Final statement

The COMIFAC Working Group on Climate Change (CWGCC) workshop for the sub-region preparation of COP29 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held in Douala, Cameroon from 17 to 19 October 2024.

This workshop was organised by the Executive Secretariat of the Central African Forest Commission (COMIFAC) with the support of the German Cooperation via the GIZ project, “Regional Support to COMIFAC.”  It mainly aimed to elaborate joint views of COMIFAC member states on different matters on COP29 agenda and the related meetings and assess the state of progress of the NDC implementation by COMIFAC

 members.

About 20 participants from the following country took part both in person and via video conference:  Angola, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, DR Congo, and Chad. They represented ministers of forestry and /or Environment, CWGCC Focal Points, NDC Coordinators and of FVC and COMIFAC National Coordinators.  Equally present were representatives of REPAR, REPALEAC and REJEFAC, as well as representatives of CBFP Facilitation, GIZ and resource persons.

The opening ceremony was marked by two speeches: one by Dr Dany POKEM, CBFP Technical Coordinator, and the other by Dr Hervé Martial MAIDOU, COMIFAC Executive Secretary.

The ceremonial phase was followed by the installation of the executive committee, composed as follows:

President: Ms. Brigitte MBUYI BILONDA, National Coordinator COMIFAC/DRC;

Deputy President: Mr. MBAINDIGUIM NASSON, Chad NDC Focal Point;

1^st Rapporteur: Mrs. Mariam AMOUDOU SIDI, Adaptation Research Officer, CC-RCA;

2^nd Rapporteur: Mr. Parfait DIHOUKAMBA, from REPALEAC;

Deputy President: Mr MBAINDIGUIM NASSON, Chad NDC Focal Point;

1^st Rapporteur: Mrs. Mariam AMOUDOU SIDI, Adaptation Research Officer, CC-RCA;

2^nd Rapporteur: Mr. Parfait DIHOUKAMBA, from REPALEAC.

Deliberations continued with the presentation of the workshop objectives and the adoption of the agenda.

This was followed by a series of plenary presentations on the following topics:

- Decoding the proposed concept notes for the Tropical Forest Mechanism (TFM) and the Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF) ;

- Presentation by countries of their process for evaluating, revising and submitting NDCs;

- Study on setting up a loss and damage fund

These presentations were followed by talks which highlighted a number of challenges linked to : (i) raising climate ambitions of COMIFAC countries as part of the preparation for NDC 3.0 ; (ii) ensuring optimum participation by COMIFAC and its member states at COP 29 in Baku/Azerbaijan; (iii) the topics on the COP 29 agenda that are of interest to the sub-region.

The workshop continued group works whose mandate included examining the following priority topics on issues of interest to the sub-region to be negotiated at COP 29:

- the ambitions of the various countries in the sub-region with regard to the revision of their NDC;

- the Tropical Forest Mechanism (TFM) and Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF) initiatives proposed by Brazil;

- proposals from countries in the Central African sub-region for the implementation of the Loss and Damage Fund.

After the plenary presentations and fruitful talks, participants made the following recommendations:

To the Executive Secretariat of the COMIFAC

- To propose to the Member States a policy brief on the Loss and Damage Fund;

- to propose to Member States a policy brief on the Tropical Forest Mechanism (TFM) and Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF) initiatives and other existing mechanisms;

- organising high-level consultation to ensure that Member States take ownership of the policy brief.

To Member States:

- to carry out studies leading to initiatives adapted to the context of the Central African sub-region, compared with the Tropical Forest Mechanism (TFM) and Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF) initiatives;

-submit realistic and feasible NDC 3.0s;

- capitalise on the political brief proposed by COMIFAC to negotiate the implementation of the Loss and Damage Fund at COP 29.

At the end of the deliberations, participants expressed their sincere gratitude to the Government of the Republic of Cameroon for the facilities provided to ensure the success of these meetings. They equally thanked the German Cooperation, through the GIZ project “Regional support to COMIFAC”, for its technical and financial support in organising this workshop.

Done in Douala, October 19, 2024

Participants