, national and regional levels around integrated solutions in areas like energy efficiency, renewable energy, sustainable cities, land degradation, deforestation, food security and resilience. The newly adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) recognise that the health of the global commons is essential for a thriving world. A strong climate agreement backed by action on the ground will help us achieve the SDGs. But, with the underlying drivers of degradation still at play, our efforts must only intensify,” she said.
According to her, part of the criteria for accessing the investment fund include the execution of projects that add value to the lives of greater majority of the masses and the applying organisation should be the aggregate of major stakeholders in the industry from manufacturers to consumers.
On how to access the foundation, Ishii said the GEF works directly with relevant government agencies and prominent bodies in the private sector. The organisation, which was established on the eve of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit to help tackle the planet’s most pressing environmental problems, is said to have provided $14.6 billion in grants and mobilised an additional $74.6 billion in financing for more than 4,000 projects.
“About two thirds of overall GEF financing can be considered climate related. This funding draws on more than the GEF’s dedicated climate change mitigation and adaptation funding windows to include a range of investments in forests, land and water, all with significant climate benefits. All in all, the GEF will be able to make about $3 billion in climate finance available during 2014-2018 across the entire spectrum of projects and programmes it is providing funding for.”
“The GEF’s recent experiences suggest that deployment of targeted, innovative financial instruments has a significant potential for mobilising private finance. Since GEF-5, a suite of 11 of such projects has mobilised $6.3 million from the private sector for each $1 million from a GEF grant, significantly higher than what typical GEF climate change mitigation projects mobilise. A recent example is the GEF’s provision of $4.5 million as Class A shares to the $150 million AFDB-led Africa Renewable Equity Fund, which targets small scale renewable energy projects across Africa that will enable investments worth approximately $0.5 billion.”
In another presentation, Asher Minns, Head of Communications, Europe Futurearth Research for Global Sustainability, said the total Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) by nations required has so far fallen short of meeting the Paris Agreement target as the pledges could only reduce earth warming to about 3 degrees centigrade, as against the 1.5 degrees centigrade proposed by the treaty as minimum temperature to still sustain life on earth. Minns said the way forward was for all nations to aggressively pursue the building of more resilient environment of decarbonisation.
Fifteen EJN fellows from developing countries were trained on the effective coverage of the COP22 in Morocco. A team of EJN staff, led by James Fahn (who heads the EJN), coordinated the orientation training.
Despite initial hiccups, the Nigerian delegation to the Seventh Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP7) to the World Health Organisation (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO-FCTC) that ended on Saturday in New Delhi, India have expressed satisfaction with the country’s outing.
An event during the Seventh Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP7) to the World Health Organisation (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO- FCTC) held in India
The delegates, who were in India from November 7-12 2016, had officials from the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Justice, Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), Ministry of Finance, the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), and a civil society representative.
Head of Delegation, Professor Christiana Ukoli, who is chair, National Tobacco Control Committee (NATOCC), said that the treaty talks were tough but had been very successful in advancing strong mechanisms for implementation of the WHO-FCTC in-country.
“The Nigerian delegation recognised the fact that we represent not only the millions of people who suffer from tobacco-related illnesses but also those the industry targets to conscript into smoking. We have represented Nigeria well and look forward to strengthening the global battle to roll back the tobacco menace,” Ukoli said.
Akinbode Oluwafemi, deputy executive director of Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), who was also member of the team, said that the Afro region took very strong positions that all nations including Nigeria will implement back home. Nigeria will forge ahead among the committee of nations that have signed, ratified and domesticated the WHO-FCTC, he added.
Oluwafemi said, “We anticipate that the tobacco industry will continue to be a clog in the wheel of progress by trying to infiltrate the talks but we were determined to move along stronger just like every other African party that attended the talks. We expect that, in subsequent meetings, Nigeria will as usual present a strong and united front for strong and effective tobacco regulation in our country.”
Mrs. Elsie Ofili of the Tobacco Products Control Desk, Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), said: “The Nigerian team remained focused on the issues throughout the talks. The SON looks forward to implementing its roles to ensure Nigeria’s standards are in sync with the recommendations of the FCTC.”
