8^th December 2018. Katowice. The EU-UNEP Africa LEDS project held its 3^rd steering committee meeting (PSC) at the backdrop of COP24 in Katowice. A major highlight was in the country presentations and expressions of appreciation for the project intervention and what it had done in buttressing low emissions development.

 Country representatives summarized the project performance in their respective countries and how it was demonstrating value for money. A consistent thread was how the project is maximising existing legacy investments by countries towards the low emissions development pathway that unlocks tangible socioeconomic benefits. For example, under component 1, Cameroon presented how existing solar & micro-hydro investments are now being maximised to power cassava processing resulting in more incomes for the community & creating invectives for more investment in this path.

Côte d’Ivoire presented on how existing rice farms are being maximised to become centres of waste-to-energy & biofertilizer for more incomes & better carbon mitigation. Ghana and Zambia presented on the investments made in getting ready data to inform long term optimal low emissions investment policy decisions. 

These presentations were followed by a question and answer session for clarifications that resulted in soundbites of success. Among notable soundbites was made by Cameroon. Accordingly, the PSC was informed that based on the forecasting done by the project model and leveraging data gleaned from the ground demonstration, in the context of implementing the country’s strategic vision, the vision 2035, expanding the low emissions trajectory of greening Cameroons agro-value chains using energy, transport & ICT across all the 5 agro-ecological zones of the country would result in creation of 13million jobs relative to a business as usual scenario of 8million jobs. This information it was noted is critical to incentivise policy investment toward the low emissions development pathway.  This achievement provided a talking point for the PSC on the need to raise the project’s profile using political platforms – where the policy teams being set up to integrate project products into decision structures were noted as crucial.

The PSC chair also remarked on the projects return on investment by noting the strategic achievements made especially in bridging science-policy-action gaps that have been a significant gap area in transitioning the continent to the low emissions development pathway.  The chair noted that the project provides the tools to bridge these gaps. She noted that considering the need to increase climate action ambition globally as underscored in the IPCC and the 2018 UN Environment Emissions Gap Report, this project is timely in equipping countries with structure for optimal investments in the low emissions development pathway.

The European Commission, who are the project donor, thanked and congratulated UN Environment and partners for leading implementation thus far. The EC also underscored the need to strengthen communication & visibility of the project’s successes and demonstration of Return on Investment for the EC.

Present at the PSC were country representatives from Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Mozambique and Zambia, the EC representative, representatives from technical partners – National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) / LEDS GP, the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and the Center for Climate Strategies (CCS). The UN Environment, the project managers, were represented by the PSC chair – who is the UN Environment Africa Regional Director and Representative and the PSC secretary.

Decisions taken by the PSC were archived in the PSC minutes to be circulated to all members.