The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has become the major international body searching for ways of building international climate agreements between developing and developed countries. As a result of the Paris Climate Agreement 2015, new types of commitment and responsibilities emerged for signatory parties. This includes the National Determined Contributions (NDCs), which outline what will be done in terms of climate policy in each country. Negotiations at the international level can and should reinforce the role of the NDCs and define conditions for implementing national actions and goals.
Significant progress has been made at the global and national levels in advancing climate policies and governance, but important leadership gaps remain in evidence and knowledge, negotiations, policy and practice, and coordination among climate scientists, negotiators, policymakers and practitioners.
This project, implemented by the Nairobi, Kenya-based African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS), is designed to fill these gaps by ensuring that negotiators are informed by adequate scientific information. This will be achieved by enhancing the institutional and technical capacity of the African Group of Negotiators-Expert Support (AGNES) to consolidate and package scientific evidence to support African institutions’ and governments’ influence in international, regional, and national climate policy processes, decision-making, and implementation.
The project will deliver an expanded resource pool of climate scientists, negotiators, and policymakers to amplify the voices and interests of African experts at multilateral climate change scientific assessments, negotiations, and policymaking. It will produce commissioned papers in key areas, including implementation of NDCs, national action plans, and low emission development strategies, as well as papers on agriculture, gender, and technology think tanks to support climate action. Other activities include two regional climate negotiator dialogues, six national adaptation documents, and two scientific papers. The project will also conduct regional and cross-African and Latin American meetings for sharing of experiences, best practices, and expertise to stimulate climate actions. Gender will be a central issue for exchange and learning in these fora, given the quest to develop a gender action plan under the UNFCCC.
AGNES will be institutionalized within ACTS as a pan-African network or knowledge platform and expert facilitation service for climate scientists, negotiators, policymakers, and other stakeholders in Africa.
