Good debut for ACPC at Cancun climate change conference

CANCUN, Mexico, 08 December 2010 (ECA) – The newly launched African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC) has been making an impressive debut at the current UN Conference on climate change in Cancun, according to correspondents of the Information and Communication Service (ICS) of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) covering the conference.The Centre is a joint initiative of the ECA, the African Union Commission and the African Development Bank, and headed by Youba Sokona, IPCC Board member and former executive Secretary of the Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS) based in Tunisia.

At key side events where focused discussions on climate change technical issues are taking place and during one-on-one encounters with various stakeholders, the Centre received warm welcome and high-level interest from potential partners who said they had been waiting for a Centre like ACPC as their entry-point to engaging Africa.

The Centre was again introduced yesterday at a well-attended side event  jointly organized by UN regional economic commissions on energy efficiency, renewable energy and energy security. The side event was organized by the Swedish Government, one of the earliest and staunchest supporters of ACPC, and chaired by Ms Helen Clark, the Administrator of UNDP.

Reporting on energy programmes supported by the various UN economic commissions, Mr. Jan Kubis, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Europe said that “the Africa Climate Policy Centre based at ECA will serve as the knowledge hub for climate information for development (ClimDev) and provide analytical support to Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and national governments.”

He cited the provision of analysis on low carbon development in Africa CDM, carbon finance opportunities to support energy projects, regional cooperation and integration on matters related to energy among areas where ACPC could add value to knowledge.

Mr. Kubis also presented regional commissions for Europe, Latin America, Asia and the Pacific.  On Europe, he recalled that the UNECE undertakes activities to assist countries in enhancing their energy efficiency, promoting the formation of energy efficiency market in the countries so that cost-effective investments can provide a self-financing method of reducing global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

UNECE also assists countries to address the financial, technical and policy barriers to energy efficiency and renewable energy investments, Kubis noted.

He said that the UNECE Committee on Sustainable Energy is initiating a dialogue within the Energy Security Forum among senior executives from major oil and natural gas companies, energy producers, and leading financial institutions.

It would be recalled that ECA’s work also includes analytical studies to guide policy formulation, capacity building and providing platforms for experience sharing and knowledge networking in activities such as scaling up rural energy access in Africa, supporting actions to promote the sustainability of Africa’s power sector, promoting the adoption of renewable energy technologies, exploring policy and regulatory issues concerning biofuels development in Africa.

The regional commission also provides platforms to broaden and deepen policy dialogue on energy issues, and supports regional initiatives such as the Programme for infrastructure development in Africa ( PIDA).

As the Secretariat of UN-Energy Africa, ECA supports Africa’s energy agenda through the Africa-regional coordination mechanism (RCM).

Earlier, participants at the side event had listened to an inspiring presentation on the Moroccan experience by Ms Aminata Benkhadra, Minister of Mines, Water and Environment. Experiences from Argentina and Nepal were also shared.

Mr. Tariq Banuri announced the forthcoming Focused Political Document, with thematic focuses on a Green Economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty reduction; and the institutional framework for sustainable development.

He said that the document had been commissioned by the UN General Assembly and would be launched sometime mid next year, with the “highest level of participation, including Heads of State and Government”.

The main thrust of Banuri’s presentation is the notion that economic development in the world has entered a critical period marked by a “race between growth and catastrophe because “we cannot live without growth and we cannot live long with current the growth pattern”.

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