Africa Climate Week 2019 To Highlight Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)

The minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng has stated that the 2019 Africa Climate Week to be convened in Accra would be used to raise the climate profile within government by highlighting the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

He made these remarks at the media launch of the ‘2019 Africa Climate Week (ACW)’ in Accra on Wednesday, February 6. This year’s Africa Climate Week is slated for March 18-22 at the Accra International Conference Centre.

The Accra event on the theme: “Climate Action in Africa: A Race We Can Win,” would highlight the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It will also focus on energy transition, nature-based solutions, cities and local action.

Prof. Frimpong- Boateng said climate change has an adverse impact on all facets of national development including water, energy, infrastructure and agriculture. “Rainfalls are increasingly becoming uncertain. Studies have revealed that future climate changes are likely to get intense. Famers across the country complain that they can no longer rely on the mercies of the weather to plan when to plant as the used to do in the past.”

He added that climate change is attributable to human activities including illegal mining that has led to deforestation, traffic congestion and improper waste disposal that results in the release of greenhouse gases.

To help combat climate change, Prof. Boateng said the government has taken ambitious multi-sectorial climate plans as part of the nation’s contribution towards the Paris Agreement.

The 2019 (ACW) is organized by the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) in collaboration with the World Bank Group, Africa Development Bank , West African Development Bank, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), CTCN, UNEP, DTU Partnership, IETA, Marrakesh Partnership and United Nations Climate Change (UNCC) and several other actors from the public and private sector.

The upcoming Africa Climate Week in Accra is the first ‘Regional Climate Week’ to be hosted this year which will be followed by the Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Caribbean Climate Weeks. It’s intended that the Accra event will build on the success of the 2018 Africa Climate Week in Nairobi, Kenya to become a wholly inclusive ‘go-to’ hub for showcasing groundbreaking action in the region.

It will also set the tone for the United Nations Secretary-General’s Climate Summit in New York in September this 2019.

Paris Agreement or Accord de Paris is the first –ever universal, legally binding global climate deal or agreement to help combat Climate change. The Paris Agreement was adopted in December 2015 by 195 countries with the aim to limit global warming to “well below 2C”

Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) embody efforts by each country that have signed the Paris Agreement to reduce national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.