Africa climate negotiators call for vigilance in Bonn meeting

Marooned businesses along Usenge Beach following a rise in Lake Victoria's water levels. [Isaiah Gwengi, Standard]

African negotiators have cautioned on shifting dynamics in negotiation processes ahead of the 60th session of the UN Climate Change subsidiary bodies.

The group's lead coordinators met to strategise for the session that starts in Bonn, Germany, from tomorrow.

Interim African Group of Negotiators on Climate Change chair, Dr Alick Muvundika, urged the group to pay particular attention and remain vigilant on the importance of established procedures within the UN climate framework to avoid being shortchanged.

"We have to remain vigilant and respectfully challenge manoeuvres aimed at circumventing established procedures within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)," said Dr Muvundika.

Besides health and climate being emerging subjects that will be a key priority during the session dubbed SB60, African climate negotiators will also focus on operationalisation modalities for the Loss and Damage Fund and the Just Transition Work programme.

The group's active consideration will also focus on the New Quantified Goal on Finance, joint work on agriculture, and carbon trading mechanisms, as some of the key priorities for Africa.

Dr Muvundika noted that health was fast becoming a key agenda within the climate space, and called on the group to take a keen interest and support African governments as they navigate the impacts of climate change on health.

"A crucial point to ponder under the United Arab Emirates-Belem work programme is the inclusion of health as one of the thematic targets. Instead of waiting for this agenda to be set by others, we should, as a group, be actively involved and the work programme offers a window to input terms of how health should be mainstreamed into climate negotiations," he said.

Discussions around Loss and Damage will be key as the African region continues to face climate-induced losses and damages with recent deadly floods in East Africa, particularly in Kenya, drought in Southern Africa and fatal heat waves in the Sahel region.

"All eyes are on this process and I have no doubt, that our team on the board is doing everything to secure Africa's interests as the fund gets fully operationalised. Crucially, this year, central to all these discussions are the negotiations under the New Quantified Goal on Finance, which is the main theme and focus for the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP29).

As meetings such as the Bonn conference usually set the tone for COPs, Dr Muvundika called on the African negotiators to be keen to avoid being shortchanged.

"For example as a group, we noticed some procedural issues regarding the agenda at the first workshop under the UAE-Belem work programme on indicators for measuring progress," he said.