DAKAR, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Africa is the continent hardest hit by climate change yet benefits least from the current international climate change regime, a situation which cries out for concerted engagement by African leaders in the current round of climate change negotiations, Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, said here Wednesday.
"There's a lot at stake for Africa. How can a Copenhagen deal, for example, help African countries adapt to the impacts of climate change and make African economies climate-resilient?" de Boer said to the participants at the Africa Carbon Forum, which kicked off Wednesday in Dakar, Senegal to promote carbon market benefits on the continent.
The countries of the world are busy negotiating what will happen when the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012.
Thirty-seven developed nations in the Kyoto Protocol have agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12, while developing nations have no targets.
Under the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to sustainable development can earn saleable certified emission reduction credits.
The negotiations need to be concluded in December 2009 in Copenhagen, which leaves little time for crafting a complex agreement aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and helping countries adapt to the effects of climate change already evident.
There are to date more than 1,150 CDM projects in 49 countries, but just 27 of these are in Africa.
"Outside of Africa, the CDM has been a great success. It has provided an important source of investment and financial flows for clean development, it has stimulated technology transfer, and 2 percent of credits issued under CDM are going toward adaptation to climate change," de Boer said.
Despite the small number of projects in Africa, CDM is growing on the continent and is already estimated to be stimulating several billion dollars worth of capital investment in the seven African countries hosting projects.
Market stakeholders and policy-makers are looking for ways to multiply these benefits.
"So the question is: How can we make the Clean Development Mechanism work better in Africa? And how do we get to a Copenhagen deal that will benefit Africa more?" asked de Boer, who suggested that the answers could lie in effective engagement by African negotiators.
"The current climate change negotiations present African countries with a golden opportunity to change things for the better and design a Copenhagen deal that works for Africa. For this to happen, it is crucial that African countries put their concerns on the table and push for solutions that respond to their specific problems," he said.
"He who does not seize the opportunity today, will be unable to seize tomorrow's opportunity," said de Boer, citing a Somali proverb.
The three-day forum is being held under the umbrella of the Nairobi Framework initiative, launched in November 2006, to expand the reach of CDM and enhance capacity building on the CDM for climate change officials and carbon market participants in Africa.
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