The meeting in New Delhi had about 180 Parties in attendance. Parties took some of the most authoritative steps since the treaty’s adoption as countries advanced Article 19 – a provision to hold the tobacco industry civilly and criminally liable for its abuses. Litigation against tobacco corporations will compel the industry to pay for the healthcare costs it has caused to countries around the world.
Nigeria passed the National Tobacco Control Act 2015 and is currently at the stage of developing regulations for its effective regulation.
A special Oceans Action Event at the UN Climate Change Conference in Marrakech (COP22) has brought together over 400 high-level participants from around the world to advance oceans and climate change issues and to pledge concrete actions in support of the objectives of Sustainable Development Goal number 14, which is to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources.
Oceans are fundamental to sustaining life on Earth
The global ocean is fundamental to sustaining life on Earth. It is a major carbon sink; it absorbs heat, and produces half the oxygen we breathe. It sustains the lives and livelihoods of the coastal and island communities who call it home, and who rely on its bounty to meet their nutritional needs.
The important role oceans play was recognised at the 43rd Session of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in Nairobi, Kenya earlier this year, which decided to prepare a special, scientific report on climate change and the oceans.
But while oceans are key to mitigating climate change, a warming planet also places them, and the services they provide, at great risk. Climate variability and change, habitat degradation and ocean acidification all pose additional risks to the conservation and sustainable use of our oceans, and to the well-being of dependent coastal and island communities.
At Saturday’s event in Marrakech, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations, the World Bank and the African Development Bank (AfDB) announced the African Package for Climate-Resilient Ocean Economies. This ambitious package of technical and financial assistance will support ocean economies in Africa, and build greater resilience of coastal areas to climate change, tailoring approaches based on the countries’ specific priorities and objectives. The initiative will mobilise $500-900 million and implement programmes linked to climate change adaptation and mitigation over the period 2017-2020.
The Kingdom of Morocco announced its Blue Belt Initiative aimed at building the resilience of coastal communities and promoting sustainable fisheries and aquaculture in keeping with SDG14 expectations. Focus areas will include integrated coastal monitoring systems, sustainable fisheries and aquaculture throughout the entire value chain. Solutions for adaptation and contributions to curbing greenhouse gas are proposed as part of a priority roadmap for implementation. The initiative is supported by an investment plan and capacity building programme of $60 million over the period 2017-2020, building on the Blue Growth initiative launched at COP 21 in Paris.
COP22 Ocean Action partners released the Strategic Action Roadmap on Oceans and Climate: 2016 to 2021, which provides a vision for action regarding oceans and climate in the next five years, addressing six ocean and climate issue areas: the central role of oceans in regulating climate, mitigation, adaptation, displacement, financing, and capacity development.
“These ambitious programmes aimed at strengthening the resilience of African coastal communities are critical to meeting the challenges and opportunities of climate change – especially for vulnerable Small Island Development States,” according to Maria Helena Semedo, FAO’s Deputy Director-General for Natural Resources. “African coastal communities are some of the most affected by climate change. FAO is fully engaged and ready to be at the heart of these significant developments to work alongside countries and communities to reduce their vulnerabilities, build their resilience, and maximize opportunities emerging from climate change.”
“The World Bank is pleased to be a part of the international mobilisation of financing in response to the Mauritius Communiqué. The package presented today could make a significant contribution to meeting the adaptation needs of African countries as they develop their ocean economies. We plan to ramp up our own concessional financing in this area and look forward to working with our partners to increase the effectiveness of overall development assistance,” said Laura Tuck, World Bank Group Vice President for Sustainable Development.
Dr. Biliana Cicin-Sain, Global Ocean Forum, noted: “The Global Strategic Action Initiative on Oceans and Climate (involving Parties, IGOs, NGOs, academic institutions, private sector groups, and local authorities from all world regions) will implement actions identified in the Roadmap to safeguard the health of the oceans and the wellbeing of coastal and island populations, reporting on progress at the yearly COPs.”
The full day of discussions addressed numerous challenges faced by oceans under climate change scenarios. Sessions addressed challenges to food security and resilience, adaptation challenges and solutions, country mitigation efforts, access to finance and capacity building, and science solutions to moving forward to achieve SDG 14.
