Publications

This policy brief argues that additional public financing is required for achieving the Millennium Development Goals, climate-change adaptation and mitigation of greenhouse-gas emissions in Africa.

It sets out a ‘roadmap’ for action for developed and developing countries towards the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP 16 in Cancun in December and highlights that whilst the Copenhagen Accord includes the commitment to provide an additional annual $100 billion in climate finance by 2020 the source of this funding remains unresolved.

Socio-economic development and adaptation to climate change are closely intertwined. Adaptation is increasingly described as climate resilient development or development under a hostile climate. In support of this view, this paper calculates the combined cost of meeting and at the same time “climate-proofing” the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for Africa. Treating adaptation and development in such an integrated way helps to better understand financing requirements analytically and, more importantly, to implement the requisite measures more effectively as part of an integrated development program. We find that the external financing needed for “climate resilient” MDGs is about forty percent higher than the external financing for the MDGs alone – around $100 billion a year for the next decade, compared with $72 billion a year for the MDGs alone. This estimate is indicative only and based on fairly cursory aggregate cost data. A clear challenge going forward is to apply the integrated adaptation and development frameworks in the form of concrete development plans at the country level.

The APP Secretariat on 17 November 2009, convened key stakeholders from African Governments, development partners, civil society and the private sector to identify practical solutions for developing the unexploited CDM potential in Africa. Following the workshop, an outcome information note was produced, listing opportunities that can be seized immediately and outlining concrete steps for action

Following the Barcelona Climate Change Talks, the APP Secretariat and the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) produced a second edition of an information note on climate change negotiations. It is being shared with APP Panel Members ahead of the Copenhagen Conference taking place from the the 7- 18 of December.

The APP Secretariat with the support of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) has issued and information note addressing the key issues of relevance to least developed countries that are currently under discussion in the run up to Copenhagen. It was shared with the Panel Members ahead of the key discussions that took place in Barcelona in November 2009.

This APP publication was prepared in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), African Development Bank (AfDB) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and in consultation with the Economic Commission for Africa and the African Development Bank as input to meetings of African Ministers of Finance, of Environment, and of AU Heads of State in July. The purpose of the publication was to support African leaders in developing a strong common African position on climate change in the run-up to and at the Copenhagen Conference in December 2009. Such a common position is necessary to ensure that Africa’s special needs in terms of financing, technology transfer and technical support required to adapt to climate change and seize mitigation opportunities are acknowledged and met.