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Published November 08, 2022 / Environment

Brazzaville Foundation at COP27: Listening to Africa's voice and making it heard

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From November 6 to 18, 2022 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, the 27th Conference of the Parties (COP27) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will bring together stakeholders and experts from the public and private sectors, as well as civil society, to discuss the fight against climate change. Brazzaville Foundation is present as an observer NGO..

Caption (from left to right): Richard Amalvy, Chief Executive ; Jean-Yves Ollivier, Founding Chairman ; Charles Cozette, Public Affairs Consultant, on the Brazzaville Foundation pavilion during COP27, © Brazzaville Foundation.

The challenges of COP27

COP27 must address four issues: adaptation to climate change, emissions mitigation, climate financing and "loss and damage". Adaptation to climate change is particularly important for developing countries. Mitigation aims to limit emissions in the highest-emitting countries. The last two elements relate to financing, particularly in terms of climate justice. This will involve discussing a mechanism to compensate countries suffering losses and damage as a result of climate-related disasters. 

The stakes of COP27 for Africa

Africa is particularly sensitive to the effects of human activity on the environment. Yet the continent possesses natural, human and cultural capital that enables it to devise local solutions to the global challenges of climate change. With its ancestral knowledge, ground-breaking innovations and regional environmental protection initiatives, Africa has a lot to offer. With 16% of the world's population, and a very young demography, the African continent faces a dual challenge: to meet the fundamental development needs of local populations, and to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change.

 

As part of UNFCCC 's annual rotation among the world's five regions, it was the turn of an African country to take over the COP presidency. But African countries remain outside the main flows of climate finance, and are still the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, despite being responsible for only 4% of historical emissions. COP27 is therefore of particular importance for the countries with which Brazzaville Foundation works, who are expecting concrete responses to the implementation of the agreements reached last year in Glasgow.

Solutions from Africa

The activity conducted by the Brazzaville Foundation during COP27 is entitled: "Climate Change: Solutions from Africa". The aim is to show that Africa has projects to meet the challenges posed by climate change, and to meet the global challenges of adaptation and mitigation. It is another way of conceiving growth, progress and development under climate constraints. This requires the revaluation of Africa's contributions in the field of knowledge and skills. This vision takes into account the natural, human and cultural capital of the continent.

A consultation to listen, understand and act better

During COP27, the Brazzaville Foundation is continuing the consultation started during the PreCOP in Kinshasa to listen to Africa's solutions to the challenges of climate change and to understand its response to global climate issues. Concrete results will be shared with those who have the capacity to act from a political, societal, economic and scientific perspective.

Caption: Interview conducted as part of the COP27 consultation, © Brazzaville Foundation.

The methodology used is based on the triptych "listen, understand, act", implemented through a questionnaire that gathers African and non-African points of view with the aim of measuring asymmetries in judgment and differences in perceptions of the responses to be made to the challenges of climate change. The aim is also to understand how Africans perceive their own development in the face of climate challenges, and to identify the solutions they see, as well as to understand how non-Africans perceive Africa's ability to find endogenous solutions, in order to promote dialogue between points of view. The consultation questionnaire is also designed as an awareness-raising tool to help change perceptions about Africa, and the discourse that stems from them. Indeed, the discourse on Africa, forged on past realities and persistent prejudices, needs to change to reflect contemporary African realities.

Next steps in the consultation

On November 17, during Solution Day, preliminary results will be unveiled during a hybrid event.

 

Brazzaville Foundation will publish the results in mid-December 2022. A report will be submitted to the African Union and to organisations .

 

The results also target new elements of African advocacy, elements for strengthening the African agenda, a catalog of African solutions, an African solutions incubator project and a programme skills-building tool for climate change actors.

 

Find below the interview conducted by La Voix de l'Environnement with Richard Amalvy, Chief Executive of Brazzaville Foundation, during COP27 on the " Climate Change:Africa 's Solutions" consultation and more broadly on the Foundation's actions: