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THE Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) has called for increased private sector engagement and involvement in climate change issues so as to promote sustainable growth of African economies.
Comesa climate change advisor, Dr Mclay Kanyangarara, said in a statement yesterday that there was a need to strengthen the African Union (AU) member states to deliver climate finance effectively including awareness on the benefits of the private sector engagement.
He said the Comesa secretariat in collaboration with the African Union Commission (AUC) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)’s Regional Service Centre for Africa, would today hold a two-day training workshop in Harare for member states to discuss green/climate financing.
“This training is being co- hosted by the Government of the Republic of Zimbabwe. The training aims to strengthen AU member states’ capacities to access, manage and deliver national and international climate finance more effectively including awareness on the benefits of private sector engagement in climate actions, all in support of their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) implementation,” said Dr Kanyangarara.
“The mobilisation of resources will benefit low carbon development including resilient infrastructure.”
Experts responsible for resource mobilisation to finance climate change or sustainable related projects are also expected to attend the training workshop. The gathering will draw participants from ministries responsible for finance and national development planning, national designated authorities for the Green Climate Fund (GCF), the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) focal persons from the AU member states.
Dr Kanyangarara said representatives from the private sector as well as experts responsible for climate change from Regional Economic Communities (RECs) would also attend the event.
“Most African countries are witnessing an increase in extreme weather events that are linked to disasters resulting in serious humanitarian challenges,” he said.
Apart from the loss of lives and property, Dr Kanyangarara said, climate-related disasters were reversing development gains and undermining the continent’s efforts to attain the aspirations of Agenda 2063 and the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
“The continent’s low adaptive capacity makes it more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
“Filling this gap requires support in the areas of technology, capacity development, skills and finance,” said Dr Kanyangarara.
It is hoped that during the workshop, technical experts will present an overview of green/climate finance, NDC financing and the role of the private sector in climate financing. Participants will also be taken through the main avenues to accessing finance for climate action, with a focus on identifying good practices derived from national and international experience.
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Bongani Ndlovu