Science Summit at United Nations General Assembly - UNGA77 13-30 September 2022Theme: Climate Adaptation CITIES: A call for high-quality, harmonized, reliable, and comparable climate-related data with standardized guidance to reduce emissions in cities.Click here to join:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82664496959Inclusive scientific-data collaborations through education and training workshops, seminars, and conferences between developed and developing countries to address skill gaps on the issue of collecting, analyzing, and reporting high-quality, harmonized, reliable, and comparable information on climate-related data is critical but is a challenge as the harmonization of existing data is a work-in-progress. Therefore, to boost investor confidence and enable long-term climate finance investment flows for green finance, there is a need for more inclusive science-based training workshops to keep track of rapid changes to applied practices and methodological approaches in GHG emissions accounting. The rapid deployment of methodologies for monitoring and reporting climate-related data for climate risks and for scaling up green finance has revealed capacity gaps between developing and developed countries. These skill gaps need to be addressed. The universal effort to address this issue has primarily focused on the high-income countries that account for over 80% of global emissions with little attention to developing countries. At present, Africa only contributes 4% of global CO2 emissions. However, Sub-Saharan Africa is projected to become the most populous of the eight geographical regions of the world increasing energy demand: increasing their wealth through GDP growth and increasing inter-trade. For example, in 2019, the African Continental Free Trade Agreement came into effect, creating the largest free trade market in the world. Africa’s current emissions are projected to increase from 4% to 8% by 2050. At the highest end of the analysis, 20% of CO2 emissions by the end of the century. The purpose of this session is to facilitate a dialogue on initiating a road-map for inclusive scientific-data collaborations between financial, scientific institutions, academia, and industry in developed and developing countries (governments, banks, companies, and civil society) on the issue of high-quality, harmonized, reliable and comparable on climate-related data with standardized guidance as the critical component to enable forward-looking data assessments on climate-related risk to mobilize long-term capital for green and low-carbon investments.
Why is it so important to harmonize climate-related data? It is important to harmonize climate-related data to boost investor confidence, enable forward-looking data, and enable the mobilization of funds to Africa to address climate change. After another year of life-threatening temperatures and extreme weather disasters, wealthy developed countries are under pressure to make good on their promise to mobilize US$100 billion a year to help poorer countries deal with climate change. A new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, released on Feb. 28, 2022, provides more evidence of what billions of people are facing: Developing countries that have contributed the least to climate change are suffering the most from it, and the damage is escalating. Coastal areas in Africa are losing land to rising seas. Flooding from extreme storms is wiping out people’s livelihoods. Heat waves are harming people who have no access to cooling, killing crops, and affecting marine life communities rely on. It is unclear how much impact the climate finance already flowing to these countries, estimated at $79.6 billion in 2019, is having. There is an overwhelming lack of climate-related data. There is also evidence of countries supporting projects that can harm the climate with money they count as “climate finance.” Actions by European countries also include the development of Climate Smart Cities to reduce emissions as well as the global financial community working together to harmonize climate-related data.
Question to be addressed: -
SESSION 2: CITIES(a) What is the potential for Positive Energy Districts replication in African cities?
(b) What is the potential of AI, transport, and GHG emissions: evidence from Brussels?
(c) Cities in Africa - what is the potential for NET Zero?
POLICY IMPLEMENTATION
We discuss what is the way forward for policy. - Data standards- Data quality- Data Assurance and Audits
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