ACCRA– Mohammed Adjei Sowah, the Accra Metropolitan Chief Executive, has urged African cities to welcome the new C40 Climate Action Planning Programme for Africa to help build their technical capacities for long-term planning and to help them identify mechanisms to facilitate better national and local integration of climate mitigation activities.
A statement from the Accra Metropolitan Assembly said he was speaking after the launch of the C40 Climate Action Planning Africa Programme in Lagos on Tuesday to support nine sub-Saharan megacities — Accra, Addis Ababa, Cape Town, Dakar, Dar es Salaam, Durban, Johannesburg, Lagos and Johannesburg — to enable them to deliver bold climate action plan under the Paris climate change agreement.
The C40 refers to the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group which connects 90 of the world’s cities representing more than 650 million people and one quarter of the global economy which was set up after the 2015 Paris climate conference to promote implementation of its programmes and targets.
Sowah called for support in the area of capacity-building to ensure long-term improvement on emissions reporting, scenario modelling, and identification of transformative mitigation and adaptation actions to deal with climate change. He also touched on the need to integrate local actions at the national level through a robust and agreed framework to deal with climate change.
Sowah, who is also the C40 Vice-Chair for Africa, expressed gratitude to the Germany Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety for its support in the initiative while thanking the implementing partners for the preparatory work.
The C40 Climate Action Planning Africa Programme is part of the International Climate Initiative. The programme was designed in collaboration with climate experts from Ricardo Energy & Environment who will work closely with the cities to develop their action plans and support greater vertical integration between city and national government climate strategies.
Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK