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Published February 03, 2023 / Environment

The Brazzaville Foundation obtains observer status at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

At its twenty-seventh session from November 6 to 18, 2022, the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) definitively granted observer status to Brazzaville Foundation. By strengthening its working relationship with the United Nations system dedicated to preserving the environment, the Foundation intends to promote the solutions provided by Africa to meet the global challenges of climate change.

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change logo, © UNFCCC.

Observer status gives organisation the following means of action:

- attend Convention sessions ;

- submit statements during official procedures (NGO group members are encouraged to work with NGO group focal points to draft statements);

- organise side events and exhibitions (applications must be received through the online side event and exhibition registration system);

- participate in workshops and meetings mandated by the COP or subsidiary bodies (vehicles for advice, expert input and information sharing).

 

In November 2022, the Brazzaville Foundation celebrated its new status by participating in COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, allowing it to deepen its investigation launched during the pre-COP in Kinshasa: "Climate Change: Africa's Solutions.".

For the Foundation, the aim is to show that Africa has projects to meet the challenges posed by climate change, and to respond to the global challenges of adaptation and mitigation. It's another way of conceiving growth, progress and development under climate constraints.

 

The first working relationship between UNCAC and the Brazzaville Foundation dates back to 2016, when the Republic of Congo launched the Congo Basin Blue Fund initiative at the First African Summit for Action on Continental Co-Emergence at COP22 in Marrakech, Morocco in 2016, in the presence of Denis Sassou N'Guesso, President of the Republic of Congo, and Jean-Yves Ollivier, Founding Chairman of the Brazzaville Foundation, with the support of H.M. King Mohammed VI of Morocco. The Foundation then initiated the creation of the fund in collaboration with its experts who produced a pre-study, suggesting that the countries of the Congo Basin collaborate at the sub-regional level to preserve this exceptional ecosystem while inventing another development model.

 

In November 2021, the Foundation was also present at COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, to accompany the member countries of the Congo Basin Climate Commission (CBCC) and promote the Congo Basin Blue Fund.

 

For information, UNFCCC entered into force on 21 March 1994. Today, adherence to the Convention is almost universal. The 197 countries that have ratified it are called Parties to the Convention. UNFCCC is a "Rio Convention", one of three adopted at the "Rio Earth Summit" in 1992.