Africa Climate Week 2022: Here’s All You Should Know

Africa Climate Week 2022 is scheduled to hold from August 29 to September 2, 2022. It is yet another opportunity for African leaders to dialogue on ways to combat climate change. Africa Climate Week 2022 will be hosted in Libreville, Gabon, by the Government of Gabon. 

Climate change is a growing concern globally. In Africa, it has led to severe weather events like tropical cyclone Idai, a category 2 storm that hit Mozambique in 2019. Somalia, Kenya, and most of eastern Africa are also suffering extreme drought. 

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These events have drastic food security impacts. Consequently, the number of undernourished people has increased by 45.6% since 2012 according to the  Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).  

The world continues to look for ways to address these negative weather patterns. Africa Climate Week 2022 is yet another opportunity to dialogue on ways to reverse the negative trends of climate change. Here’s all you need to know about Africa Climate Week 2022. 

What the Africa Climate Week 2022 is all about

The Africa Climate Week was first held in Nairobi, Kenya in 2018. Designed to be an annual program, the maiden event brought together high-profile delegates to discuss the continent’s rapidly changing climate all under one roof. 

It was a timely intervention for a continent battered by increasing drought and flooding. Leveraging the outcome of previous meetings, Africa Climate Week 2022 is expected to bring a fresh set of milestones. 

There are three major points to be discussed at the week-long climate event in Gabon. The first of these is the continent’s resilience against climate risks. Next, stakeholders will talk about transitioning Africa to a low-emission economy. 

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Also on the table is deliberation for prospective partnerships to solve pressing challenges. This is important because the adverse effect of climate change on the continent requires collective collaboration from various bodies.

Zita Wilks, the advisor to the President of the Gabonese Republic and a member of the country’s National Climate Council hinted at one of the problems facing the continent which will likely be on the front burner at the Africa Climate Week 2022.  One of her LinkedIn posts read, 

“The energy potential of the African continent is enormous. Today, only 1% of the continent’s solar capacity is exploited. More investment is needed!”

Submissions from the highly-anticipated climate change event in Gabon will be reviewed at the 27th Conference of Parties (COP27) that will be held between 7th and 17th November in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.  

Previous Africa Climate Weeks

Since the Africa Climate Week 2022 works based on collective action, the program itself is a part of the Regional Climate Week (RCW). 

This Regional Climate Week serves as a wider platform incorporating Latin America and the Caribbean Week (LACCW), Asia-Pacific Climate Week (APCW), as well as Africa Climate Week.

In 2021, the Regional Climate Week brought more than 12,000 participants together. The meeting had leaders like the COP President in attendance. It was a virtual roundtable event that visualized possible climate actions for prevailing challenges. 

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Also, just like this year’s proposed climate-focused event in Gabon, RCW 2021 had three bold themes. 

One was on national action and economy-wide approaches where key government sectors were considered for national planning to flush out COVID-19 and improve the fulfillment of the Paris agreement. 

The second RSW 2021 theme focused on integrated approaches for climate-resilient development. It revealed the most prominent weather threats in regions and also discussed risk-based approaches to increasing resilience and adaptation in these regions. 

The last theme looked at how the focus regions could seize transformation opportunities by identifying sectors of the economy needing urgent development. The Africa Climate Week 2021 was hosted by the Government of Uganda between September 26 and September 29. 

Impact of the Africa Climate Week on Africa

Four years have gone by since the first ACW event. Within this time, Africa has recorded commendable progress. One of the big achievements was that 49 out of 54 countries ratified their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) as of November 2019. NDCs is a climate action plan to cut emissions and adapt to climate impact.

Two years later, the countries took another important climate action by signing the Paris Agreement at the Conference of the Parties (COP21). This huge step expresses their willingness to collectively keep global temperature increases to no more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. 

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This would help mitigate what the 2018 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projected as a harsh impact of global warming on terrestrial, freshwater, and coastal ecosystems, should the temperature go above 1.5 degrees Celsius. 

According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), a global warming increase of 1.5 degrees celsius would lead to a 2-month average drought. 

However, an increase of 2 degrees celsius would lead to a 4-month average drought. Even worse, global warming of 3 degrees celsius is projected to lead to a 10-month average drought. 

Organizers and partners of the Africa Climate Week 2022

The Africa Climate Week 2022 is promoted by reputable local and global organizations. The climate change event was established by the United Nations Climate Change. 

It has the support of international organizations like the World Bank Group, the United Nations Development Programme, and the United Nations Environment Programme. 

Locally, the Africa Climate Week event enjoys the partnership of the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Africa Union (AU), and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). 

The 2022 event is also sponsored by the Government of Gabon and the United Nations office in Gabon. 

Conclusion

The Global Climate Risk Index shows all the reasons why Africa should do more about climate change. As per the report, Mozambique and Zimbabwe were most affected by climate change in 2019. 

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Three other African countries, Malawi, South Sudan, and Niger completes the list of 5 countries most affected by climate change. 

The Africa Climate Week 2022 presents the right platform for dialogue on ways to mitigate the drastic effects of drought, landslide, flooding, and other weather factors experienced across the entire continent. 

To achieve this, it will review the progress made so far and put together actionable plans. This will require identifying both concurrent and potential causes of climate change, and getting all participants to become actively engaged. Register here to reserve a spot at the event venue.