Mapping COP27 Climate Adaptation Objectives to Africa’s Six-Point Plan

The COP27 climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, will be remembered for the historic establishment of the “loss and damage” fund to help poorer and developing countries cope with the brunt of climate change impacts.

While the previous year’s summit, COP26, focused on mitigation – or to drastically slash GHG emissions to limit warming to 1.5°C, the COP27 brought a more balanced approach, focusing on helping developing countries adapt to the impacts of climate change and transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy through climate finance and establishment of a compensation fund.

In line with the COP27 objectives, Power Shift, a Kenya-based climate & energy think tank, released a paper that assesses the outcomes of the climate summit against the six-point plan concerning their relevance to the urgent climate justice challenges facing Africa and the developing world and provides recommendations for this year’s COP28 in Dubai.

Significant outcomes from the COP27 include:

• Loss and damage fund. Establishing the “loss and damage” fund to support developing countries against the adverse effects of climate change.
• Climate finance. The COP called to speed up reforms in the Multilateral Development Banks and International Financial Institutions so they could scale up climate finance in 2023 and make their institutional arrangements fit for purpose.
• Mitigation. To urgently scale up mitigation ambition and implementation in this critical decade to keep temperature rise within 1.5 °C and bolster renewable energy investments.
• Just transition work programme. Facilitate ambitious and equitable climate actions and recognise the different starting points of countries and nationally defined development priorities of developing countries.
• Adaptation. Develop a framework for the Global Goal on Adaptation, which considers four elements: critical dimensions of the adaptation cycle, key themes and sectors, cross-cutting issues, and various sources of information.

According to the paper, African stakeholders, including governments and civil society organisations, developed the six-point plan, a framework for ensuring that climate action in Africa is inclusive, ambitious, and equitable. It also outlines critical priority areas for African countries to address climate change and provide fair and sustainable development.

The key priorities elaborated in the six-point plan are:

1. Real delivery of enhanced climate finance and other support to Africa and other developing countries;

2. Strengthening adaptation action and support;

3. Addressing climate-induced loss and damage as a crucial part of multilateral cooperative climate action;

4. Enhancing ambition on mitigation towards 1.5C;

5. Supporting African just transitions and sustainable development; and,

6. Maximising the Global Stocktake to highlight equity.

The report notes that the “loss and damage” funding agreed upon during the COP27 is a significant achievement, although established only in principle with the details on how to set it up and distributed, will still be adopted during the upcoming COP28. The push for scaling up renewables is another win at last year’s COP. 

The paper calls for grant-based funding support for the continent as Africa is most vulnerable to climate change impacts despite its tiny contribution to GHG emissions.

The report says that grant-based support will provide much-needed funding to support renewable energy projects in Africa, helping them to transition to a low-carbon economy.

The report recommends that COP28 should be built on the outcomes of COP27 and push to implement and achieve its objectives.

Learn more about the six-point agenda for Africa by clicking the link in the “Source” section below.