ISS Roundtable, Addis Ababa: Climate Change Crisis: But is Africa Climate Finance-Ready?
THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED
The
inaugural board meeting of the United Nations’ Green Climate Fund (GCF) was
held in August 2012 with the second meeting following shortly after in October.
The GCF decision to choose South Korea as its host country demonstrates that it
is proceeding with efforts to channel the $100 billion of funds promised to
developing countries to support climate action. But is Africa ready to receive
these funds?
The
need for climate finance in Africa is well established. Africa is already being
threatened by water scarcity, leading to food insecurity in many countries and
increased flooding and water-borne diseases in others. These are predicted to
occur with increased frequency and severity. In fact, some estimates show that
Africa could be spending almost 3% of its annual GDP to deal with climate
change impacts by 2030. The delivery of finance from the global arena is essential
to helping people cope with and adapt to climate change, but without proper
governance systems in place the money may be lost to corruption and maladministration.
To
their credit, national governments have been implementing climate change
policies and associated finance systems. But are these adequate to meet the
challenge of increased funding? The litmus test is Fast Start Finance of $30
billion, which has been flowing since 2010. On the one hand, we need to
understand whether the finance has been going to the ‘right’ or deserving
projects and, on the other, whether adequate funds are being raised in a timely
manner. In addition, the important issue of what role the private sector will
play within the African climate finance architecture is gathering increased
attention.
Given
the urgency of the climate change challenge, the Institute for Security Studies
(ISS) has been working, with the generous support and partnership of the Hanns
Seidel Foundation (HSF), to provide evidence-based advice to key decision
makers in order to promote a sound climate finance governance architecture in
Africa that can stand up to the immense task at hand. After almost three years
of sustained research and engagement, the ISS has convened this roundtable meeting
in order to share and constructively discuss its research findings, as well as
to engage other perspectives about how best to deliver climate finance in Africa.
Moreover, this roundtable precedes the eighteenth session of the
Conference of the Parties (COP 18)
in Doha, Qatar where the issue of climate finance will be an important focal
point for multilateral and global governance
initiatives.
Programme
Chair
Mr Tim Walker, Institute for
Security Studies, Pretoria office
08:30 Registration
09:00 Welcome
09:10 Climate
change impacts on Africa Dr Debay
Tadesse, Institute for Security Studies-Addis Ababa office
10:10 What
role for the private sector in Africa’s climate finance architecture? Prof Oliver
Ruppel, Stellenbosch University
11:10 Are
African countries ready for climate finance? Trusha
Reddy, Independent Researcher (TBC)
12:10 Getting
to $30 billion: is Fast Start Finance coming fast enough? Dr Yacob Mulugetta, UNECA-Africa Climate Policy Centre (TBC)
13:00
Closing remarks
13:30 Close
Please note this is a draft programme and a final programme will be
shared in due course
This
event is made possible through funding from the Hanns Seidel Foundation
Please Note: All ISS Events occur under the ISS Rules, which means
no attribution without specific permission, unless indicated otherwise.