UN Climate Change News, 18 March 2019 – Starting today, over 2,500 delegates are gathering in Accra, Ghana, for Africa Climate Week. Ministers, policymakers, and non-Party stakeholders — from businesses to NGOs and from financial institutions to cities and academia — will discuss ways to advance climate action.

The Africa Climate Week starts with the Africa NDC Dialogue (18-19 March) that will analyze the outcomes of COP24 and discuss the implementation of national climate plans, known as “Nationally Determined Contributions” or “NDCs”. The discussion will focus on the existing gap between the current climate action pledges of governments and the Paris Agreement’s long-term goal of limiting the global average temperature rise to as close as possible to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Delegates will discuss ways of raising national, regional, and global ambition towards achieving that goal.

The Africa Climate Week (ACW) is the first major stepping stone of this critical year in the global efforts to increase climate ambition. 2019 marks the launch of a new round of NDCs that countries are expected to submit to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) by 2020 with the overarching objective of the world collectively achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement.

In this regard, the outcomes of Africa Climate Week will be a key contribution to the Climate Action Summit that United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres is hosting this September, the objective of which is to help raise climate ambition from governments and non-State actors.

A central moment of Africa Climate Week will be Wednesday 20 March when the high-level segment will take place with the presence of the President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo; UN Climate Change Deputy Executive Secretary, Ovais Sarmad; Ghanaian actress and television personality, Joselyn Dumas; and COP24 President Michał Kurtyka.

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