Addis Ababa, 24 May 2013 (ECA) – The African Group of Negotiators on Climate Change (AGN) yesterday identified research, climate negotiations and communication as three key areas in which they will continue to seek support from the African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC) for the coming years.
The agreement came at the end of a 3-day workshop on the identification of needs of the AGN organized by ACPC on behalf the Climate for Development (ClimDev-Africa) partners from 21-23 May at the UN Conference Centre in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The workshop effectively laid a foundation for cooperation between the AGN and the ACPC and energized African climate change negotiators to put more scientific content into their strategies in the ongoing round of climate negotiations.
The comprehensive work plan agreed on research, for example, could help Africa to be better prepared to answer heads-spinning questions in key areas of climate negotiations such.
Working with experts from ACPC, the African Development Bank, the African Union Commission, and the UN Environment Programme, negotiators agreed that it would be important for ACPC to undertake research or help AGN to adequately address concerns such as: How does Africa develop alternative timeframes for peaking and emission scenarios and understand the sectoral implications for water, health and agriculture? In a context where Africa will have to reduce emissions, what are the implications of the Brazilian proposal for Africa’s interests? What kind of research is needed to counter the Brazilian proposal?
Strategically, how could Africa make research on technology more prominent in adaptation? How does it make loss and damage more specific; what would be the emissions reductions if NAMAs are implemented? How can Africa use knowledge from emerging issues to strengthen its position?
Workshop participants who were carefully selected to have a good mix of scientists, negotiators and communication experts also looked into possible African perspectives as regards other streams of negotiations: adaptation, mitigation, capacity development, technology development and transfer, shared vision and climate finance.
Negotiators bemoaned the fact that“we are not communicating sufficiently the work we do; our communication is too full of jargon”, saying the media could be used to deepen accountability and transparency and test the waters on government policy.
Underlining the fact that the most obvious source of public information on climate change is the media, participants embraced a recommendation of the last ClimDev Steering Committee meeting which met in Tunis, Tunisia last March, to strengthen climate change communication as a whole and to better reflect the work negotiators are doing on behalf of the Continent in the regional media.
They called for the creation of a core team of “specially trained journalists who will develop regular jargon-free stories for the general public and negotiators”. This would be done by revisiting the AMCEN communication strategy as a foundation for the AGN to engage the media.
Participants noted with satisfaction the fact “that Africa is speaking with one voice and there is greater cohesion among its negotiators than it was a few years ago.”
“Africa’s critical role in shaping the agenda is becoming recognized; it needs to tell its own story; and its ability to tell its own story will depend on the hard facts and evidence that its scientists and agencies such as ACPC could help produce”, they observed.
For example, it was suggested that Africa should replicate the agriculture success story it got from Doha in other areas by ensuring that its team of negotiators attend all meetings armed with data, key messages, and different scenarios for each negotiation stream.
They lauded the ACPC initiative to convene the workshop because “this kind of initiative fosters coordination and helps to avoid duplication by all the groups seeking to help the African Group of Negotiators.
They called on ClimDev-Africa partners to “make the Africa Pavilion a regular feature and use the space to give visibility to African climate change issues.
Given the existence of growing international pressure to take more concrete action on climate change, it is an opportune time to convene a meeting on planning ClimDev’s long-term work programme between the AGN and ACPC, participants agreed.
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