Dakar - A first step taken to mobilize civil society

Assessment of the territories’ climate action

2018

Association Climate Chance (Climate Chance)

Since 2015, the Climate Chance Association has been involved in the mobilization in the fight against climate change. It is the only international association that proposes to bring together on an equal footing all non-state actors recognized by the UN. In order to strengthen their action and to give credibility to the climate stabilization scenarios, the Climate Chance Association launched in 2018 a Global Observatory of Non-State Climate Action, which aims to explain the evolution of greenhouse gas emissions, by crossing national public policies, with sectoral dynamics, private actors’ strategies, local public policies and actions undertaken by local actors. In order to analyse the coherence of local public policies, Climat Chance proposes an assessment of « territorial mobilisations » through selected examples of cities and regions. Here, Dakar.

Beyond the mitigation issues, the metropolis of Dakar is confronted with the already proven impacts of climate change, in particular due to the disruption of rainfall patterns which, combined with dysfunctions in terms of development (rainwater evacuation, anarchic housing), regularly leads to catastrophic flooding. Dakar is also the second most polluted capital in Africa with a rate of fine particles seven times higher than the authorized average (WHO 2018). It is in this context that the City of Dakar is currently working on the implementation of its Climate Territorial Energy Plan (PCET) as part of the pilot project of the Covenant of Mayors in Sub-Saharan Africa. The initiative, launched in 2017, is financed by the European Union to the tune of 455 million CFA francs (700,000 euros) over three years.

A MODEL FOR STAKEHOLDER CONSULTATION, DRAWING LESSONS FROM PAST EXPERIENCES

The new PCET to federate civil society around its implementation, is based on a first initiative, when in 2012-2014, the former region of Dakar, in partnership with the Ile-de-France region, carried out its Integrated Territorial Climate Plan (ITCP). As early as 2011, meetings between actors were organized to disseminate a « climate culture » and to enable the appropriation of the ITCP. This plan gave rise to the co-construction of an energy-climate diagnosis, a vulnerability study and nearly 50 action sheets (Dakar, 2013). The abolition of the regional level, with Act III of Decentralization, had then shaken the system, but « the question of the legacy of the dossier by the four departments of the Dakar region or by one of them arises ». (Faye et al. 2013). The PCET still pursues the objective of improving local governance of the ecological transition on the perimeter of the city of Dakar through an approach still centred on the mobilisation of local actors. « The DakClim platform, launched in September 2018, brings together some fifty community organizations, women’s and farmers’ groups, NGOs, universities and businesses for concerted and participatory actions and to disseminate the achievements of the PCET at the regional, national and subregional levels.

STRUCTURED IMPLEMENTATION

The carbon balance of the former Dakar region carried out in 2013 showed 15.8 Mt CO2eq emitted in 2008 (PCTI 2013), a third of which came from the energy production of the Société Africaine de Raffinage (SAR) refinery, Senelec power plants and auto-producers. Next comes transport (17%), which is particularly inflated by air traffic, followed by residential emissions (firewood, air conditioning), cement, etc. In addition to taking into account the region’s economic activities, this balance sheet also accounts for emissions linked to consumption such as imported rice. It is therefore a true «  scope 3  » approach.

Updating the vulnerability study and the carbon balance at the city level will make it possible to identify the levers for reducing emissions specific to Dakar, but also the creation of financing instruments for the implementation of the PCET (project bank and project sheets) as well as a training plan for elected officials and municipal technical services. The aim of this plan will be to boost public and private investment in low-carbon and resilient infrastructure with the aim of reducing the city’s energy bill by 30% and creating 300 green jobs through energy efficiency measures.

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