Side event organized by the Africa Department- UNESCO Pavilion- COP 22 - November 16th 2016

During the Africa Day on 16 November 2016, the Africa Department of UNESCO organized a side event at the COP 22 UNESCO Pavilion, entitled:" climate change; what is the impact for Africa?”. This round table offered a platform for the five panellists, specialists on climate change, to expound on issues that directly impact the African continent. After an overall presentation of the Global Priority Africa of UNESCO, (Abdoulaye Ibrahim, Africa Department, moderator of the round table) the panellists addressed the following issues:

• What is at stake for Africa at the COP 22 (Simon Chin-Yee, University of Manchester)

• Scarcity of water and sanitation in Africa (Jean-Paul Augereau, Founding member of Safe Water Cube)

• The impact of climate change on oceans and African ecosystems (Justin Ahanhanzo, IOC - UNESCO)

• The use of green energy in Africa (Thierry Fornas, President of Eco - Act)

How climate change affects Women and Girls in Africa (Christine Bruneau, NGO Women of tomorrow) 

Jean-Paul Augereau, Founding member of Safe Water Cube

Biography information:

For 15 years, Jean-Paul Augereau has lead two companies in the textile sector while travelling the world. At 40 years old, he decided to be philanthropic and created an easy to implement and sustainable mechanism to facilitate access to clean water. The Safe Water cube fountain was born. The main objective today is to change the face of the world through meaningful innovation; notably by giving clean water to developing countries and especially African countries. Today, the Safe water cube fountain exists in Benin and Senegal. This fountain can clean 1000 litres of water per hour. The next step is to implement it in Cameroon, Togo, and Cote d’Ivoire, and then make it available across the whole continent.

Recommendations:

"In order to prevent the migration of people to cities, Africa must enable all people to live humanly throughout the land. The first element is to provide access to drinking water to all in order to prevent disease and early mortality. It is essential to educate and train people to auto protect by managing resources in the best possible way and to give them tools for their own development. It is reasonable to say that 90% of the African population in rural areas can have access to drinking water permanently for an investment of less than 500 million € which is the equivalent of supplying 100 million people with drinking water."

Simon Chin-Yee, Researcher at the University of Manchester

Biography information:

Simon Chin-Yee is a doctoral researcher in the Politics Department at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom. The key objective of his research is to examine how climate change mitigation and adaptation policies are developed in Africa to gain an understanding of what drives climate change strategies and the role that international institutions have on national policy. His research is cross-disciplinary, intertwining social and natural sciences. Simon has almost 10 years of experience working on projects centred in or on Africa, predominantly for UNESCO, but also for the UN, economic zones and research institutes in different regions of Africa. In the context of his current research, Simon has participated in many of the latest Conference of Parties (COP – The UN Climate summits) as well as ADP sessions for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Recommendations: “African countries must now work tirelessly to ensure that the rest of the world stays on track and lives up to its commitments. If we are to keep below the 1.5°C goal, then the nationally determined contributions (NDCs) not only need to be carried out but ratcheted up. In order to achieve this, constant dialogue between actors needs to continue during these COPs and throughout the year. In addition, the african group of negotiation (AGN) needs to push for higher levels of funding and ensure that technologies are made available to secure the rights and protect those on the frontline of climate change. If the momentum that surrounds climate action is accelerated, future generations will look back on the Paris Agreement as a turning point. The fact remains that this will only have been a success if it protects the most vulnerable in society. It will only be a success if it is a success in Africa.”

Thierry Fornas, President of Eco-Act

Biography information:

With 10 years of experience in sustainable development engineering, Thierry founded Eco-Act in 2006. Eco-Act today a key player in the decarbonization of companies, since it is the only company providing evaluation, reduction and compensation services. For 10 years Eco-Act has been motivated by the will to change the status quo and has been conveying a positive image to the concept of decarbonization. Through its Kenyan Subsidiary Climate Pal, Eco-Act accompanies projects such as Hifadhi project which granted 60,000 improved households, therefore improving the livelihood and health of 300,000 people in the region of Mount Kenya.

Recommendations:

Justin AHANHANZO, Programme Specialist IOC – UNESCO 

Biography information:

Mr Justin Ahanhanzo is a Programme Specialist at the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO, at its Headquarters in Paris. He is the Regional Liaison Officer for Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific and Africa. In this capacity, in the framework of the COP21, he initiated the first participation and contribution of the Network of African Science Academies (NASAC) in the process of the UNFCCC/COP through two major parallel events in Paris in December 2015. As a follow-up to the COP21, he also mobilized the said network to organize parallel events on 14 and 15 November 2016 that highlighted the central role of academies through education, promoting science, technology and innovations and social responsibility in the context of climate change. He also attended the round table organized by the Africa Department on the impact of climate change in Africa on 16 November 2016 with an animation of the community radio, Radio-climat of the COP22 in Marrakech.

Recommendations:

"Climate change generates important issues for Africa and the people of Africa, but can also be a vector of opportunities through the development of green economy and infrastructure. At the political level, there is an emergency for African countries to adopt growth policies integrating adaptation to climate change in order to help and boost the economic transformation that Africa needs and achieve the objectives of a development that stands up to global warming.”