16/06/2017 16th Session of AMCEN – 15 June 2017

Address by Klaus Rudischhauser, Deputy Director-General DG DEVCO

Check Against Delivery

I would like to thank you for the invitation.  It is a great honor to address this audience; it is also a recognition of the very substantive cooperation between the European Union and Africa on environment, climate change, biodiversity, natural resources management and the green economy.

I would like to place this meeting as an important stepping stone in the preparation of the Summit between the EU and the African Union that will take place in Abidjan in November this year.

Therefore, allow me to start by demonstrating how comprehensive our partnership already is.  Let me just recall some of the policy areas and main initiatives supported by the EU in Africa:

    Biodiversity conservation, through the Biodiversity for Life initiative that supports notably a network of key protected areas across Africa; and the EU Action Plan against Wildlife trafficking.

    Sustainable forest management and the fight against illegal logging, notably through the EU Action Plan on Forest Law  Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) and REDD+; and the current EU Facilitation of the Congo Basin Forest Partnership.

    Climate action, notably through the Global Climate Change Alliance -GCCA+  and the EU commitment to allocate at least 20 % of its budget to addressing climate change (in 2015, the EU and its Member States provided EUR 17.6 billion to developing countries for climate action).

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