The African Green Stimulus Programme adopted by the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment in December 2020 is an innovative African-led initiative to support the continent’s recovery. The African Green Stimulus Programme seeks to harness the opportunities of a green recovery through a more coordinated approach and the scaling up of resource mobilisation, capacity building and technology development.
Even though Africa has contributed the least to the global emissions of greenhouse gases, the continent is among the most vulnerable to climate variability and change. The situation is compounded by the interaction of multiple stresses including high poverty levels, high dependence on rain-fed Agriculture, coupled with low adaptive capacity. Climate change seriously threatens Africa’s continued economic growth and livelihoods of vulnerable populations. The major concerns regarding Climate Change for Africa’s key economic sectors with potentially disastrous consequences include; a heightened threat of food security, inadequate water resource availability, degeneration in natural resources productivity, diminished biodiversity, decline in human health viability, increasing land degradation, increasing desertification, and coastal zone recession.
There are also concerns that the COVID-19 crisis is likely to have dramatic consequences for progress on climate change mitigation. Whilst it is expected that global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions will fall in this period by more than in any other year on record, the rate of decline expected in 2020, would have to be repeated, year after year, to reach net-zero. Instead, emissions are expected to rebound once mobility restrictions are lifted and economies recover, unless governments intervene. Some scientists believe that there are reasons to fear that once the COVID-19 challenge is addressed there will be an even more intense climate change
emergency. The coronavirus crisis may also threaten local efforts to meet climate commitments as the focus shifts to deal with the pandemic.
Raise ambition on Climate Action
According to the UN Secretary General, while COVID-19 is the most urgent threat facing humanity today, we cannot forget that climate change is the biggest threat facing humanity over the long term. It is recognised that there is a need to raise ambition on Climate Action, to revive political momentum for action and to mobilise the means of implementation support required by developing countries to transition their economies and to boost ambition and rapidly accelerate action to implement the Paris Agreement.
Global Warming needs to be limited to 1.5ºC by the middle of the Century and there is a need to enhance the Nationally Determined Contributions of all Parties to the UNFCCC, reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 45% over the next implementation of these plans in the areas of energy transition; infrastructure, cities and local action; industry transition; resilience and adaptation; nature-based solutions; climate finance and carbon pricing. In order to realise this, there is a need to operationalize the provisions of UNFCCC and its Paris Agreement regarding finance, technology transfer and capacity building.
The deliverables and initiatives that will be showcased need to be implementable, scalable and replicable and have the potential to get the world in line with the commitments of the UNFCCC and its Paris Agreement. Initiatives developed should also include a broad range of stakeholders, including private sector and civil society. The third focus will be on generating political momentum through enhanced social and political drivers as well as youth and public engagement.
