ADDIS ABABA, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- African countries and pan African institutions have been urged to exert concerted climate action efforts towards building climate-resilient economies across the continent.
The call was made by the African Union (AU) on Monday as the African continent brace to host a high-level climate-themed conference in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa this week, which is co-organized by the AU Commission, the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), African Development Bank (AfDB), and the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance.
The Conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA), which will be held at the headquarters of the AU in Addis Ababa from August 28 to 30, is "a special session in preparation for African inputs to the Climate Action Summit, to be convened by the United Nations Secretary-General on September 23, 2019" the AU said in a statement issued on Monday.
This year's edition of the three-day continental climate conference is being held under the theme "Stepping up Climate Action for Resilient Economies in Africa -- a Race we Can (and must) Win."
According to the AU, the eighth edition of CCDA, which is convened in preparation for the UN Secretary General's Summit on Climate Change scheduled to be held in September this year, will bring together policymakers, representatives from civil society, the private sector, academia, youth and development partners.
The AU also stressed that the imminent climate conference is expected to explore the linkages between the Paris Agreement, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, the global 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, as well as the AU's 50-year continental development Agenda 2063.
The high-level gathering, among other things, envisaged to provide "updates on the status of global climate governance, mainly the Paris Agreement, the Kyoto Protocol, the Doha Amendment thereto and the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage Associated with Climate Change Impacts, and implications for sustainable development in Africa, it was noted.
It also aspires to ensure that "the recommendations to the Climate Action Summit by necessity also include recommendations about what needs to be done in order to ensure that the global climate governance framework delivers on the ideals of the Paris Agreement."
It is also expected to assess the status of the climate response, both globally and within Africa, and take stock of the different commitments and actions that African countries and different constituencies are taking to tackle climate change, with a focus on the six thematic and three focus areas of the Climate Action Summit, it was noted.
Consolidating key commitments and actions to tackle climate change by African countries and various non-state actor constituencies, as well as major concerns as inputs to the Climate Action Summit, is also said to be another target of the imminent summit.
The AU also stressed the vital importance of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development as it envisaged to inform the common African positions towards the 25th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Addis Ababa Action Agenda also aspires to improve understanding of the revision of nationally determined contributions for better coherence, alignment, and flow of resources for implementation, as well as developing robust strategies for climate response and resilience.
