Africa’s scientists present at COP29, but are under-represented

African scientists have been raising their voices to advocate for the region’s top priorities, including climate adaptation and finance, as experts at COP29 began deliberating on 11 November in Baku, Azerbaijan, about climate change under the theme ‘In Solidarity for a Green World’.

African experts and scientists have agreed that, in addition to adaptation and finance, there are several other priority areas for the African group attending COP29 (which is the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or UNFCCC).

These include the critical need for formal recognition of Africa’s special circumstances under the Paris Agreement. This means that, despite the region’s lesser contribution to emissions, it has a disproportionate vulnerability to climate impacts, mainly seen in agriculture and extreme weather events such as flash floods, droughts and an increase in climate-induced health challenges.

There has also been a call for the operationalisation of the Loss and Damage Fund, a UN mechanism to support developing countries in coping with aid to communities affected by some of the devastating impacts of climate change.

In an interview with University World News, Luckson Zvobgo, a research fellow with the African Synthesis Centre for Climate Change, Environment and Development at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, said that, regarding the Global Goal on Adaptation, which is about developing indicators to track progress in global adaptation targets, African experts were pushing to ensure that the overall purpose of the indicators should be to contribute information for the overall UNFCCC processes.

These processes included assessing progress and reporting, such as global stocktake, biennial transparency reports, national documents such as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), the commitments made by countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change, National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) and adaptation communication.

Zvobgo is part of the African Group of Negotiators (AGN), which feeds into the advisory team that is focusing on the Global Goal on Adaptation, or GGA, in Baku. The AGN is representing Africa’s key issues on adaptation.

“It is important that the indicators should be global (for all the 11 targets in the GGA framework) with national relevance to ensure that the burden of both achieving the targets and reporting progress is not transferred to the developing countries but is a global responsibility,” he said.

“Africa must prioritise the development of indicators that can track support towards adaptation funding, capacity-building and technology transfer required in climate change adaptation,” he added.

Climate finance to fund adaptation

During an African Group of Negotiators climate change meeting on 12 November, AGN Chair, Ali Mohamed, made a strong call for the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance to align with actual transition costs faced by developing nations. The goal, captured in the 2015 Paris Agreement, aimed at setting a new financial target to help developing countries in their climate-related actions after 2025.

He said the current frameworks substantially underestimated the capital required for NDCs and the implementation of NAPs across the continent.

With a proposed amount of US$1.3 trillion as the minimum annual threshold for climate finance, African experts stressed the importance of delivering climate resources through concessional instruments and grants, as current market-rate mechanisms had proven insufficient for addressing the scale of adaptation, as well as loss and damage responses required across Africa.

“For us in Africa, adaptation means agriculture support, resilient water infrastructure, and universal health coverage for all, amid an increased climate-induced disease burden ... We are, therefore, not treating our [other] development needs as a separate subject from climate adaptation, which cuts across all our development needs in key sectors,” he stated.

Theletsa Mpholle, who is a researcher and project coordinator for the Lesotho Meteorological Services and an African Union Commission youth delegate for Southern Africa, also added that increased funding was crucial for the region, particularly for the training of youths to cover the green skills gap and boost the green jobs market required for low carbon, sustainable economies.

“Africa needs significantly more financial resources to adapt to climate change and transition to low-carbon economies. It is also important to increase funding for young people as they are the future leaders and drivers of the African continent. There is a need to ensure the operationalisation of the Loss and Damage Fund to support countries affected by climate-related disasters,” he said.

“Another priority area lies in recognising the urgent need for adaptation measures to protect vulnerable communities and ecosystems in Africa, empowering local communities and youth-led adaptation efforts as well as building resilience and promoting investment in nature-based solutions like reforestation, ecosystem restoration, and sustainable agriculture.”

More resources must be availed for African experts

Zvobgo also acknowledged the increased participation of African voices in COP processes this year, adding that there were still several limitations for members of the academia from the Global South.

This included limited access to resources, and a skewed system that disadvantaged scientists from the South, particularly the African region, he said.

“Africa is among the most vulnerable and affected by climate change; thus, research from the continent by scientists and experts is crucial to provide outputs that are grounded in African realities to develop policies and responses that effectively address the climate crisis.

“Given this background, we have seen increased recognition and participation of African scientists and experts in global climate change assessments at various United Nations platforms such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and UNFCCC. This has increased the recognition of the African voice, issues and challenges, including a greater understanding of our lived realities that make Africa more vulnerable to climate change.

“However, in the recent participation of experts in the GGA indicator development work, although our experts’ voice is key and present, participation and amplification of this voice is challenged by factors such as limited resources.

“Experts in developed countries have started engaging research assistants to help them refine the list of over 10,000 indicators submitted by parties for the work programme. African experts cannot do the same, because they lack the funds required to enhance their participation,” he said.

He applauded the presence of African scientists and experts working on indicators for the global goal on adaptation, a key priority for the region. However, in the development group, only eight out of 78 experts were from Africa.

Experts play their part

Zvobgo added: “The recent IPCC Africa report and its role in furthering the understanding of Africa’s challenges on vulnerability, impacts and adaptation is a testimony to the growing role of African experts in communicating African issues and progress.

“Despite significant progress in advancing African issues and realities, compared to the level of participation by Global North scholars, the participation of African climate scientists, experts and academia is relatively low in the latest IPCC assessment,” he stated.

Mpholle, however, argued that scientists and experts from the region continued to play a fundamental role in driving climate action during and beyond COP processes.

“Universities and members of the academia, including experts across fields such as agriculture and engineering, have been instrumental in providing scientific evidence and expertise to inform policy decisions and negotiations at COP29, especially by contributing towards international climate change assessments and reports, engaging with policymakers, non-governmental organisations, and other stakeholders to shape climate policies and promote sustainable development,” he emphasised.

Climate scientists were also at the forefront of advocating for ambitious climate action and equitable distribution of the burden of climate change during COP processes and training the next generation of climate scientists, environmentalists and other experts on how to be actively involved in negotiations.

“In Lesotho, climate scientists are playing an important role in assisting the country to adapt to the changing climate and build a more resilient future – for example, through improvement of the Early Warning Systems II Project and Improving Adaptive Capacity of Vulnerable and Food Insecure Populations in Lesotho project.

“They have been actively involved in implementing strategies to manage water resources more effectively, including rainwater harvesting, efficient irrigation, and wastewater treatment through different projects and initiatives. Lesotho has embarked on an initiative called Integrated Catchment Management that deals with integrated water catchment management.

“They also contribute towards policy development by providing scientific evidence to inform decision-making processes, for example [on] the Lesotho National Climate Change Policy (2017-27), Nationally Determined Contributions (2017) and Lesotho National Adaptation Plan,” he noted.