The Africa, Climate Change, Environment and Security (ACCES) initiative will enable the African partners to join the European Union and major international actors to jointly address the security risks of climate change in Africa from a development and security perspective.

Africa, the EU and major international actors have embarked in Addis Ababa, on Monday 11 October 2010 upon a structured long-term "Dialogue process" to address the security implications of climate change in Africa as well as to start an assessment of the needs of African partners from security perspectives.

During this first "dialogue session", participants presented five papers on water security, migration, food security, natural disasters and energy security.  In each field, the dialogue process will promote collaborative platforms aimed at working out 'fundable" projects for building up local resilience capacities.  The large number of African experts and policy-makers participation on the dialogue process showed great interest which will contribute to carry the analytical paper on climate and security to Cancun and to the Third joint EU-Africa Summit both to coincide on 29th November 2010.

Representatives of African regional and sub-regional organizations, governments, local authorities, communities and civil society are part of this "learning by doing" process where the sharing of lessons learned and best practices will play important roles. 

The initiative fits in very much with the EU's own recognition that climate change is a "threat multiplier which exacerbates existing trends and instability" in developing countries.  Such tensions include conflict over resources such as land, water and food. There is also a great risk posed by increased desertification and migratory pressures.

The initiative is being led by the Madariaga - College of Europe Foundation and Folke Bernadotte Academy in cooperation with the EU Council Secretariat and involving the UN system, the World Bank Group, EU institutions and Member States, the EIB, the International Organization for Migration, the AU, the African Development Bank, the Global Water Institute, the Institute for Environmental Security and the Parliamentarians Network for Conflict Prevention and Human Security.

The 7th African Development Forum

The event took place as a side event to the High Level 7th African Development Forum (ADF) organised by the UN Economic Commission for Africa on 11-15 October, this year on the theme of Acting on Climate Change for Sustainable development in Africa.

The ADF brings together a large number of participants including Heads of State and Government, African member States, development partners, other United Nations agencies, inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations, academia, development practitioners, civil society organizations, the private sector, eminent policy and opinion leaders, as well as other concerned stakeholders.

The theme of ADF-VII which is “Acting on Climate Change for Sustainable Development in Africa’’ is both timely and significant as the current and projected impacts of climate change on Africa’s development must be addressed by tangible and workable development policies, strategies, programmes and practices. ADF-VII will also provide a multi-stakeholder platform to discuss Africa’s concerns and interests in preparation for the 16th Conference of Parties of the United Nations Climate Change Conference taking place in Cancun, Mexico in December 2010. The Forum would thus help to underscore the important role of partnership in raising awareness about Africa’s concerns and expectations for a post-2012 global climate regime.

In this context, the GCCA event will be an opportunity to further enhance the dialogue between the European and its African partners including updates and exchange of views on financial and technical support to assist countries to cope with climate change and to integrate climate change in wider development and poverty reduction strategies. The conference will be a timely opportunity to provide high level speakers’ insights into the current status of the international climate negotiations and their possible implications for Africa, as well as a good forum for an exchange of information and views on Pan-African initiatives on climate change.