Meeting the 1.5˚C challenge through integrated action on air pollution and climate

Africa Climate Week side event
Accra

There are many paths we can take to achieve the Paris target, but not all paths are the same. Some will generate significant benefits in the near term for climate and other development priorities. Others will have chiefly longer-term benefits. Strategies that integrate all climate forcing air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions, such as those that target the short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs), can contribute to a path that rapidly reduces the rate of warming in the near-term, prevents millions of premature deaths from air pollution, protects against dangerous climate feedback loops, and contributes to the global sustainable development goals. In order to achieve the Paris Agreement target of well below 2˚C (1.5˚C), and do this within the context of sustainable development, an integrated and rapid reduction of air pollutants and greenhouse gases that impact the climate in the near- and long-term is needed. Both the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) call for such integration.

In 2019, the CCAC launched an Action Programme to Address the 1.5˚C Challenge to assist and encourage countries that wish to increase the overall efforts to tackle climate change and air pollution in an integrated way and catalyze ambitious fast action on solutions that produce quick results and multiple benefits.
 

Programme of activities
09:30 – 12:30 Africa Regional Assessment Roundtable (By Invitation Only)
  Presentations introducing the scope, justification and activities planned for the Africa Regional Assessment followed by a roundtable discussion. The planned African Regional Assessment is the third integrated air pollution and climate assessment by the Climate and Clean Air Coalition’s Regional Assessment Initiative. The initiative develops scientifically robust and policy-relevant integrated assessments for key regions that will provide a framework for national action and underpin regional co-operation on implementing measures to reduce near term warming and air pollution impacts.
 
90 mins Session 1 – Africa Regional Assessment introduction
 

Detailed presentation of the justification, concept, timeline and planned activities for the Africa Regional Assessment.

Chair: Asmau Jibril, Nigeria
Presenters:

  • Alice Akinyi Kaudia – Report Co-Chair – introduction and overview. Why is this particularly important for Africa right now?
  • Kevin Hicks – Stockholm Environment Institute – short presentation of previous assessments, how this will be different and why that’s important.
  • Andriannah Mbandi and Philip Osana - Opportunities in Africa for integrated air quality climate change policy
60 mins Session 2 – LEAP-IBC and the multiple-benefits pathway framework
 

Presentations on the CCAC’s pathway framework, introduction to the concept and scientific basis for a multiple-benefits pathway approach by presenting examples of practical application in Ghana and Nigeria as well as plans to develop a LEAP-IBC template for the continent

Chair: Alice Akinyi Kaudia, Kenya
Presenters:

  • Nathan Borgford-Parnell, CCAC 5-minute introduction to the integrated approach highlighting the IPCC 1.5˚C report conclusions
  • Daniel Benefor, Ghana - describing Ghana’s experience with LEAP-IBC and the multiple benefits pathway framework
  • Bala Bappa, Nigeria – Nigeria’s SLCP National Action Plan
  • Charlie Heaps, Stockholm Environment Institute - capacity building and the planned LEAP-IBC template for all countries in Africa
30 mins Session 3 – Wrap Up
 

Guided discussion

Chair: Alice Akinyi Kaudia, Kenya