Posts

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Engage, Collaborate, and Contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals in Africa
• A awung

  Africa UN Regional Collaborative Platform (RCP) OIBC4 Planning Retreat, 2025

  Recognizing the existing challenges of limited coordination due to different geographical location of the different UN agencies, the absence of a fully integrated joint work plan, and insufficient financial resources, the African RCP OIBC 4 2025 retreat aimed at developing a comprehensive joint work plan and a robust resource mobilization strategy.

  The retreat took place after the Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development-11 (ARFSD), on April 12, 2025, at the Speke Resort, Munyonyo, Uganda, and brought together key stakeholders to foster collaboration, define shared priorities, and outline concrete actions for enhanced impact and reporting of results.

  The retreat provided a critical opportunity for OIBC-4 to strengthen its coordination, increase commitment of members, increase the number participating agencies, develop a shared vision, and mobilize resources for impactful joint actions. By working collaboratively, OIBC-4 members and partners are engaged in making significant strides in addressing the complex challenges facing Africa and contributing to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

  Below are audio recordings of the retreat.

  6th Africa Climate Talks and SDGs Forum, April 7-8, 2025, Commonwealth Banquet Hall
  Webinar ID: 996 7111 8313
  Day 1 – Zoom Link: https://zoom.us/rec/share/SG3T7jWc8SbOjokDDBPFNFfawyBgOcIuilQQ6XheJNAXmHvsvbg7QqjD9fGueyR5.juV_arB-tkzExfZK
  Passcode: =v8bbKc.

  Day 2 – Zoom Link:
  https://zoom.us/rec/share/e5g8cSzWMFzh_u4kbR-W6WpGY5Qk7U8YqsDPP-xC24UD1-aOOipziO00WZ3Sw4n-.16aMtATcoIBnV2QU
  Passcode: j?!DGYf6

  Regional preparatory workshop for African voluntary national reviews and voluntary local reviews, April 7-8, 2025, Sheena
  Webinar ID: 925 0396 7930
  Zoom Link:
  https://zoom.us/rec/share/xal0TO3zksdv8PjsY1WVfjkVfCSDuiIiaIbnIjKEeAEDJKWCqNOh2I_PlGh36IGl.b9V-GaBXnJB1gbJw
  Passcode: =Ja+t7#s

  ARFSD Plenary: (a) Parallel meeting on the sub-theme of "Good health and well-being (SDG 3)", April 10, 2025, Sheena.
  Webinar ID: 940 5122 4105
  Zoom Link:
  https://zoom.us/rec/share/0hCtShbq8ZGzj2Hk-NBYsAYHeG9wkcVeayKJfUGVJNJhPckY3E83knLsIXoVdOpS.Xhr1Q7yN-qu-1cnY
  Passcode: L@8W#Aem

  Retreat of the United Nations Regional Opportunities and Issue- Based Coalition 4, April 12, 2025, Acacia.
  Webinar ID: 979 4411 4069
  Zoom Link:
  https://zoom.us/rec/share/fVwZdEU_GbV1udHmzzFJJox0FaAnR6KL7C1zdZZ1gaqN2K-N_Cy36HP5cE9He8aL.Ze3z0jIZcpw6RRaJ
  Passcode: 7SjrH+Bq

  Key presentations and reports of the retreat shall be shared on this platform, immediately the final versions are available.

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Save the Date: Planning Retreat of the Opportunity Issue Based (OIBC # 4), working on Climate Action, Resilience, and Food Systems.
• A awung

  Planning Retreat of the Africa UN Regional Collaborative Platform (RCP) Opportunity Issue Based Coalition (OIBC4), working on Climate Action, Resilience, and Food Systems.

  

  Key Objective: To Prepare a Joint Work Plan and Resource Mobilization Strategy

  Date: April 12, 2025

  Venue: Speke resort & Conference Centre Munyonyo, Kampala, Uganda

  Overview:

  The planned retreat will provide a critical opportunity for OIBC-4 to strengthen its coordination, increase the number and commitment of participating agencies, develop a shared vision, and mobilize resources for impactful joint actions. By working collaboratively, OIBC-4 members and partners can make significant strides in addressing the complex challenges facing Africa and contributing to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals across the continent.

