Browsing: COP28

• Clean Air Flagship was launched to save lives and slow climate change by boosting cooperation and reducing pollutant emissions.
• UNEP and CCAC’s Used Heavy Duty Vehicles and the Environment report provides a roadmap to reducing the sector’s emissions through standardizing, monitoring, and greening strategies
• The launch of a significant cost of inaction study supports the economic case to act on short-lived climate pollutants to limit hazardous global warming and climate disasters.

Government Ministers and partners of the UNEP-convened Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) have this week put in place a raft of integrated climate and clean air initiatives designed to combat the triple planetary crisis of climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss.

At the CCAC’s annual Climate & Clean Air Ministerial Meeting, which took place in Nairobi, Kenya, this week ahead of the sixth session of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-6), countries and partners launched a Clean Air …

• Analysts observe numerous loopholes in global climate talks, with a failure to address glaring food security concerns.
• Financial commitments for food systems remain low, affecting implementation, and leaving millions of people hungry.
• Agriculture accounts for a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions.

For the very first time, food systems were finally discussed at the just-ended COP28 in Dubai late last year, but analysts are up in arms, asking if it’s a ‘too little, too late’ scenario.

“Given the profound impact of agricultural practices and food consumption patterns on our planet’s health, this attention is long overdue,” notes the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) in its review of the COP28 outcome.

Better late than never, so “though the talks’ long overdue focus on food and agriculture ultimately disappointed, it provides a starting point for future action and advocacy.”

COP28 was held in Dubai late last year, and while there …

• There is a Climate Funding gap of 40 billion dollars in blue carbon, yet no Kenyan firms are undertaking it.
• According to the World Bank, Kenya remains vulnerable to frequent climatic shocks that pose significant economic risks.
• The East African country has been gravely affected by changing weather patterns and a fall in disposable income available for necessities.

Despite their considerable potential, Kenya is foregoing billions of dollars in untapped climate financing opportunities. While many startups are entering this sector, industry experts argue that the current figure remains insufficient to combat climate change adequately.

Pangea Accelerator, an investment platform that provides funding for startups and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), says that the region needs to grow the number of startups, fully focusing on the environment. The Founder of Pangea, Jonas Tesfu, says that as a country, Kenya needs to have a lot of innovative businesses join climate change initiatives …

• For the first time in climate summits, diplomats from nearly 200 countries at COP28 have agreed on a new global climate pact.
• While past United Nations climate deals called for countries to reduce emissions, they shied away from overtly using the words “fossil fuels.”
• Africa should be allowed to exploit its significant oil and gas reserves to develop its economies before transitioning to cleaner energy forms.

For the first time in climate summits, diplomats from nearly 200 countries at COP28 have agreed on a new global climate pact that clearly outlines the need to “transition away from fossil fuels,” including oil, gas, and coal that have been hazardously heating the planet.

The agreement was reached on the final day of the COP28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, following two weeks of intense negotiations in a year regarded as the hottest. European leaders and most nations most exposed to climate-fuelled …

• African countries have every right to set the timing for their energy transition.
• Africa still needs time–time that the Western world has already had and, frankly continues to milk–to resolve energy poverty and industrialize.
• The continent’s oil and gas production, when managed strategically, provides a pathway for economic growth, energy transition and security.

About a year ago, before COP27 began in Egypt, Fiona Harvey and Matthew Taylor wrote in an opinion piece for The Guardian that it was time for gas exploration in Africa to stop.

“Africa must embrace renewable energy, and forgo exploration of its potentially lucrative gas deposits to stave off climate disaster and bring access to clean energy to the hundreds of millions who lack it, leading experts on the continent have said,” they wrote.

This is hardly new. For several years now, wealthy nations and environmental organizations have been strong-arming African countries to leave their petroleum …

• The reward for fixing the carbon credit trade could be enormous, especially for Africa’s energy transition.
• The $2 billion global trade in voluntary carbon markets (VCMs) has suffered from greenwashing allegations, with prices plummeting from the 2022 peaks.
• For some African climate-linked businesses, the successful functioning of the carbon credits market is not a nice one but is core to their operating strategy.

