In a major break from the past, Africa will go to the 28th annual United Nations Conference of Parties (COP28) meeting in the United Arab Emirates this year with a united position courtesy of the first ever Africa Climate Summit that will be co-hosted by Kenya and the African Union in Nairobi from 4th to 6th September.
The Heads of State and Government high-level meeting to be held alongside the annual Africa Climate Week, from 4th to 8th September, at Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) will gather in Nairobi over 10,000 delegates to also deliberate on Africa’s green growth priorities.
Two weeks ago, jointly with the African Union and partners led by the United Nations Office in Nairobi and the Embassy of Denmark, we unveiled the Africa Climate Summit and Africa Climate Week Secretariat Office, and announced the venue and theme as well as the roadmap towards the successful hosting of the two events.
Kenya was picked to host the Africa Climate Summit by the African Union in February this year during the 36th Ordinary Session of the African Union Assembly held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Kenya’s unanimous selection followed President William Ruto’s offer to host the Summit in his capacity as the current Chairperson of the Committee of African Heads of State and
Government on Climate Change (CAHOSCC).
It is indeed a great honour for Kenya to host the inaugural Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi. The successful hosting of the Summit will add to Kenya’s glittering profile as a global leader in climate action, underscored largely by our country’s impressive trajectory in green energy transition, and global exploits by our conservation heroes led by Nobel Laureate, the late Prof Wangari Maathai.
Climate change is one of the three foremost ecological crises of
our time, alongside biodiversity loss and pollution, all of which affect Africa more severely than other regions of the world.
We can no longer second guess or doubt the severity of the climate crisis in Kenya, Africa and the entire world. As a country, we’re emerging from the worst drought in our nation’s and region’s history. The recent drought savagely destroyed our livelihoods leading to acute food and water shortages, severe destruction of ecosystems, and a reported loss of close to three million livestock.
Successive reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), including the latest 6th assessment report, indicate that despite Africa being the least emitter of greenhouse gases responsible for climate change, the continent suffers its worst effects.
Therefore, any delayed action by the continent and its backers in the international community, will continue to stagnate Africa’s progress in terms of
lost economic productivity. The continent’s underlying vulnerabilities including socioeconomic and political challenges make the situation even worse.
Africa’s prospects of attaining global development goals including Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs)
of the UN Agenda 2030 and the Africa Union’s Agenda 2063 will remain
a pipe dream if climate action is not at the core of the continent’s development agenda.
It is for this reason that President Dr William Ruto made it clear that the time for changing Africa’s narrative on climate change is now. Kenya’s position is that Africa should rise from the perception of being a mere victim of climate change to becoming a source of solutions to the crisis, out of the recognition that the future of the continent is highly dependent on its collective climate action.
Alongside the inaugural Africa Climate Week, Kenya was granted hosting rights for the 2023 Africa Climate Week from 4th to 8th September by the Germany based United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat. Last year’s Africa Climate Week was held in Libreville, Gabon.
Africa Climate Week is one of several Regional Climate Weeks convened annually by UNFCC to consolidate stakeholder efforts in the implementation of various climate action interventions including Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Participants in the Africa Climate Week are typically Government delegations,
representatives of UN agencies, multilateral development organisations and financial institutions. Others are private sector and business leaders, non-governmental organisations, civil society, and academia among other climate action stakeholders.
One of the questions that kept coming up in the days following Kenya’s nomination to host the inaugural Africa Climate Summit was why the continent needed another meeting to discuss climate change. Unlike in the past Africa Union meetings where climate change was discussed as an agenda item among other subjects, the 2023 inaugural Africa Climate Summit is the first meeting where all African Heads of State
and Governments will discuss climate change as the sole agenda.
Alongside consolidating Africa’s voice ahead of COP28 and other forthcoming UN meetings, it is expected that the “African Leaders Nairobi
Declaration on Climate Change and Call to Action”, which will be the ultimate output of the Africa Climate Summit, will outline Africa’s green growth blueprint that will uplift the continent to a global champion for ecologically responsible industrialization.
Within the broad rallying theme, “Africa Together for Bold, Innovative and Resourced Climate Action: Unlocking Climate Finance and Green Investments”, the Africa Climate Summit will seek solutions in six climate action areas among them climate finance, mitigation and green growth, and climate adaptation and resilience. Others are loss and damage, climate vulnerable groups, and research, innovation and technology.
The summit will largely be an in-person event where segments of side events and parallel sessions will be hybrid, involving both in-person participation and teleconferencing. Ahead of the Africa Climate Summit and Africa Climate Week, several pre-events to be hosted at the main venue and identified venues within Nairobi are being organised. Exhibitions will be held at KICC grounds.
Soon, the recently unveiled Africa Climate Summit and Africa Climate Week Secretariat will kick-start accreditation processes for delegates, unveil security and health protocols as well as launch an aggressive communications and publicity campaign to popularize the twin event.
We are grateful to the various partners who have come forward to assist with the planning for the successful hosting of both the Africa Climate Summit and Africa Climate Week led by the Government of Denmark which has donated 1 million USD to support the set up of the Secretariat Office and payment for the event venue.
We also have on board the Germany International Development Agency (GIZ) which is supporting the communications and publicity component as well as the International Organization for Migration (IOM). We appeal to other partner institutions to come forward and offer their support.
In terms of the Africa Climate Summit’s leadership structure, the Executive Committee is headed by President Dr William Ruto, his Union of the Comoros counterpart President Azali Assoumani, who is the current Chairperson of the African Union, and the African Union Commission’s Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat.
I co-lead the Executive Oversight Committee with my Foreign and Diaspora Affairs counterpart Dr Alfred Mutua, and Ambassador Jossefa Sacko of the African Union Commission.
The Planning and Steering Committee is led by Environment and Climate Change Principal Secretary Eng Festus Ng’eno, his Foreign Affairs counterpart Dr Korir Sing’oei, and the African Union Commission’s Director for Sustainable Environment and Blue Economy Dr Harsen Nyambe Nyambe.
Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Forestry’s Director for Climate Change Dr Pacifica Ogolla leads the Secretariat alongside Ms Leah Wanambwa of the African Union Commission.
About the writer:
Hon Soipan Tuya, an Advocate of the High of Kenya, is Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Forestry.