  Key Documents
  Concept note on retreat for OIBC-4 2025 final.pdf
  Final OIBC Planning Retreat Agenda one-day 03042025.pdf
  Final Concept Note on RCP and OIBC-4 Dialogue on COP29 Outcomes Catbon Markets and Energy AccessF.pdf

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Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems Nexus
• S SCASTROHALLGREN

  Hello OIBC4 colleagues, This March 4-6 we are hosting a Workshop on "Accelerating Progress on the Water-energy-food-ecosystems (WEFE) Nexus in Sub-Saharan Africa" in Addis Ababa at UNECA.
  We are bringing together about 50 government representatives from the SSA. We would welcome engaging you all in the invite and also cordially invite you to take part and join.
  The workshop is organized by UN DESA in coordination with UNESCO regional office and we have presented it as well as the research we are undertaking in the region in a couple of the recent OIBC4 meetings. We look forward to cooperating with you!
  Please contact me for more information Sara.CastroHallgren@un.org

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Harnessing African carbon market potential: unlocking substantial benefits for the continent
• A awung

  Simply put, Carbon markets are trading systems in which countries, companies, or other entities can buy or sell units of greenhouse-gas emissions (emission reductions) to meet international and national climate targets. These units, often referred to as carbon credits or allowances, are used for several reasons, such as compensating for a company’s residual emissions, or towards a countries NDC.

  Carbon markets are generally made up of the Compliance Market and the Voluntary Carbon market (VCM). The VCM - Individuals and companies voluntarily choose to purchase carbon credits that finance projects which avoid or sequester emissions, e.g. nature-based solutions, clean cookstoves, or renewable energies. Compliance market - Government regulations require certain industries to limit their carbon emissions through financial incentives – these can take the form of a tax or an emissions trading system (ETS e.g. the EU ETS), whereby companies can trade emissions credits to comply with these regulations. The third type to consider is International trading of carbon credits through Article 6 - Nations sign bilateral agreements under Article 6 of the Paris Climate Agreement to trade carbon credits (called ITMOs ), where the acquiring country can use the credits towards their climate targets (NDCs).

  Carbon markets are crucial in the fight against climate change as they provide economic incentives for reducing emissions. By putting a price on carbon, these markets encourage individuals, businesses, and governments to invest in cleaner technologies and practices. Furthermore, carbon markets can unlock new avenues for green growth, thus helping Africa tap into investments in renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, restoration and conservation, in doing so, creating green jobs and combating energy poverty. Beyond these opportunities, carbon credits also present a scalable option for effective climate finance in Africa that will materially aid decarbonisation on the continent, a crucial task in this decade. They also mitigate the continent’s risk of ‘carbon lock-in,’ (high-emissions energy infrastructure built today that causes society to remain dependent on fossil fuels into the future).
  With voluntary carbon credits valued at roughly $2 billion globally and potentially growing 5-50x by 2030, high-integrity carbon markets could provide significant benefits to African people and be a critical source of climate finance for the continent. However, although Africa possesses immense potential for nature-based solutions, it holds only a circa 2% of this potential transformed into carbon credits and African carbon markets still comprise only about 16% of the global credits market.

  ACMI’s 2022 Roadmap Report highlighted that Africa has the potential to scale its carbon credit market 19-fold by 2030, supporting up to $6 billion of revenue and 30 million jobs. This will require all actors in African carbon markets to play a more prominent role. More broadly, beyond just Africa, for global carbon markets to unlock 5- to 50-fold growth over the next decade, governments and the private sector will need to: (1) ensure overall credit integrity in the compliance markets, the VCM and international trading schemes, (2) create favourable government regulation, and (3) set increasingly ambitious climate action targets.

  Dear colleagues, this is a call for discussion. Please share your thoughts, experience, lessons learned, and related knowledge resources to enrich this discussion and support policy formulation and actions.

  Prepared by Daniel James Fisher, under the guidance of Gabriel Labbate from UNEP Climate Change Division