CoM SSA signatories receive support to kick-start their climate action planning

Last year the CoM SSA Technical Helpdesk launched a selection of tailored deep dive technical support services to assist signatories on their climate action journeys. Over the past few months, several signatories have benefitted from these services, receiving the support they needed to progress in developing their Sustainable Energy Access and Climate Action Plans (SEACAPs).

 

In order to ensure signatories have a well-informed base knowledge of climate change, one of the services offered by the CoM SSA Technical Helpdesk is a climate sensitisation workshop which discusses basic climate change concepts with participants, for example, the carbon cycle as well as the difference between climate and weather. By including historic data to show how temperature and rainfall in the respective region have changed over time, each workshop is tailored to be context specific for the signatory. The workshop looks at projections and includes participatory exercises to learn about the participants’ personal experiences of climate change impacts and how these have influenced their day-to-day lives and the municipality, as a whole.

 

To provide a broader picture and show how a municipality’s climate action plan can be informed by national climate planning, the workshop also looks at the country’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and other national government climate plans. Using lived experiences of climate change impacts that are shared by the participants, local meteorological data, as well as knowledge of the national government’s plans, the Technical Helpdesk and the CoM SSA signatory local government forge a way forward.

 

The climate sensitisation workshop was provided to CoM SSA signatory, Association Mauritanienne des Communes du Sud (AMCS), which is comprised of 10 municipalities in the South of Mauritania, including Rosso which is the biggest municipality in the region. This workshop was conducted in hybrid format, with 10 mayors meeting in-person and others participating online. When this interactive workshop was presented to the signatory, Monrovia, three representatives from the national government participated. The presence of the national government allowed the CoM SSA Technical Helpdesk to bridge the gap between local and national government at the start of Monrovia’s SEACAP journey and aid in developing a partnership between these two levels of government which is key to implementing climate actions. The national government representatives also provided valuable information about policies and climate actions being rolled out at a national level. This approach aids in aligning local action with the targets and plans developed at the national level.

 

Overall, more than 20 city and national government officials have been trained in climate sensitisation workshops by the Technical Helpdesk. After participating in the workshops these signatories are now moving ahead in the development of their SEACAPs and will soon participate in the SEACAP conceptualisation workshop which will delve deeper into the details and actions needed to draft a SEACAP.

 

In addition to these introductory workshops, other signatories have received support from the Technical Helpdesk in developing their Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventories (GHGEI), a key baseline report which identifies the major sources of the local authority’s greenhouse gas emissions and will therefore inform its climate actions. Signatories were also offered a workshop on GHGEI, the recording can be accessed here on the CoM SSA Signatories Portal, if you are a signatory and have not registered yet, please click here to register on the portal.

 

This support is made possible through funding from the European Union,  the German Federal Ministry for Economic Development and Cooperation (BMZ) and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID).  

 

While the Technical Helpdesk cannot provide direct financial support to signatories, through the deep dive support, it can offer services like tailored training workshops, tools and templates for SEACAP development, data quality assessments, and support on project concept development. Please contact the Technical Helpdesk at technicalhelpdesk@comssa.org.