Libreville (Gabon)

Credit: Creative commons attribution

UN Climate Change News, 15 June 2022 – The dates and location for this year’s Africa Climate Week (ACW 2022) have been announced – from 29 August to 1 September in Libreville, Gabon. Africa Climate Week is a platform for stakeholders to discuss regional climate action solutions and forge regional partnerships. It is also an important step on the road to the UN Climate Change Conference COP27 in Egypt in November.

The meeting will bring together stakeholders for regional collaboration, opening space to address shared risks and seize shared opportunities. By working together, governments, private sector leaders, development organizations, youth and civil society can find common ground and act with common purpose. The Climate Week will also feature an Action Hub to share action happening now to reduce climate impacts and build resilient communities.

UN Climate Change Deputy Executive Secretary Ovais Sarmad said: “Last year, over 12,000 stakeholders collaborated at three virtual Regional Climate Weeks. Together, we forged partnerships, strengthened national climate action plans and built momentum towards strong outcomes at COP26. This put the powerful potential of regional collaboration squarely in the spotlight.”

The call for regional collaboration was reiterated by Tanguy Gahouma, Special Advisor to the President of Gabon and Permanent Secretary of the National Climate Council. He said: “Climate change remains for all of us a global emergency affecting every nation and constituent. It is our greatest collective challenge. For Gabon, this Africa Climate Week is an opportunity to further advance the implementation of the Glasgow Climate Pact and Paris Agreement and position African countries as leaders in the global response to climate change. This Africa Climate Week can emerge as a catalyst for global climate action as governments and stakeholders address climate issues together.” 

ACW 2022 is hosted by the Government of Gabon and organized by UN Climate Change in collaboration with global partners UN Development Programme, UN Environment Programme and the World Bank Group. Partners in the region include the Africa Union, the Africa Development Bank (AfDB) and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).

The Expression of Interest for participating organizations is open and can be found at ACW 2022 online. Organizations can apply to host a side event or share a success story or major announcement in the ACW 2022 Action Hub. Registration will open soon, after which registered participants will receive regular updates via email.

Africa Climate Week 2022 is part of the Regional Climate Weeks 2022 series. MENA Climate Week 2022 kicked off the series in March in Dubai and engaged almost 4,000 people over four days. LAC Climate Week 2022is scheduled for 18-22 July in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and registration is open now. Visit each of the Climate Weeks on the web to see the latest information, engaging videos and key takeaways.

Visit www.regionalclimateweeks.org to explore the Regional Climate Weeks 2022 and see how they are making a difference on climate change in key regions.

MORE INFORMATION

For media inquiries, contact UN Climate Change at press@unfccc.int or John Hay at jhay@unfccc.int. For inquiries in French, please contact Siyad Fayoumi at sfayoumi@unfccc.int. Please note that news media need to register for ACW 2022 as regular participants.

For more information, visit www.regionalclimateweeks.org

Join the conversation on social media using the hashtag #AfricaClimateWeek

About the UNFCCC

With 197 Parties, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has near universal membership and is the parent treaty of the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement. The main aim of the Paris Agreement is to keep a global average temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius and to drive efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The UNFCCC is also the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The ultimate objective of all agreements under the UNFCCC is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system, in a time frame which allows ecosystems to adapt naturally and enables sustainable development.