Context:
Azerbaijan and Africa face climate challenges that are similar to a great extent. Access to water, management of ecosystems to guarantee quality pasture and inclusion of communities at the fringes of development are but some of the shared challenges. Equally, there are similarities in approaches for addressing the challenges, for instance, community-based water management initiatives to improve water use efficiency and conservation and construction of small-scale water reservoirs, rainwater harvesting systems, and the rehabilitation of traditional irrigation channels. In both Africa and Azerbaijan’s rural regions, overgrazing is a significant environmental issue and there are significant community-led efforts in adopting sustainable pasture management practices aimed at improved livestock productivity, and reducing the impacts of climate change on pastoral communities. All these actions fall within the domain of adaptation actions, the priority climate action for Africa. Whereas these call for localized climate actions that are responsive to national circumstances, at the global level action must centre on securing the Global Goal on Adaptation and its anchoring through a bold sub-goal in the New Collective Quantified Goal.
The opportunity to build momentum on this explicit request is now offered by COP29 in strengthening a strong case for Eastern Europe working together with Africa towards pragmatic actions to actualize the ambition of the GGA. The growing understanding between Africa and Europe that top-down approaches are insufficient to address the realities of climate change is an important point to pick up in this conversation. Shifting and accelerating support towards Locally Led Climate Action (LLCA) offers a promising alternative, where community-driven solutions are prioritized to address the unique challenges, each region faces but this requires strong political leadership which the COP29 Presidency can offer.
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