{"id":358,"date":"2018-02-28T07:42:21","date_gmt":"2018-02-28T07:42:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ipcc-wg3.ac.uk\/Blog\/?p=358"},"modified":"2019-11-05T11:35:07","modified_gmt":"2019-11-05T11:35:07","slug":"meet-the-ipcc-interview-with-youba-sokona-vice-chair-of-the-ipcc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.ipcc-wg3.ac.uk\/index.php\/2018\/02\/28\/meet-the-ipcc-interview-with-youba-sokona-vice-chair-of-the-ipcc\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the IPCC: Interview with Youba Sokona, Vice-Chair of the IPCC"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Youba Sokona has over 35 years of experience addressing energy, environment and sustainable development issues in Africa. He is currently Special Advisor on Sustainable Development at the South Centre<\/a>, an Intergovernmental Organization of Developing Countries intended to meet the need for analysis of development problems and experience. Until May 2012, he was Coordinator of the African Climate Policy Centre<\/a> at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. He was the Executive Secretary of the Sahara and Sahel Observatory<\/a> (OSS) in Tunis, Tunisia from 2004 to 2010. He has been involved with the IPCC since 1990, first serving as a Lead Author, then as Co-Chair of IPCC Working Group III for the Fifth Assessment Report. He was elected Vice-Chair of the IPCC in October 2015. <\/em><\/p>\n

What is your research focus and how does that feed into your work at the IPCC?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My research vision focuses on energy and development issues in Africa. Access to modern energy services is the fundamental prerequisite for development. Africa has urgent needs to address \u201cmodern energy access\u201d through a rapid and wide scale expansion of both electricity generation capacity \u2013 on-grid and off-grid \u2013 and the supply of other forms of energy.<\/p>\n

\"\"However, jumpstarting and operationalizing a meaningful energy transition that addresses the development needs of African countries while responding to the challenge of climate change is a major challenge. Many Developing Countries are struggling to address a wide range of pressing needs such as nutrition, food, water, education, health, and reducing poverty. They are trying to tackle these issues while adequately combating climate change with limited capacity, resources, and finance.<\/p>\n

\"\"The challenge is especially daunting for rural areas in Africa given the isolated nature of rural settlements. This requires serious assessments of technology needs, innovations in finance and institutional development, and the design of appropriate policy instruments.<\/p>\n

Making development more sustainable requires relying on sustainable energy systems. One issue that features increasingly in this objective is the need to grow in a carbon-constrained world. In this context, a number of African countries have shown ambition and creativity over the past few years in the way they intend to meet this objective.<\/p>\n

Pursuing a low carbon development strategy is therefore central to development plans, and this will continue to be the case in the future.<\/p>\n

What do you think is the greatest challenge in meeting the long-term aim of the Paris Agreement?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meeting the long-term aim of the Paris Agreement requires deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions without further delay. This, as already documented in previous IPCC assessment reports, will entail challenging technological, economic, institutional, cooperation, and behavior change. The longer we wait to take action, the greater the challenge will be, and the more it could risk compromising prospects for adaptation.<\/p>\n

Achieving this requires a concerted, worldwide and ambitious set of actions, as well as a high degree of coherence among the fragmented policy areas, instruments, and tools within which different countries operate.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Workers in Yunnan Province, China.<\/p><\/div>\n

It also implies finding solutions to address the aim of the Paris Agreement, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the national priorities of individual countries. Indeed, climate policies can be more effective when consistently embedded within broader strategies designed to make national and regional development paths more sustainable.<\/p>\n

Ensuring that we meet nations\u2019 short-term needs at national, regional and local levels, as well as the long-term aim of the Paris Agreement, is highly complex but absolutely necessary.<\/p>\n