Kenya hosts 10th Africa Carbon Forum

Kenya was privileged to host the 10th Africa Carbon Forum from 9th to 13th April 2018 which is also serving as the 1st Climate Action Week. The event is being held at UN Gigiri Complex. Kenya was privileged to host the 10th Africa Carbon Forum from 9th to 13th April 2018 which is also serving as the 1st Climate Action Week. The event is being held at UN Gigiri Complex. 

The theme for this year’s forum, “Climate Action for Sustainable Development: Driving Change in Africa.” This is an annual event held in the African Continent that draws members from government, private sector and non-state actors with the objective of acting as a carbon fare, capacity building forum and an exhibition event.  

The 1st Carbon Forum was held in Nairobi in 2009 and NEMA served as the host organizer since we serve as the Designated National Authority for the Clean Development Mechanism. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and other partner members under Nairobi.Framework Partnership (NFP) were the joint organizers of the Africa Carbon Forum (ACF). The forum was organized by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry and the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA). 

The forum brought together 800 delegates from 59 countries, including ministers, experts, carbon market players, policy makers and other high-level government and international officials, together with non-state delegates, offered their insights into the challenges and possible responses to climate change, and harvested those insights for consideration in the official international climate negotiation process.

Some of the high-level ministerial delegation included CS Environment and Forestry, Mr. Keriako Tobiko; Executive Secretary UNFCC, Patricia Espinosa; Executive Director, UN-Habitat, Maimunah Mohd; Tomasz Chruszczow, High level Champion for COP 24, Poland and Erik Solheim, Executive Director UN Environment. 

 Africa Carbon Forum Pictorial

“To achieve our goals, we need more ambition and action. Not just by national governments—they cannot do it on their own—but by all levels of government, business, investors and everyday people working together,” said Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary, UN Climate Change, at a high-level session. “The good news is that momentum is picking up and we’re beginning to see the transformational shifts we need,” she added.Action on climate change and sustainable development together was the way forward for Africa.

That is the top-line message that regional, public and private sector delegates carried to the international climate negotiations after a week of deliberations in the Kenyan capital.In coming to the climate agreement in Paris, countries recognized that success will require broad-based climate action by all sectors of society, both public and private, and by individuals. It is this action, that the Africa Climate Week seeks to promote. 

The Nairobi Framework Partnership members include: UNEP DTU Partnership ,the African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, International Emissions Trading Association, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, United Nations Development Programme, UN Climate Change, and World Bank Group.