Not only do our countries in Africa suffer from extreme poverty and political and socio-economical instability in a context of strong demographic growth, they must also cope with the impacts of increasing climate change, both degradation and rarefaction of the continent’s natural and energy resources. Yet, governments around the world are not taking action. Our public economic and energy policies seldom take into account environmental and climate impacts. Unless stakeholders include these new energy, environmental and climate constraints when planning and implementing development policies and projects, they will undermine the success of Millennium Development Goals and the meaning of and process towards the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals. There are good practises on the ground. It’s high time that they be promoted and scaled up in order to become the low-carbon and climate-resilient public policies we need for the future we want. The Climate & Development Network and partners, gathered in Conakry from the 17th to the 21st of April, call upon local and national decision-makers to adopt the following principles.1/ Make adaptation a crosscutting requirement for any development policy or project by:
- Creating or strengthening national adaptation funds as well as direct access to international climate financing for adaptation;
- Allocating adequate human, financial and technical resources at the national and local level to make adaptation a cross-cutting priority;
- Establishing innovative financial mechanisms to scale up resources for adaptation;
- Allocating at least 50% of all international climate finance for adaptation;
- Taking into account recommendations and concerns by all stakeholders when planning development and adaptation policies/projects to ensure their sustainable and long-term impact.
2/ Improve management and conservation of our natural resources in the context of climate change by:
- Creating institutional mechanisms to facilitate effective and democratic participation of civil society and local communities in the management of natural resources;
- Committing States to mobilise the needed resources and implement adopted environmental policies and regulation immediately;
- Include priorities identified by the communities in policy-making through early and representative consultations;
- Create budget headings in climate and environmental funds to enable direct access by civil society to help them mainstream climate change in their conservation projects;
- List, promote and disseminate good practises implemented by countries and local communities, and use them to build development policies.
3/ Improve energy efficiency and develop renewable energy sources by:
- Widely promoting biogas in environmental and energy policies, and through adequate budgetary allocation;
- Promoting the use of energy-saving lamps ;
- Promoting the large-scale development of solar cookers, improved cooking hearths and ovens for both household and economic uses;
- Transforming farm waste into fuel briquettes;
- Developing solar public lighting;
- Creating the needed incentives to facilitate access to quality renewable energy infrastructure/equipment;
- Raising citizen awareness on how to produce and consume energy without degrading the environment and the climate;
- Assessing country needs in terms of energy services;
- Implementing dedicated financial mechanisms to support renewable energy.
4/ Efficiently planning adaptation to climate change and access to clean and efficient energy consumption by:
- Ensuring coherence with the agreements and treaties adopted internationally;
- Strengthening cross-border and regional initiatives particularly for adaption (eg. of coastal zones);
- Ensuring that national planning efforts build on existing local development plans and strengthening the decentralisation process in countries to ensure effective climate action at the local level;
- Avoiding any duplication or redundancies within existing institutions when planning adaptation and mitigation of climate change;
- Strengthening coordination among ministries, services and stakeholders at all levels.
- Strengthening capacity and information on the impacts of climate change, including through partnerships with the scientific community;
- Prioritizing sectors with strong employment potential in the field of sustainable development (particularly that of renewable energy and energy efficiency);
- Applying a participatory approach involving all stakeholders, including parliamentarians, local authorities, women, youth, field NGOs and direct beneficiaries;
- Building on good practises for adaptation, conservation and management of natural resources, energy efficiency and renewable energy, that exist within countries, including those implemented by civil society;
- Adding a set of legislative, financial and technical regulation to facilitate implementation and consistency;
- Applying the guiding principles for sustainable development to investment plans and budgets.
- Monitoring and evaluating the plan and its implementation, with the help of civil society.
We firmly believe that our decision-makers and local communities can more effectively curb climate change and address its impacts if existing policies were consistent with each other, anticipated climate and energy vulnerabilities and built on good and innovative practises.