Madrid (© 2019 Afriquinfos)-Stakeholder in the negotiations at the 25th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention (COP25) opened this Monday, December 2 in Madrid, Spain and this to December 13, West Africa is determined to make its voice heard and play a major role in global climate action, at this meeting Climate Change will bring together all the stakeholders of the Paris Agreement for a continuation of international negotiations with a view to strengthening actions in for mitigation and adaptation to climate change .

“ACTING TOGETHER” is the leitmotif of ECOWAS, which intends to activate regional levers within the framework of a regional climate strategy to facilitate the implementation of the Paris Agreement. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) will have to present its progress and prospects as a regional institution in coordinating and supporting the implementation of the Paris Agreement.

ECOWAS takes advantage of the primacy of community law over national law to advance the Paris Agreement. As a regional institution, with the support of the GCCA+ West Africa (EU funding – ACP Secretariat) and “Climate Changes” (Swedish cooperation) projects, ECOWAS will share its experience and ambitions to support the implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), described in the report "Implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement in West Africa: State of play of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and capacity building needs. It will testify to its vision and the role of regional institutions in the implementation of the Paris Agreement in order to promote synergies and potential partnerships at the regional level.

In collaboration with other regional organizations (CILSS, UEMOA, IFDD), two side-events will be held on December 9 and December 13. The latter will welcome the presence of Mr. Sékou SANGARE, Commissioner in charge of Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources of ECOWAS and will benefit from the contribution of the Central African Forest Commission (COMIFAC) which has set up a working group on the climate. ECOWAS will notably present the elements of the roadmap for the development of its regional climate strategy, launched in September 2019.

ECOWAS aims to boost the flow of climate finance for the benefit of West Africa. According to the aforementioned report on the implementation of the Paris Agreement in West Africa, the cumulative financial need for the 17 countries of the region (ECOWAS area, Chad and Mauritania), necessary for the implementation of their climate commitments by 2030 amounts to at least 337 billion USD. Faced with this observation.

This is why, during COP25, it will organize a side-event on December 10 at 10:00 a.m. (Madrid) in the Ivory Coast pavilion to present its West African initiative for climate-smart agriculture (WAICSA) supported by the Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance (The Lab): a blended finance instrument, housed within the ECOWAS Regional Fund for Agriculture and Food (FRAA). This side-event will be an opportunity to present the financial mechanism for the benefit of agricultural actors in the region and to arouse the interest of potential investors, the mobilization objective being set at 80 million USD over the period 2020-2027.

In parallel with the operationalization of its regional financial mechanism, ECOWAS, with the support of the GCCA+ WA project, has launched a mapping of multilateral climate financial flows in West Africa, in order to also take advantage of global climate finance. . This analysis will be presented in particular during the joint IGO side-event "Mobilizing climate finance for the implementation of NDCs in West Africa and in the Francophonie: Challenges and prospects", which will be held on December 6.