Young people will be gathering in Marrakech just before the 22^nd Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP22) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) holding 7 – 18 November in the Moroccan ancient city to help support ambitious climate action and to highlight the role of youth in the effective implementation of the Paris Agreement that will enter into force on 4 November.

The main focus of this year’s Conference of Youth (COY 12, 4-6 November) is on the role of education and capacity building in empowering young people to take action on climate change and to bring about positive change in society.

“Only by empowering youth in the various decision-making processes that a transition to low carbon and greater resilience require is climate protection possible. We are looking forward to provide a platform for young people at the location of COP22 to demonstrate the importance they have in climate action and to strengthen networks of African youth working on sustainability and low carbon development,” said Fadoua Brour, member of the Moroccan youth organisation in charge of the Conference of Youth.

Since 2005, the Conference of Youth has been held every year, a few days before the annual UN Climate Change Conferences. This year, it is organised by Moroccan youth organisations together with YOUNGO, the official non-governmental youth constituency of the UNFCCC, in order to give youth a voice during the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UNFCCC.

“The historic Paris Climate Change Agreement is about to enter into force, and as governments move to fine-tune and implement it, they need the full support of all sectors of society, not least of young people,” said Nick Nuttall, UNFCCC spokesperson.

The outcomes of the youth conference will be presented at the Young and Future Generations Day at COP 22 on 10 December, which is being organised by UNFCCC’s Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE) team.

The UNFCCC promotes youth participation under its “Action for Climate Empowerment” (ACE) focus, which relates to education, training, public awareness, public participation, public access to information and international cooperation.

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. Indeed, they urged the developing world in general and the African continent in particular to pursue low carbon-emission pathways in line with the Paris COP21 agreement.

Speaking ahead of the sixth Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA VI) conference, Mithika Mwenda, the Secretary General of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), expressed surprise that only 15 African countries have so far ratified the Paris Agreement.

“We want African countries to pursue low carbon-emissions pathways and implement bottom-top projects that will deliver justice to impacted people and communities,” Mithika said.

“Whatever the challenges, African countries need additional financial and technological resources that would enhance their capacity to pursue a low-carbon path of development,” says Azep Girmi of Least Developed Countries (LDC) Watch.

However, civil society actors noted that low-emission pathways do not apply only to the energy sector. In some African regions, land-use development, particularly infrastructure expansion, is identified as a key variable determining future GHG emissions.

“For most developing countries, adaptive and mitigative capacities are low and development aid can help to reduce their vulnerability to climate change,” said Johnson Nkem of African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC). “It can also help reduce their emissions growth while addressing energy-security and energy-access problems,” he added.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), Africa’s energy consumption will increase by 80% by 2040; but, with the continent’s population almost doubling, the energy consumption footprint will reduce per capita.

However, studies have projected that nearly one billion additional people will have access to electricity by 2040.

The IEA report however outlines another possible future – what it calls the “African Century” – in which Africa’s governments and donors invest an extra $450 billion in energy. This would sharply increase the use of fossil fuels, reduce much of the most polluting renewables, and provide energy access to 230 million more people. Providing more – and more reliable – power to almost two billion people will increase GDP by 30% in 2040.

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 provides a roadmap for coordinated response to climate change and urban development. The framework has been submitted to Parliament for adoption.

The country is now among the 81 countries globally that have ratified the climate change agreement out of the 197 parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Speaking at the UN conference centre in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, James Murombedzi of the African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC) hailed Kenya for championing ambitious climate policies in the run-up to Paris and by spearheading the implementation process.

“Kenya has set an example that should be emulated by the remaining African countries to demonstrate their commitment to concrete actions. We commend Kenya’s ratification as this is important to delivering the expected results,” Murombedzi said.

Mithika Mwenda, the secretary general of Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), said Kenya’s step now paves way for it to benefit from the money the civil society is pushing for.

“Kenya now stands to benefit from the $100 billion pledged by developed countries to developing ones and that even larger sums be leveraged from investors, banks and the private sector that can build towards the $7 trillion needed to support a world-wide transformation on climate change,” Mwenda said.

Kenya has also enacted Climate Change Act, 2016 which provides a regulatory framework for enhanced response to achieve low carbon climate resilient development.

Other policy measures to achieve a green economy in Kenya are the National Climate Change Action Plan 2013-2017, Climate Change Response Strategy 2010 and Environmental Management and Coordination Act CAP 387.

Environment Cabinet Secretary (CS) noted Government has identified nine areas where urgent mitigation actions should be undertaken using the billions of shillings.

“Among the nine are restoration of forests and degraded lands, developing an additional 2,275 megawatts of geothermal energy, restoration of degraded forests, encouraging Kenyans to use improved cookstoves and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and agroforestry,” she said.

