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Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius delivers an opening speech at the AMCEN (African Ministerial Conference on the Environment) Ministerial Segment

Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius delivers an opening speech at the AMCEN (African Ministerial Conference on the Environment) Ministerial Segment.

"Check against delivery"

Ministers, excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for this invitation.

I was extremely happy to accept because if we have learnt one thing from recent events, it's about the need to work together.

Behind the noise of current events, there are three huge crises that are constantly breaking through – climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.

No country, no continent, can tackle them on its own. They are joint challenges, they are each connected to each other, and we need collective action to get them under control.

That means working together. So it's a great pleasure to come here, and speak to you face-to-face about how we can make that happen.

In Europe, we are taking a joined up approach through a vision that brings our policies together. It's called the European Green Deal, and it's our blueprint to a transformation towards sustainability. It comes with an external dimension, which foresees support and accompanying measures for partner countries who want to travel in the same direction.

So it's a great pleasure to come to AMCEN. To my mind, this forum has a key role to play in shaping Africa's response to these planetary crises.

You all have first-hand experience of the dangers that face your natural resources, your biodiversity and your ecosystems. Challenges like climate change, land degradation, deforestation, wildlife trafficking, unregulated fishing. Urban challenges like air pollution and waste incineration, which will all be discussed today.

These natural resources and ecosystems are also your most precious assets. They are your hope for the future. They are the major opportunities for social and economic development, but they must be sustainably managed.

As I said, many of these challenges are global by nature. Collective action is advancing on many fronts. So I'd like to spend my time this morning looking at these collective efforts, and looking for opportunities to work together.

Let's start with Biodiversity.

COP15 in Montreal in December is not just about saving megafauna like rhinos and tigers. It's about protecting and restoring the fundamental building blocks of a healthy and productive planet. More than 50% of the global economy depends on nature.

You know how important this is. In many places in Africa, most of the population lives in rural areas, and they depend directly on the biodiversity and ecosystem services that underpin economic growth and human well-being. So you know that the potential dividends from well-designed nature-based solutions is absolutely enormous.

The EU and its Member States are aiming for an ambitious and transformative post 2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. We have everything to gain from working closely together with you to make sure that happens at COP15 in December.

We stand by our call for protecting at least 30% of land and oceans. But protection alone is no longer enough. We also need ambitious targets for ecosystem restoration, and effective action to address the major drivers of biodiversity loss, like pollution and deforestation.

We need stronger mechanisms for monitoring and review, and a balanced solution for benefit-sharing and DSI, the use of digital sequence information of genetic resources.

To make these things happen, we need to increase the financing. More public and more private financing, more domestic and more international. We need to redirect or eliminate subsidies that end up harming nature. We need to realign public and private financial flows, and ensure they coincide with biodiversity objectives.

One year ago, our EU President, Ursula von der Leyen, announced that the EU would double its international financing for biodiversity, in particular for the most vulnerable countries. We hope to see other international donors moving in the same direction.

This doubling is a significant effort by the EU, and we are already making it happen. Our intention is to support African countries, and help them kickstart the implementation of the new biodiversity framework.

Let's now turn to climate.

Here I would stress that the EU and Africa are already united in their efforts to tackle the crisis. We both face the twin challenge of limiting global warming to 1.5°C and speeding-up adaptation to the impacts we already see.

Because we already see huge impacts both here and in Europe. Disastrous floods, severe droughts, and completely unpredictable seasons are compromising our lives, our food production and our health.

Despite numerous pledges in Glasgow at COP26, we will never limit the temperature rise to 1.5 °C with the actions we've seen so far. We need a radical increase in the level of ambition.

It can be done. The energy transition is well under way. It is also technologically and financially feasible, and it's already cheaper than relying on fossil fuels.

Africa has huge potential for renewable energy, but that potential is largely untapped.

COP27 is another opportunity to turn that around. A chance to deliver on our ambitions, with progress on all relevant topics in Sharm-El Sheikh. In particular, we need to make progress on mitigation commitments, climate finance, adaptation, and loss and damage.

Paris succeeded because the urgency was there. We need to find that same energy for Sharm-El Sheikh.

The 5th UN Environment Assembly earlier this year was unusually important. There were major advances, largely due to African leadership. I'm thinking of Circular Economy and green recovery, but also of the key role played by African countries in the resolution that will lead to the negotiation of a global agreement on plastics.

This is another area where the EU is extremely keen to engage further with its African partners, in the negotiations on the new plastics agreement ahead of the first meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee in Uruguay in November.

And, of course, on all these topics, the EU and Africa have many examples of successful environmental cooperation that we can build on.

In 2020, the EU and its Member States were the largest provider of climate finance to Africa, allocating more than EUR 23 billion to climate action. We will continue in the same direction. “Global Gateway”, the sustainable connectivity strategy we launched at the end of last year, is another example. The EU-Africa Global Gateway investment package we unveiled in February will boost investments in areas like the green transition, renewable energy, digitalisation and sustainable agriculture.

It comes with a number of initiatives related to environment and climate, including biodiversity protection, ocean governance, sustainable management of forests and water, and sustainable land management to combat desertification. These are largely aligned with the priorities identified in the African Green Stimulus Programme adopted by AMCEN.

The Team Europe ‘Climate Adaptation and Resilience' Initiative will aim to strengthen Africa's capacity to reduce risks linked to climate change. 

On biodiversity, a new initiative called NaturAfrica will help partner countries to combine nature preservation and socio-economic development. The aim is to support conservation activities in and around protected areas, improving livelihoods for local populations. This initiative has been supported by the Kigali Call for Action, and we are willing to continue the cooperation.

On circular economy, it's great to see countries joining forces to develop an African Circular Economy Alliance. One third of the 15 countries that have now joined the Global Alliance on Circular Economy are from Africa. The EU recently joined the African Circular Economy alliance as a strategic partner, and we look forward to supporting your efforts here.

We've also earmarked EUR 1 billion to support partner countries in fighting deforestation and forest degradation. And, in line with our commitment to Africa, EUR 250 million will be dedicated to the Congo Basin, the world's second biggest tropical forest and its fragile ecosystems.

On Ocean Governance, I welcome the progress made in the development of an African strategy. I am sure that when we put together this upcoming African strategy and our own updated international ocean governance agenda, we will have another good basis for closer cooperation.

There are many other cooperation areas I could mention – water is one example – and I'll be very happy to engage further with your countries on this.

But I think you now have a good idea of how I see our future cooperation. And I'm sure this forum will be playing a major role in that process. The world needs a strong, coordinated African voice, and I think you are very well placed to provide that. 

Let me just finish by assuring you that the EU stands ready to keep supporting Africa and the joint environmental priorities we share. And thank you, of course, for your constructive approach – that's exactly what we hope to see from all our partners, as we work to tackle these global crises we share.

Thank you.

 

Original article link: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/SPEECH_22_5552

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