Climate change and associated scarcity of natural resources – especially energy, water, and forest products – has triggered a concerted global response. Many state and non-state actors have devised strategies and programs to bring about positive change, for instance more efficient consumption and production behaviors or other actions, which would enable us to cope with these challenges and ensure sustainability in our development plans.
Last week, the Green Growth Knowledge Platform (GGKP) and Africa LEDS Partnership organized back-to back workshops from 1-3 April 2014 in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.
The workshops, with a focus on green growth in Africa drew a wide range of participants, including: academics, policy makers, implementers, and international capacity building experts.
Both of these were workshops were unique in terms of their design for delivery of the content. Participants shared their knowledge and experience with respect to the status of climate change strategies, action plans and green growth policies and initiatives. However, the breakout sessions were the hallmark innovation, designed as interactive capacity building sessions.
Some of the main lessons from these workshops include:
1.There is an added value in convening meetings on emerging concepts like Green Economy, with a focus on the whole of Africa.
2. Transitioning to a Green Economy is a process that will take time despite the existence of good policies and supporting legislative procedures. In Kenya, for instance, practices promoted as “green” like renewable energy technologies (geothermal, biogas, wind and solar energy as well as energy efficient wood fuel devices) have in fact been promoted since early 1980s but with a focus on addressing the energy crises. So, a critical assessment of these new concepts can be identified as old practice with new perspective. However, it is to be appreciated that advances in technology and innovation that have been produced during the last 30 years have resulted in massive improvements on the use of natural resources at different tiers; especially in the energy sector where energy efficient devices like cook-stoves, bulbs and efficient motor vehicle engines have been promoted.
3. Climate change and associated dwindling natural resources and productive materials has triggered conceptualization of concepts that can propel improvement of resource productivity like green economy, resource efficiency and cleaner production.
Overall I felt these workshops demonstrated the high value of regional sharing of knowledge and experience on emerging concepts and their application at local level.