TSITICA team host side event at Inequality, Work, and Nature Conference
The Transforming Social Inequalities Through Inclusive Climate Action (TSITICA) project, a joint initiative of ACEIR and ARUA-CD, organised a side event at the 2023 Inequalities, Work and Nature Conference discussing how social inequalities shape climate action and the implementation of the Paris Agreement in sub-Saharan Africa.
In November 2023 South Africa hosted the Inequalities, Work and Nature Conference. The conference is a collaboration between the South African Presidency, the EU, AFD and the African Centre of Excellence for Inequality Research that is hosted by the University of Cape Town. The conference brought together the political, academic, and international development spheres to discuss how the trade-offs between inequality and environmental change are shaping each of the four country’s development pathways, specifically focusing on how to build consensus and make progress on the political front.
Discussing long-term development trajectories that are both ecologically and socially sustainable
The African Centre of Excellence for Inequality Research (ACEIR), a key project partner for TSITICA, hosted several sessions during the conference that showcased research on the strategic dilemmas appearing when designing long-term development trajectories that are both ecologically and socially sustainable.
Sessions included:
- profiling multidimensional vulnerability to climate change impacts
- environment and inequality
- spatial inequalities and ecological transitions
- climate mitigation and inequality
- Inequality diagnostics for the future
Read more about these hosted sessions and watch the recordings
Exploring social inequalities and inclusive climate action
Complementary to these sessions, the Transforming Social Inequalities Through Inclusive Climate Action (TSITICA) project, a joint initiative of ACEIR and ARUA-CD, organised a side event discussing how social inequalities shape climate action and the implementation of the Paris Agreement in sub-Saharan Africa through evidence from Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa.
The session highlighted TSITICA's research on the inequalities in climate governance and the implementation of the Paris Agreement in Africa. Five speakers from the Universities of Ghana, Kenya and South Africa as well as representatives of the African Group of Negotiators to the UN Climate Negotiations presented insights on how the inequalities in the current climate regime shape national responses at multi-scalar levels of climate governance in a panel style discussion, chaired by Britta Rennkamp, co-director of ARUA CD and senior researcher at UCT.
Emily Massawa, associate of ARUA CD, highlighted the trade-offs in reporting to the transparency mechanisms of African countries. Limited access to climate finance and participation, among other factors, has reduced the capacities in reporting to the transparency mechanism in African countries. Kwame Mantey from the University of Ghana presented further findings on the inequalities in representation and influence in the processes of “nationally” determining the contribution to the global climate goals in Ghana. Darlington Sibanda, a post-doctoral researcher at ACDI presented research findings that show priorities towards climate mitigation projects in the three countries with a lack of focus on adaptation and very few climate change interventions addressing poverty and/or inequality. Andrew Marquard, delegate to the African Group of Negotiators and senior researcher at the Energy Systems Research Group at UCT reflected on the distributional inequalities of climate policies under the NDCs, especially in South Africa and its associated risks and challenges.
"As an economist with limited knowledge about the Paris Agreement implementation mechanisms, I learnt a great deal from this interesting and knowledgeable panel of presenters. I was very glad that I attended the session," says Professor David Lam, Department of Economics at the University of Michigan.