Climate Chance Summit -Africa 2019: Stepping up local action

Non-state actors at the heart of the fight against climate change
The Climate Chance Summit – Africa 2019 will take place in Accra, Ghana, from October 16th until October 18th at the International Conference Centre. It will be a wide gathering of 2,000 non-state actors fighting climate change on the African continent, including local governments, businesses, trade unions, environmental NGOs, farmers, women and youth organisations, researchers, etc.: gathered to step up climate action in Africa.The summit was initiated by the Climate Chance Association. Convinced that the only way to tackle climate change is to coordinate the actions and initiatives in each of the main sectors of greenhouse gas emissions (agriculture, energy, mobility etc.), Climate Chance is the only international organisation that aims to bring together all the non-state actors fighting climate change. (Learn more about the association and its members)
The Climate Chance Association supports the central role of local climate action and the inseparable link between the climate agenda and the sustainable development goals.
For this reason, Climate Chance decided to focus its action in Africa, the most vulnerable continent to climate change, where the development stakes and poverty reduction imply coherent and consistent development policies with the reality of climate change.
Annual African Regional Summits aim to disseminate and strengthen action to combat climate change in Africa and are held as milestones in the progress of the sectoral roadmaps of the actor’s coalitions.
The first Climate Chance Summit Africa 2018 (Abidjan) was the starting point of the creation of sectoral coalitions specific to the African continent and the 8 resulting sectoral roadmaps (adaptation; agriculture, food, reforestation; buildings; education and training; energy; financing; sustainable development cities; mobility and transports).
The upcoming Climate Chance Summit – Africa 2019 in Accra aims to strengthen the African sectoral coalitions created in 2018 and support the projects of these coalitions such as the African sustainable urban planners Alliance, a network of companies and investors in the sector of energy, or an operational roadmap for mobility and transports in Ivory Coast.
Between the summits, these thematic coalitions stay in touch and pursue their work together: during international meetings in which the actors participate, as well as at a distance: the association has set up an online exchange platform where actors can share best practices, calls for projects, funding opportunities etc. The Climate Chance Association wishes to mobilize the community of actors acting for climate in Africa, to reinforce synergies between actors, and to propel their actions, words and priorities to the forefront of the international climate scene.
Climate Chance Summit – Africa is also an opportunity to increase the number of actors involved in the coalitions. A call for contributions was launched and shared across the African continent in order to identify new projects and initiatives. The 376 received projects will be published on the cartography for climate action on Climate Chance’s website, their representatives will then become members of the coalitions, and 70 among these 376 projects will be showcased during the Summit (renewable energies program by Oxfam Sierra Leone, building and packaging materials made from coconut husk and sugarcane bagasse by Ecovon, etc.)
4 plenary sessions will also take place during the Climate Chance Summit, opening debate between grassroots actors, institutional representatives and personalities (His Excellency Nana Akufo-Addo, President of the Republic of Ghana, Jean-Pierre Elong Mbassi, Secretary General of United Cities and Local Governments of Africa (UCLG Africa) ; Ronan Dantec, French Senator and Founder and President of Climate Chance, Soham El Wardini, Mayor of Dakar (Senegal) ; Luc Gnacadja, past Environment Minister of Benin and Executive secretary of the UN convention on the fight against desertification ; Tomasz Chruszczow, high-level climate champion from the UN Convention on climate change, and more), all presenting their issues and proposals.
The 1st day of the Summit – October 16, will be dedicated to side-events showcasing initiatives, supporting capacity building and networking : a journalists’ training by Climate tracker, a business forum, a presentation of the key findings and recommendations on water and climate from UNESCO’s World Water Assessment Programme, presentation of the project of the African Development Bank on finance and adaptation, the closing of the second stage of the Covenant of Mayors in Sub-Saharan Africa (CoM SSA) with the presence of 40 African Mayors, ‘COP in Africa’ simulation of a climate negotiation to raise awareness and mobilize the young people etc.