Climate Chance Summit Africa 2019 - Efforts through roadmaps to protect the continent

The first Climate Chance Summit took place in Abidjan in 2018, which gathered over 600 participants from around 41 nations including 27 African countries.

The constant rising temperatures resulting melting of glaciers, rising sea levels and climate change are serious threats to humanity in this century. The scientists have warned that the unstoppable heating up of the planet could bring more bouts of intense flooding and drought to the African continent. According to the researchers, the continent will suffer from many outbreaks of intense rainfall in the next 80 years that could trigger devastating storms, inundations, farming havoc including loss of lives. Climate Chance Summit – Africa 2019 is going to be organized this year in Ghana’s capital Accra with an objective to address these challenges.

The Climate Chance Summit – Africa 2019 will take place in Ghana’s Accra from October 16 to 18 at the International Conference Centre. This annual international conference will discuss how the African continent including the world needs to tackle the constant climate change. The summit is going to be jointly organized by the National Association of Local Authorities Ghana and France-based Climate Change Association. It will be a wide gathering of 1,000 non-state actors working in the climate change space including local governments, businesses, non-governmental organizations, farmers, trade union, women and youth organizations, researchers, etc.

The objective of Climate Chance Summit – Africa is to strengthen the operational roadmaps adopted at the 2018 edition of the Summit. The roadmaps on 1) adaptation, 2) agriculture, food, and reforestation, 3) buildings, 4) education and training, 5) energy, 6) finance and 7) sustainable development cities provided a contribution to the 2018 Talanoa Dialogue. Accordingly, the imminent summit will focus on mainly nine themes mentioned below:

• Access to climate finance in Africa
• Developing African cities in a sustainable way
• Education and training on climate change in Africa
• Adaptation and water in Africa
• Agriculture, food, and reforestation in Africa
• Mobility and sustainable transport in Africa
• Renewable energy and energy efficiency in Africa
• Circular economy in Africa.

The first Climate Chance Summit took place in Abidjan in 2018, which gathered over 600 participants from around 41 nations including 27 African countries. The task was to make specific recommendations on how to tackle the problem of climate change. According to the President of National Association of Local Authorities Ghana (NALAG), Felix Mensah Nii Annang-La, there will be representatives from local governments, businesses, trade unions, environmental NGOs, researches, among others and the discussion will highlight the engagement of African actors in fighting climate change. Whereas, the Chief Executive of the Tema Metropolitan Assembly, Nii Annang-La, different key actors in climate change space including agriculture and businesses will discuss working to reinforce mobilization of local government and non-state actors in the fight against climate change in Africa.

The official announcement of Climate Chance Summit – Africa 2019 was done by Ronan Dantec, French Senator, President of the Climate Chance Association, and United Cities and Local Government (UCLG) spokesperson on climate, who gathered in Ghana’s capital, Accra with NALAG’s President, Felix Mensah Nii Annang-La on February 27, 2019. They both officially announced the launch of the second edition of the Climate Chance Summit – Africa 2019.

“Since the Climate urgency is more pressing than ever and that the States pledges are insufficient, it is absolutely necessary to raise ambition and accelerate the implementation of the Paris Agreement, by bringing together a large network of Subnational Governments and Non-State Actors and by anchoring the implementation of concrete climate actions at the local level,” Ronan Dantec said during the press conference.

The experts believe that with the successful edition of Climate Chance Summit – Africa 2018 in Abidjan, the upcoming Summit will undoubtedly gather even more actors within the sectoral coalitions and their roadmaps. The key sectors from which the actors are expected are agriculture, urban planning, energy, finance, mobility to name a few. These actors are expected to reinforce the mobilization of the local governments and non-state actors in the fight against climate change in Africa. “This summit will be the opportunity to highlight the good practices of the African local actors and it will be a real chance for non-state actors to gather and share their experiences by responding to the call for proposals that will be launched prior to the Summit,” Ronan Dantec added.

Thus, it is for sure that the imminent Climate Chance Summit – Africa 2019 will leave impressive moments bearing specific messages and possible solutions to save the African continent from the catastrophic situation in the future. The scientific is if the global temperature reaches 2 degrees Celsius of global warming, it will cause significant changes in the occurrence and intensity of temperature extremes in all sub-Saharan regions. Thus, the solutions need to ensure the temperature does not increase the given marginal line.

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