Between 17 and19 October 2011, the Climate for Development in Africa (ClimDev Africa) Programme a joint initiative of the African Development Bank (AfDB), the African Union Commission, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa held its first annual stakeholder forum on Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA-I). The conference theme, "Development First: Addressing Climate Change in Africa," reflected the need for integrating development and climate policies and emphasized the importance of African ownership of policy formulation and the decision-making process.
Adding to the discussion on climate finance, the AfDB presented its work developing the Africa Carbon Facility (ACF), which aims to help build Africa's carbon markets and attract more green investments to the continent. While global carbon markets are growing on other continents, Africa lags far behind with only 7 percent of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) global market share. ACF would address demand-side barriers by providing guarantees for African projects in the event there is no functioning or limited post-2012 carbon market. ACF would address debt financing barriers by leveraging the AfDB's existing debt financing role and overall capacity to support CDM projects coming through the Bank's lending pipeline, as well as ACF.
Over the course of the three days, participants from African member states and regional economic communities, multilateral and bilateral organizations, international research institutes, the private sector and civil society organizations heard compelling evidence on the need for adequate climate data, information and services to inform adaptation and mitigation policies and practices. Critical policy and institutional innovations were debated, and participants shared experiences, best practices and lessons learned in mainstreaming climate change concerns into development. Conference conclusions will inform the African negotiation position at the UN Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP17) in Durban, South Africa in November and December 2011.
About ClimDev Africa
ClimDev Africa has been mandated at regional meetings of African heads of state and government, as well as by Africa's Ministers of Finance, Economic Development and Planning, and Ministers of Environment, and responds to the urgent challenge that climate change poses to the advancement of Africa's development objectives. It seeks to address the need for greatly improved climate data and information for Africa, and to also strengthen the use of such information for decision making by supporting analytical capacity, knowledge generation and sharing activities.