Highly indebted nations need all the financing available to support their energy transition and climate adaptation needs. With the developed world lagging on its climate funding pledges, market-based solutions provide a supplementary funding source.

Carbon credits, a tradeable instrument obtained when a tonne of carbon is avoided or withdrawn from the atmosphere, have always offered significant optimism. With swaths of carbon-capturing biodiversity in the global south, Africa has the supply, while the industrialised nations looking to offset their emissions have the demand. Buyers then channel the finances …

• Addressing the pressing issues of chronic hunger FAO’s blueprint is projected to impact 600 million people by 2030.
• According to FAO, the roadmap envisions transforming agrifood systems from a net emitter to a carbon sink.
• It calls for alternative production methods, adjusted consumption patterns, refined forestry management, and innovative technologies such as carbon capture.

The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has initiated the process for the development of a groundbreaking global roadmap aimed at eliminating hunger and all forms of malnutrition without exceeding the 1.5°C threshold set by the Paris Agreement.

The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has embarked on a pioneering initiative to craft a global roadmap that holds the ambitious goal of eradicating hunger and all manifestations of malnutrition while adhering to the 1.5°C threshold outlined in the Paris Agreement.

“FAO’s Global Roadmap for SDG2 and 1.5°C underscores the importance of climate financing …

• Global oil and gas producers have remained under immense pressure to show more goodwill in the energy transition agenda.
• As this year’s climate summit enters its homestretch, the most intriguing question is whether the final accord will pledge to reduce fossil fuels.
• The oil and gas industry’s confidence has also caused tension with renewable groups and climate activists.

The 2015 Paris Agreement establishes measures and conditions requiring all member states to mitigate climate change through emission reductions. Further, Goal 7 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development calls for concerted efforts to ensure access to modern, cleaner forms of energy, while Goal 13 calls for action to combat climate change.

Consequently, the global energy transition is on the cards. There have been calls from the global north to the south for the world to find a proper compromise on energy needs even as climate change effects put sterner demands on …

• The UAE Banks Federation (UBF) has committed to mobilize $270 billion in sustainable finance by 2030.
• His Excellency Abdulaziz Al-Ghurair, Chairman of the UAE Banks Federation, announced the pledge at an event jointly organized by the Central Bank of the UAE and the COP28 Presidency, aiming to support and facilitate global climate finance solutions and progress towards a sustainable future.
• UBF has been working closely with its partners on sustainability efforts to accelerate and advance sustainable development goals.

The UAE Banks Federation (UBF), the sole representative and unified voice of banks in the UAE, has committed to mobilize $270 billion in sustainable finance by the year 2030. His Excellency Abdulaziz Al-Ghurair, Chairman of UBF, announced the pledge at an event jointly organized by the Central Bank of the UAE and the COP28 Presidency, aimed at supporting and facilitating global climate finance solutions and progress towards a sustainable future.

“The pledge …

• In place of resolve to take responsibility for per capita emissions, polluting nations are instead pivoting towards carbon offsets to’ cancel out’ industrialised world emissions.
• Carbon markets stand to become a new economic mechanism promoting energy security in Africa.
• Africa’s forests absorb 600 million tons of CO2 yearly, more than any forest ecosystem on Earth.

Africa should become the global centre for high-value, high-integrity carbon credits, AFC says; Wholesale leases or sale of land undervalue Africa’s forestry while enabling polluters: AFC paper; AFC Foundation to prioritise conservation and regeneration of African carbon sinks through local capacity building.

At a critical moment in the fight against climate change, the world is squandering a significant opportunity by neglecting Earth’s most important natural carbon repositories – Africa’s forests, grasslands, peatlands and mangroves.

Carbon offsets market not delivering

The global carbon markets offer a pragmatic way to improve this course, with scope to attract …