Burkina Faso/COP 29: The stakes of Burkina Faso's participation in this event explained to stakeholders in the Centre-West region

Koudougou, March 28, 2025 - On Friday, March 28, 2025, the conference room of the Centre-Ouest Regional Council hosted a workshop on the conclusions of COP 29, organized by the Burkinabe Red Cross in collaboration with the Permanent Secretariat of the National Council for Sustainable Development (SP/CNDD). The aim of the meeting was to explain the decisions of this international climate conference and their implications for Burkina Faso.

The workshop was attended by the president of the Boulkiemdé provincial Red Cross committee, the representative of the International Federation of Red Cross Societies (IFRC) and the representative of the permanent secretary of the National Council for Sustainable Development (CNDD).ration internationale des sociétés de la Croix-Rouge (FICR) and the representative of the permanent secretary of the Conseil national pour le développement durable (CNDD). Their speeches were followed by lively exchanges between participants from the various structures involved.

The achievements of COP 29 for Burkina Faso

The Baku conference saw a number of significant advances. Among them, the commitment by developed countries to increase their financial support for vulnerable nations now exceeds the symbolic threshold of $100 billion per year. Another notable advance was the clarification of carbon market rules under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, which opens up interesting prospects for Burkina Faso in terms of carbon offset projects.

The Loss and Damage Fund, created at COP 27, should finally become operational. This mechanism is important for African countries like Burkina, which are bearing the full brunt of climate change, with increasingly frequent droughts and floods.

Concrete benefits for the Central West region

The decisions taken in Baku will have direct implications for the Centre-West region. Participants placed particular emphasis on projects to build dams and irrigation systems to cope with recurring droughts. Reforestation programs, essential in the fight against desert encroachment, could also benefit from the new climate funding.

The question of access to international climate funds was the subject of lively debate. Local players stressed the need to simplify procedures to enable municipalities and civil society organizations to benefit more easily from these resources.

Preparing now for COP 30

The workshop also served as a framework for preparing Burkina Faso's participation in the next climate conference, scheduled for 2025 in Belém, Brazil. The organizers stressed the importance of mobilizing all stakeholders in advance, in a concerted manner, to effectively promote national priorities.
The quality of the discussions and the relevance of the contributions were praised by participants and organizers alike. All that remains now is to transform these discussions into concrete actions to strengthen the resilience of the populations of the Centre-Ouest region in the face of climate challenges.

The Burkinabe Red Cross reaffirmed its commitment to supporting this process, in collaboration with all its technical and financial partners. The workshop ended on a hopeful note, with the shared conviction that the decisions taken at COP 29 could mark a turning point in the fight against the effects of climate change in Burkina Faso.

Source: lefaso.net/