After Paris: Implications for Green Growth in Africa

Background
Two weeks of intense negotiations in December 2015 in Paris led 195 countries to an agreement to combat climate change and to implement actions and investment towards a low carbon, resilient and sustainable future. The agreement’s main aim is to keep a global temperature rise this century well below 2º Celsius and to explore opportunities to increase the level of ambition by limiting the temperature increase to 1.5 º Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The agreement also recognizes the impact of already occurring climate change, particularly on developing countries, and seeks to strengthen the ability to deal with the impacts of climate change.

To achieve the goal of limiting temperatures to 1.5 º Celsius, governments put forward their own targets for reducing emissions called Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). However, these NDCs are voluntary commitments, have no legal binding and will not come into effect until 2020.

This high-level panel side event seeks to explore the extent to which the Paris Agreement affects Africa’s development agenda; the opportunities for new investments away from fossil fuels such as coal; the mobilization of adequate resources to support green investments, and the possibilities of ratcheting up the emissions reduction ambition in order to keep global warming within safe limits particularly for Africa.

The event is open to all delegates, in particular planners, researchers, civil society, private sector and policy makers. Time 12h30-14h00, 2^nd April 2016, Venue: CR6

For further information, please contact:
James Murombedzi, jmurombedzi@uneca.org, tel: Tel.: +251-11- 5443798,
Johnson Nkem, jnkem@uneca.org, tel: Tel.: +251-11- 5443728