As the world prepares for the 26th Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) scheduled to hold in Glasgow, United Kingdom in November 2021, a team of eggheads has convened to discuss, identify and guide ambitious outcomes at the global summit.
Allied for Climate Transformation by 2025 (ACT2025), as the group is known, is a consortium of vulnerable country voices and thought leaders aiming to secure a just and ambitious outcome at COP26.
At a virtual media session held recently to profile the new consortium, the leaders introduced the initiative and explored numerous areas of relevance and intervention.
Coordinated by the World Resources Institute (WRI), the project partners include Centre for Climate Change and Development at Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike (CCCD-AEFUNAI) (Nigeria), International Centre for Climate Change and Development (Bangladesh), PowerShift Africa (Kenya), Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (Belize), Transforma (Latin America), and Manila Observatory (Philippines).
Director, CCCD-AEFUNAI, Prof. Chukwumerije Okereke, while speaking on “Adaptation”, shed some light of what informed the Centre’s decision to be a part of the initiative.
His words: “The Centre for Climate Change and Development at Alex Ekwueme Federal University is a research think-tank devoted to driving innovative research, learning and policy and practice in climate change, sustainable development, and green economy, focusing on Nigeria and Africa.
“The Centre is immensely proud to be part of ACT2025 and we very strongly identify with the goal of the consortium which is primarily to help foster collaboration and a renewed sense of solidarity and trust that is required to drive climate ambition with a specific focus on the UNFCCC negotiations.
“A key attraction for us at the Centre in joining the consortium is because ACT2025 has an explicit commitment to help amplify the voice of the vulnerable communities and countries in climate negotiations, but also to ensure that the outcome of these negotiation is fair, just and equitable.
“This is for us so critical because, as many of us know, these vulnerable communities and countries are the ones that bear the greatest brunt of the impact of climate change when they have contributed the least to causing the problem.
“Adaptation and mitigation are increasingly seen by the UNFCCC as being of importance in global response to climate change. However, there is still a distance to go in actually putting these two issues on equal footing.”
Yamide Dagnet of the WRI, while introducing the ACT2025, said the new body would promote negotiated outcomes at the UN climate summits (such as COP26 and COP27) that are clear, ambitious, equitable and balanced, while holding countries accountable for their climate commitments under the Paris Agreement.
The consortium would also enhance awareness and mobilise capacity on ways to pursue the implementation of the Paris Agreement and relevant Conference of Parties (COP) decisions as well as identify areas of convergence and facilitate negotiating breakthroughs.
Similarly, the group intends to strengthen existing coalitions, and empower new and emerging ones that gather progressive countries and stakeholders; promote a shared prosperity narrative and a vision for a collective future that is ultimately safer, flourishing, low-carbon and climate resilient.
Dagnet said the consortium would convene key stakeholders to identify and agree on how to design just and ambitious outcomes at these negotiations — particularly at COP26 and COP27 — that will rebuild trust, foster solidarity and drive greater climate action on the ground, saying “doing so will promote a prosperous, low-carbon and climate-resilient future for all.”
Other speakers include Mohamed Adow of PowerShift Africa who spoke on “State of Play of Global Climate Diplomacy”, Mark Byone of Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre who made a presentation on “Climate Action and COVID Recovery”, Maria Laura Rojas Vallejo of Transforma who deliberated on “Climate Finance and Debt Relief”, Saleemul Haq of International Centre for Climate Change and Development who explored issues related to “Loss and Damage”, and Tony La Vina of manila Observatory who soke on “Paris Agreement Rules and Architecture”.
