Side-Events

The Covenant of Mayors in Sub-Saharan Africa (CoM SSA) is an initiative launched by the European Union (EU) to support local authorities in Sub-Saharan Africa in their fight against climate change and in their efforts in ensuring access to clean energy. In the CoM SSA, local authorities are encouraged to voluntary commit to the implementation of a climate and energy action plan in their area of influence. They are also encouraged to define long-term vision actions towards a sustainable future based on the pillars of climate change Mitigation, Adaptation, and sustainable, affordable and secure Access to Energy.

CoM SSA signatories commit to produce and implement a strategic and operational document called Sustainable Energy Access and Climate Action Plan (SEACAP). DG Joint Research Centre (JRC), as scientific responsible of the initiative has produced Guidebooks supporting local actors in the design and implementation of this document in several global regions (CoM Europe, CoM South, CoM East). The adaptation of the covenant guidebooks to the SSA context requires inputs from local practitioners and experts.

The objective of this Expert Consultation is to exchange expertise, collect, analyze and discuss information with experts from the African region in order to provide JRC with high technical support in the development of the CoM SSA Guidebook. Moreover, by mobilizing the experts from the CoM SSA consortium and pilot cities’ technical practitioners, this consultation will ensure that inputs in line with the realities and context of CoM SSA signatory cities will be provided to the JRC and reflected in the Guidebook.

The way in which cities develop over the coming decades will play a major role in determining the success of climate change mitigation and adaptations. Yet, still today, access to financing is one of the major barriers cities face in their sustainability efforts. Mayors and city officials are responding to this challenge by pursuing innovative, strategic private sector partnerships and pioneering business models to reach their goals. This roundtable aims at highlighting these initiatives and understand the conditions of their success, in order to facilitate their replication.

Organized by ICLEI Africa – Local Government for Sustainability, with the support of ICLEI World Secretariat and CEMR, this Roundtable is organized as part of the Covenant of Mayors for Sub-Saharan Africa initiative. The discussion will gather members of the Global Covenant of Mayors Working Group on Financing, representatives of different financial institutions as well as some representatives of Local Governments who are signatories to the Covenant of Mayors for Sub-Saharan Africa (CoM SSA). Together, they will discuss the challenges as well as the opportunities for African cities to access and diversify their sources of funding to accelerate low-carbon and climate resilient-development and implement the Sustainable Energy Access and Climate Action Plan SEACAPs. The discussion will also build on good examples and practices shared by CoM SSA member cities.

Following the COP 21 in Paris, the Ivory Coast has committed to increasing the share of renewable energy in its energy mix to 16% by 2020. The Ivory Coast intends to boost its energy capacity by 2020 while turning more and more towards renewable energies. The country perseveres in its ambition to provide with energy the whole region. As part of the program to strengthen the electric fleet that it launched in 2011 to move from an installed capacity of 2,000 megawatts (MW) to 4,000 MW by 2020, the country is focusing on a reorganization of the energy mix by developing hydro and renewable to reduce the share of thermal (coal, gas or oil), which remains predominant (more than 80% of the current fleet). The Ivory Coast inaugurated in November 2017 the largest hydroelectric dam in the country, with a total capacity of 275 MW. What energy policy in Ivory Coast by 2030? To answer this question, the French Institute invites you to participate in the debate around a panel of experts, representatives of the Government, the private sector, and civil society.

The 1st edition of the African Days of Forests, Agroecology, Energy and Climate Change (JFAC 2018) is under the patronage of the Council of the Entente and the Co-Chairmanship of the Presidents of the Assembly of Regions and Districts of Ivory Coast (ARDCI) and the Union of Cities and Municipalities of Côte d’Ivoire (UVICOCI) will be held on the sidelines of Climate Chance Africa with as special guest, the Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco in Côte d’Ivoire Ivory. The JFAC will regroup for two days more than 1500 participants from Ivory Coast and African countries. It will be an ecological rendezvous, for training, also a market place of good ecological practices and ecological innovations. The 31 Regions, the 2 Districts and a hundred Town Halls of Côte d’Ivoire will be present at these days, in addition to the sister communities coming from the countries of the Sub Region.

Launched at COP21 in December 2015, the MobilizeYourCity initiative aims to develop, by 2020, urban travel plans in 100 cities in 20 developing and transition countries. Funded by the European Commission, FFME (French Global Environment Facility) and the German Ministry of Environment (BMU), it is implemented by a consortium of 5 technical partners: AFD, GIZ, CEREMA, ADEME and CODATU. The implementation of MobiliseYourCity started in 2017 in 4 African countries: Senegal, Cameroon, Tunisia and Morocco.

As a continuation of the Climate Chance 2017 seminar in Agadir, Morocco, the MobilizeYourCity Secretariat proposes to organize, before this summit, a seminar to bring together the members of the MobilizeYourCity Africa community of practices in order to draw up an inventory of the MYC programs, to make a point of progress of the work carried and to come and especially to offer a framework of exchange with experts coming to share their experience in sustainable urban mobility planification.

Representing 36 % of the final energy consumption and 39 % of CO2 emissions globally, the building and construction sector is key for the achievement of a sustainable development and the completion of the Paris Agreement on Climate objectives. Over the next 20 years, more than half of new buildings expected to 2060 will be constructed and building growth will be particularly rapid in Africa.

The sustainable and locally adapted development of the buildings and construction sector needs the mobilisation and coordination of all actors, non-state stakeholders such as NGOs as well as the different levels of public authorities, especially local authorities which play a prominent role in defining local objectives and implementing actions in the field. The development of a sustainable and locally adapted path for the building and construction sector in West Africa, involving all actors, requires the definition of a regional strategy embodied in a roadmap.

The overall objective of the Regional Roundtable for Local Governments in West Africa, hold by the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GABC) with the Association La Voûte Nubienne, ICLEI is, for participants from the region, GABC members and financial institutions, to develop a regional strategy on transforming the buildings and construction sector with a specific focus on developing and implementing Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). The purpose is to facilitate technical knowledge and good practices sharing, peer-to-peer exchange, offer expertise for technical support and capacity building and to reflect together on how to bring the buildings and construction sector towards zero-emission, energy-efficiency and resilience, access adequate financial resources, use sustainable, locally adapted, and affordable construction material, etc.

The MTPA global network will organize a meeting prior to the Climate Chance Summit to promote the expertise of urban planning agencies in adapting to climate issues.

Created at the Habitat Conference, the MTPA (Metropolitan and Territorial Planning Agencies) network brings together urban planning agencies from around the world since 2016. In order to strengthen cooperation with African agencies and territories, this meeting will be an opportunity to present the work program of the MTPA network and for the actors of the territories wishing to develop agencies to meet the members of the network to initiate new projects.