The European Union (EU) on Friday, March 6, 2015 submitted its new climate action plan to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

This comes as EU environment ministers also on Friday endorsed the bloc’s promise to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2030, compared to Europe’s 1990 levels.

The target has to be achieved domestically rather than through offsets that allow member states to buy into carbon-cutting schemes outside Europe.

The EU’s Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) comes well in advance of a new universal climate agreement which will be reached at the UN climate conference in Paris in December, this year. All submitted INDCs are available on the UNFCCC website, at: http://www4.unfccc.int/submissions/indc/Submission%20Pages/submissions.aspx

The new agreement will come into effect in 2020 and will pave the way to keep a global temperature rise this century under 2 degrees C.

Governments have agreed to submit their INDCs in advance of Paris with many developed and bigger developing countries expected to do so in the first quarter of this year.

In February, in Geneva, countries under the UNFCCC also finalized the negotiating text for the Paris agreement. The next round of formal negotiations will take place at UNFCCC headquarters in Bonn, Germany, in June.

INDCs have been chosen as the vehicle for national contributions to the international Paris agreement. They include, for example, details of emission reductions the country will undertake and can include other action plans covering areas such as adaptation to climate change.

Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC has encouraged countries to come forward with their INDCs as soon as they are able, underlining their commitment and support towards a successful outcome in Paris. “Momentum towards Paris is building everywhere. I look forward to
many more INDCs being submitted over the coming weeks and months,” she said.

Countries have agreed that there will be no back-tracking in their contributions. This means that the level of ambition to reduce emissions will increase over time.

The negotiating text from Geneva also signals the ambition among many governments for a long-term goal to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the century.

All information such as documentation on designing and preparing INDCs as well as on sources of support for INDC preparation, is available here: http://unfccc.int/focus/indc_portal/items/8766.php

French Energy Minister Segolene Royal told reporters in Brussels: “I think that Europe is facing up to its responsibilities. That it is aware that it is the source of a lot of greenhouse gas emissions since the start of the Industrial Revolution.

“It is also aware that it has the biggest responsibilities to face up to in order to get the rest of the world on board,” she said.

The plan to cut Europe’s emissions levels was finally agreed by EU leaders back in October.

But Germany reckons there could be scope for even further negotiation.

“If other countries come up with more ambitious reduction plans, we will think again about even more ambitious measures,” said the country’s environment minister, Barbara Hendricks.

Privately, however, EU diplomats wonder just how the target will be achieved and the burden will be shared.

Africa`s continental civil society group, the Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), is rebranding. In its drive to expand its activities and scope of coverage, the civil society group has changed its name to Pan-African Climate and Environmental Justice Alliance (PACJA).

“Part of our mission is to participate not only in climate change action but engage in other environmental activities. We will now be fully active in sustainable development and issues related to land use, water, energy, environmental governance and all the other Rio Conventions. That is why we are changing the name especially to give more visibility to our activities,” said Augustine Njamnshi, PACJA Coordinator for Central Africa.

PACJA made the decision at an Ordinary General Assembly that took place March 3^rd in Cairo, Egypt. The rebranding is expected to bring on-board new partners and give the group a clear sense of purpose easily understood by all, Augustine explained.

“PACJA is entering a new phase of growth next year, when we start implementing a new strategic plan 2016-2020; and, reflecting back, we need to ask ourselves whether we have met the milestones of the strategic plan 2011-2015, which comes to an end by the end of the year,” said Mithika Mwenda, PACJA Secretary-General.

In the new plan of action, Mithika said, PACJA would focus on pro-poor climate change response policies and strategies taken on board at National and Regional levels and enhance positive media coverage of Africa climate change issues.

“We also need to build trust among each other and always be guided by prized values of transparency and accountability, voluntarism and self-help, inclusiveness, fairness and justice, integrity, gender responsiveness, professionalism and participatory democracy,” Mithika said.

In a major push for committed leadership, the assembly elected regional coordinators with the following results:

• West Africa:  Rev. Tolbert Jallah – Liberia, Aishatou Diouf – Senegal, Alternate- Diallo Sekou – Mali
• East Africa: John Bideri – Rwanda, Florence Kasule – Uganda,Alternate: Yonas Gebru –Ethiopia
• Southern Africa: Robert Chimambo – Zambia, Tracy Sonny – Botswana, Alternate – Heather Maseko – Malawi
• Northern Africa: Dr. Shaddad Mauwia – Sudan Said Chakri – Morocco Alternate – Dr. Najwa Bourawi
• Central Africa: Augustine Njamnshi – Cameroon,Hindou Oumarou – Chad, Alternate – To be Decided

By Arison Tamfu, Cairo, Egypt

The impacts of climate change are felt by communities around the world now, but many of the most severe impacts will be felt in the decades to come.

New research by the Future Climate for Africa (FCFA) programme reveals that African governments and businesses are putting their investments at risk from the long-term impacts of climate change because they are failing to take climate predictions into account.

Africa’s infrastructure investments and planning decisions are likely to be highly vulnerable to future climate change without concrete steps to change the way climate science is carried out, communicated and used in African decision-making.

A new microsite by the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) for the FCFA programme presents case studies and analysis on how African decision-makers could make their investments ‘fitter’ for the future climate. The fascinating results hold many lessons for scientists and decision-makers in other parts of the world. Take a tour of the new microsite.

The FCFA is a five-year research programme funded by the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID) and Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). The programme aims to foster better understanding of climate variability and change across sub-Saharan Africa, and promote the use of long-term climate information in decision-making.

CDKN is responsible for coordinating the FCFA scoping phase – an 18-month exercise using six case studies in sub-Saharan Africa to evaluate the needs of science users.

The country case studies were: Malawi, Rwanda and Zambia, and an urban case study of Accra, Ghana and Maputo, Mozambique. Two case studies focused on long-term infrastructure: ports and large hydropower.

The studies looked at:

• What types of investments and planning decisions are likely to be affected by climate change in the long term?
• Is climate information being considered in such decision-making processes and if so, in what format?

How can scientists and policy-makers be brought together to promote the better use of climate information in policy and practice?

We have decided to devote this piece to climate change and development issues. COP 21 is not a talk shop. Rather, it is a serious gathering of world leaders, government officials, negotiators, civil society and professionals. It is an important UNFCCC meeting that will take a vital decision that will affect humanity and global development.

Climate Change until recently was viewed largely as an environmental concern of little relevance to development. I had an experience of this sometime ago when I had a meeting with a notable member of a high profile professional body. I tried to explain how climate change affects all facets of human life and the need to address it through bringing a number of people across several professional sectors together to see how we can position Nigeria to play a key role in Africa. I was told that climate change is an instrument that the civil society is using to be relevant. I made efforts to convince the person but to no avail. However, the house of a close relative was damaged as a result of the flood and properties worth millions of Naira were lost and when it was said that it was caused by changes in the weather pattern, it was then that interest in climate change started.

Development considerations were also given less attention than technological and natural science approaches focussing on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Unsustainable development is the underlining cause of climate change. Development pathways will determine the degree to which social systems are vulnerable to climate change.

Climate change has direct impacts on development with regard to climate sensitive activities such as poverty and education.

Climate change also affects distribution of facilities and likely to exacerbate inequalities due to the uneven distribution of damage as most communities tend to live on marginal lands and in areas prone to extreme weather events.

Development policies and practices must address climate change issues
There is need for us to start to focus the emerging issues on development and climate change. Our development planners must be trained and properly equipped with appropriate knowledge to acquire information, share it and incorporate the climate change issues into development plans. The communities must be engaged and their input reflected in the development agenda. For example, good adaptation presupposes development and we must ensure that climate change and development are linked through adaptation and mitigation.

In addressing climate change and the development, we must have a template to focus on land, agriculture, water, forests, justice, ethics, humanitarian issues, adaptation, planning, mitigation, finance and the private sector. These must be simple and easy to understand.

The road to COP 21 in Paris should assist us to let Nigerians understand the concept of low carbon resilient development, causes of climate change and impacts on the community. We must also ensure that we aim to generate a better understanding of the various linkages between development and climate change. In this regard, we need to look at issues beyond the negotiation tables that can serve as an opportunity to connect those working on these issues.

We also need to explore avenues for networking, business meetings and entrepreneurial development that can lead to job creation, employment generation and widen the knowledge base.

The vocabulary is changing in the development arena, we need to understand what the talk is about sustainable banking principles, solar water, solar houses, low carbon economy, biomass, fuel efficient stoves and others.

The challenge of COP 21 to us should include awareness raising, creation of resilient livelihoods, disaster risk impacts and measures to mitigate them.

We must integrate our communities, organise activities aimed to achieve multiple effects. It is suggested that we develop community ownership sense, sustain investment, create jobs, and create economic units capable to generate income. We need also to reach out to various organisations especially locally and globally who can assist us with finance, technology, training, and opportunity to share their experience on how we can address the challenges and tap into the opportunities arising from climate change.

We have a lot to do by working together as COP 21 like previous ones provide different platforms. Apart from the negotiation tables there are other areas that we can tap into including implementing the post COP 21 decisions. We must get the best for our country and as a nation we must start to put things in place to ensure active and effective participation in the processes.

We see the need to develop the capability of people who can be practitioners in the areas of environment, climate change and sustainable development. These practitioners can be useful in the integration of socio-economic measures that will create a better society.

By Prince Lekan Fadina (Executive Director, Centre for Investment, Sustainable Development, Management and Environment (CISME). (He is a member of the Nigeria Negotiation Team, Africa Group of Negotiators and member, AGN Finance Co-ordination Committee). Website: www.cismenigeria.com. Email: cismevision@gmail.com