Organizers

 

The Africa Carbon Forum is organized by the Nairobi Framework partners: the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) along with the UNEP Risoe Centre (URC), the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Bank (WB) and the Africa Development Bank (AfDB).

 

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) - Based in Bonn, Germany, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) secretariat provides organizational support and technical expertise to the negotiations and institutions of the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol. Included in this mandate is support to the Executive Board of the clean development mechanism (CDM), through which projects in developing countries can earn saleable credits by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. To date, there are more than 3,600 registered projects in 72 countries. The CDM is recognized as a success in spurring investment in climate change mitigation and sustainable development although regional distribution of the projects remains open for improvement.

Contact: Conor Barry, [email protected],

WEB: www.unfccc.int

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and its UNEP Risoe Centre is the United Nations system's designated entity for addressing environmental issues at the global and regional level. Its mandate is to coordinate the development of environmental policy consensus by keeping the global environment under review and bringing emerging issues to the attention of governments and the international community for action. UNEP's work emphasizes strengthening links between environmental sustainability and economic decision-making, an emerging nexus for public policymaking and market development. In the area of climate change, our approach aims at reducing barriers to market development, building capacities, and easing the costs and risks of entry of new actors, in both the public and private sectors. As a founding member of the Nairobi Framework, UNEP works with other UN agencies and partners, and UNDP in particular, on a range of activities to help African countries become more active in the carbon market.

Contact: Miriam Hinostroza, [email protected],

WEB: www.uneprisoe.org

The International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) is a non-profit business organization of major companies and the leading voice of this community on emissions trading, whose goal is to ensure that the objectives of the United Nations Convention on Climate Change and, ultimately, climate protection, are met. IETA works for the development of an active, global greenhouse gas market, consistent across national boundaries. IETA currently has over 175 member companies from around the world, including global leaders in oil, electricity, cement, aluminum, chemical, paper and banking; as well as leading firms in the data verification and certification, brokering and trading, legal and consulting industries. IETA members seek to develop an emission’s trading regime that results in real and verifiable greenhouse gas emission reductions, balancing economic efficiency with environmental integrity and social equity.

Contact: Marion Gilodi, [email protected],

WEB: www.ieta.org

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) - As the United Nations' global development network, UNDP’s goal is to align human development and climate change management efforts by promoting mitigation and adaptation activities that promote socio-economic progress. With a US$5 billion portfolio of energy and environment projects, UNDP is one of the world’s largest providers of technical assistance in the area of climate change. On the ground in 166 countries, UNDP has built links and considerable trust with governments, civil society and the private sector. Over the past seven years, UNDP has been involved in carbon finance capacity development activities in more than 20 countries across several regions. At both global and regional levels, UNDP’s capacity development activities have been supported by systematic review and compilation of best practices and lessons learned on CDM, which are being disseminated through a series of knowledge products and publications.

Contact: Marcel Alers, [email protected],

WEB: www.undp.org

The World Bank (WB) – The World Bank’s mission is to help developing countries and their people reach the goals of poverty alleviation and sustainable development by working with our partners. To do that we concentrate on building the climate for investment, jobs and sustainable growth, so that economies will grow, and by investing in and empowering poor people to participate in development. Addressing global climate change through market development is an important component of the overall mission. World Bank has played a pioneering role in engendering the carbon market, and so far utilized over $2 billion in promoting carbon mitigation projects, including in Africa. Capacity building and technical assistance to developing countries is an important endeavour of the World Bank, which complements its carbon finance activities. Carbon Finance Assist is World Bank’s flagship capacity building program implemented by the World Bank Institute.

Contact: Samira Elkhamlichi, [email protected],

WEB: www.cfassist.org

The African Development Bank (AfDB) was created in 1964 to help reduce poverty, improve living conditions for Africans and mobilize resources for Africa’s economic and social development. AfDB attaches great importance to environmental sustainability and low carbon growth and is supporting the efforts of its Regional Member Countries (RMCs) to switch towards cleaner energy technologies and renewable energy sources in the continent, including climate change risk management. The clean energy portfolio of the Bank stands at about USD $2.5 billion and this is still set to grow.
AfDB is reducing vulnerability to climate change within its RMCs by building climate resilience into past and future Bank financed development investments; and supporting policy, legal and regulatory reforms including knowledge generation and capacity building. AfDB is financing the institutional strengthening of four regional African climate centres as part of the ClimDev Initiative.
The Bank also seeks to play a leadership role in Africa in supporting the implementation of REDD+. In 2009, through its Africa Development Institute and sector departments, AfDB carried out a training workshop for 20 DNAs on carbon finance in general and on REDD+ in particular. This training will now be on an annual basis. The Bank is actively engaged in the CDM and thus far, fifteen eligible projects have been identified and are at advanced stages of preparation for registration.

Contact: Uzoamaka Nwamarah, [email protected],

WEB: www.afdb.org

 
The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) was established by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations (UN) in 1958 as one of the UN's five regional commissions. UNECA's mandate is to promote the economic and social development of its member States, foster intra-regional integration, and promote international cooperation for Africa's development. UNECA's dual role as a regional arm of the UN, and a part of the regional institutional landscape in Africa, positions it well to make unique contributions to member States' efforts to address their development challenges. Its strength derives from its role as the only UN agency mandated to operate at the regional and subregional levels to harness resources and bring them to bear on Africa's priorities. UNECA is also host to the African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC). The ACPC is an integral part of the Climate for Development in Africa (ClimDev-Africa) programme, which is a joint initiative of the African Union Commission (AUC), the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the African Development Bank (AfDB). The ACPC was established by the UNECA to serve as the secretariat for the ClimDev-Africa programme and functions as the technical hub of the programme. It aims to address the need for greatly improved climate change and development information for Africa and the need to strengthen the use of such information for decision making. In addition, the ACPC engages in advisory services and technical cooperation, comprising of capacity mobilisation and technical assistance to African Member States and Regional Economic Communities on climate change and development issues.

Contact: Yacob Mulugetta, [email protected],

WEB: http://www.uneca.org/acpc