Climate Change Negotiations for Young African Negotiators
PROGRAM RATIONALE
2018). Recent extreme weather events and fires all over the globe have demonstrated our growing vulnerability to climate change. As of now climate change impacts continue to affect various sectors,
including the agricultural sector, food security, ecosystems, sea level to rise, energy sector, water resources, health sector and sustainable economic developments.
There is no doubt that climate change has created elevated levels of uncertainty about our future and amid this uncertainty, one thing is certain and that is we will leave the Earth to our children, young
people and future generations. The young people are increasingly aware of the challenges and opportunities that the necessary transition to low carbon growth entails, and many are joining the
global dialogue on solutions, getting involved and taking action. As young people work across the globe to determine their future by acting on climate change, their actions inspire us all (United Nations, 2013).
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
The ultimate objective of this work is to develop the capacity of African youth in the UNFCCC climate change negotiation. This e-tutorial will focus on the following themes: 1) Structures of the Conference of the Parties (COP/CMP/CMA) process, and 2) National delegations and participation in the negotiations.
At the end of the course participants should be able to:
- Define the following entities: climate system, climate, greenhouse gas effect, global warming and effects of climate change,
- Explain the Intergovernmental climate change processes (history of climate change, governance system, articles of the climate change convention and its treaties, institutional arrangements,
- work of established bodies, gender, engagement of other intergovernmental organization and the private sector in the intergovernmental process of climate change),
- State the advancement in the implementation of the UNFCCC and its treaties ((mitigation/NDC, adaptation, loss and damages, periodic review and stocktake), means of implementation (Finance, development of technology and transfer, and capacity building), communication, Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE), research and systematic observations, cooperative approaches, transparency frameworks and compliance systems in the UN convention on climate change and it treaties),
- Explain briefly the outcomes of the annual UNFCCC conferences (COP/CMP/CMA),
- Explain the importance of the National delegation and participation in the negotiations.
- Identify key elements of UNFCCC COP 26 to be achieved in the UK, outstanding negotiated elements of the Paris Agreement’s rulebook and activities on the road to COP 26,
COURSE STRUCTURE