http://allafrica.com/stories/201204261070.html

 

The forth carbon forum on climate change mitigation was recently concluded at the United Nations Conference Center in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

 

The theme of the conference was, 'Promoting greens and low carbon development in Africa'.The three-day forum was a knowledge-sharing platform for carbon investors in Africa and it was meant to discuss the latest development in the carbon market, as well as how the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and other mitigating mechanisms can be successful in Africa.

The event was jointly organised by African Development Bank (AFDB), International Emissions Trading Association (IETA), United Nation Development Programme (UNDP), United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Charge (UNFCCC) and the World Bank (WB) and was hosted by the Ethiopian Environment Protection Agency (EEPA).

The conference brought together participants from almost all African countries including The Gambia with the main view of combating climate change and its negative occurrences.

Speaking during the conference, Maite N. Mashabane, the minister of International Relations from South Africa reminded participants of the impact of climate change.This, she said is one of the defining development challenges in Africa that affects food security and energy efficiency.

According to her, Africa is the richest continent but also the poorest, under developed and with climate catastrophe highly affecting the continent."The poor in the developing countries are hit hardest by the negative effects of climate change," she said.

She added that climate change is a global threat but was quick to say that the impact such as global warming, sea level rises etc are highly felt by the Africans.She therefore called on all to have a common approach of building capacity of Africans, support decision makers and connect with development practitioners to have global knowledge, tools, good practices, innovation solutions and network with peers confronting similar climate sonant around the world.

Mounkaila Goumandakoye, the regional director for United Nation Environment Programme (UNEP) also tasked African climate experts to engage in climate date collection.This, he said, will also help in mitigating certain climate impact in Africa.

"Africans have challenges in climate change mitigation but opportunities are also available," he noted.

John Christensen, the head of UNEP dilated on the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), noting that the CDM is to support projects in least developed countries in providing them with interest-free loans to cover administration cost related to the development of CDM projects.

The representative of the Ethiopian Regional Director, Jean Bakole also tasked Africans to overcome the obstacles that Africa is facing. "We should not only take action but we should also ensure that our actions are implemented", he told the gathering.

The conference also witnessed side events, dialogue sessions on different areas of climate knowledge and ways forward to mitigating the existing challenges.