Others include bus rapid transit and light rail corridors, develop greenhouse gas inventory and improvement of emissions data, measuring, reporting on and monitoring forestry emissions and sinks and mainstreaming of low-carbon development options into planning processes.

“To achieve the above, government needs to undertake a programme of work to restore forests on 960,000 hectares up to 2030 including dryland forest restoration activities, developing, testing and application of compensation and benefits-sharing mechanisms and develop an additional 2,275 MW of geothermal capacity by 2030 through a support programme aimed at encouraging private sector investment,” Wakhungu said.

The country also needs to undertake a programme of work to replant forests on 240,000 hectares of land that were previously forests, increase awareness of improved cooking practices, undertaking pilot initiatives which promote the use of LPG, increasing awareness of stove quality, increasing access to soft loans, building capacity of stove producers, and improving access to testing facilities.

She said the country needs to convert 281,000 hectares of existing arable cropland and grazing land that have medium or high agricultural potential to agroforestry and implement an extensive mass transit system for greater Nairobi, based predominantly on bus rapid transit corridors complemented by a few Light Rail Transit corridors as other mitigation measures.

Others include developing a national forest inventory, forest reference scenario, and a monitoring and reporting system that allows for transparent accounting of emissions and removals in the forestry and land-use sectors.

Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of UNFCCC, also congratulated countries that have ratified the agreement. “This is a truly historic moment for people everywhere. The two key thresholds needed for the Paris Climate Change Agreement to become legal reality have now been met,” she said.

She added, “The speed at which countries have made the Paris Agreement’s entry into force possible is unprecedented in recent experience of international agreements and is a powerful confirmation of the importance nations attach to combating climate change and realising the multitude of opportunities inherent in the Paris Agreement.

Under the Paris Agreement, governments are obligated to take action to achieve the temperature goals enshrined in the Agreement – keeping the average global temperature rise from pre-industrial times below 2 degrees C and pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees.

The CCDA conference is an annual event by the Climate for Development in Africa (ClimDev-Africa) Programme and a joint initiative of the African Union Commission (AUC), the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the African Development Bank (AfDB).

Africa is using the conference to forge a common ground ahead of the UN climate conference, known as COP22, in Marrakesh, Morocco next month.

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 Friday in Bonn, Germany during a visit to the UNFCCC secretariat. He described the successful implementation of the Agreement as a priority for OPEC, adding that OPEC Member Countries have been involved in climate change negotiations and the implementation of the Convention since its inception process.

During the visit, which was aimed at enhancing cooperation between the UNFCCC and OPEC and exchange views on recent developments, Mr Barkindo and Ms Espinosa, along with senior delegations from both organisations, discussed the importance of enhancing cooperation between the UNFCCC and OPEC, especially on matters related to climate change, sustainable development and economic diversification.

The meeting, which took place just a few days after the Paris Agreement reached the threshold for entry into force on 5 October 2016, builds on the ongoing involvement of OPEC in climate change negotiations and the active participation of its Member Countries.

The UNFCCC secretariat shared information regarding a high level event on sustainable economic transition and economic diversification to be organised by the Moroccan Presidency during COP22. The event is expected to be attended by Ministers and heads of delegations and targets raising awareness of the importance of economic diversification and transformation in relation to the impact of the implementation of mitigation measures and how that is linked to sustainable development for many developing countries.

The leaders agreed that enhancement of cooperation between the two organisations is beneficial, particularly since the OPEC Secretariat is an intergovernmental organisation representing 14 developing countries, all of which are also Parties to the UNFCCC. Such teamwork enhances input from developing countries in the implementation of both the Convention and the Paris Agreement, it was gathered.

The importance of inclusiveness and participation by all Parties in implementing the Paris Agreement was emphasised during the meeting, taking into account that sustainable development and poverty alleviation are high priorities for all.

The key role of oil in economic development and the right of developing countries to develop was stressed. In this regard, the OPEC efforts towards sustainable market stability were recognised as a contribution to a healthy global economy and helping implementation of the Convention and the Paris Agreement and the transition to a low emission economy.

Both secretariats acknowledged that economic diversification is an important objective for building economic resilience and agreed to explore all available capacities which can assist OPEC Member Countries in diversifying their economies and achieving just transition of work force.

The Paris Agreement will enter into force on 4 November 2016. As a result of this, the first session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA1) will take place in Marrakech in conjunction with COP22/CMP12. Other important consequences of the above include the transformation of Parties’ INDCs into Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs, which oblige governments to take action to contribute to achieving the temperature goals enshrined in the Agreement. Additionally, negotiations to develop the Paris Agreement’s implementation rule book are to be completed as soon as possible.