AU Development Body Head Looks To Scale Up Partnership With UN On Climate Change

ADDIS ABABA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th February, 2019) The African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) is looking to widen its links with the United Nations (UN) in order to tackle climate change, Emmanuel Nnadozie, the ACBF executive secretary, told Sputnik on Sunday.

His comment came just one day after UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres claimed that Africa could face a "disaster" due the climate change. According to Guterres, Africa could pay a "higher price" over the climate change even though it did not make a great contribution to global warming.

"This is where the ACBF comes into the picture, to accompany African countries when they have such a need to be able to design [capacity] for tackling climate change ... We are already working with the UN. We have a very strong partnership with UNECA [United Nations Economic Commission for Africa] and UNDP [United Nations Development Programme], various UN agencies. We would be more than happy to really scale up this partnership," Nnadozie said on the sidelines of the African Union (AU) Summit, which is currently underway in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Abeba.

Nnadozie specified that while states had to focus both on adaptation and on mitigation in order to tackle the climate change, African countries have been rather focusing on adaptation, since they were not largely responsible for "polluting the world."

"When we say adaptation, what is required? We need the technology, we need the resources, but more importantly you need the expertise and the understanding. People have to understand the seriousness of the impact of climate change on their lives," Nnadozie said.

The ACBF is an AU agency coordinating capacity development programs. Since its establishment in 1991, the foundation has been providing its expertise to facilitate the implementation of national, regional and continental agendas that promote economic growth.