Leading Angolans from the public and private sectors travelled to an African forum on climate change policy, carbon markets and finance to gain experience in new economic directions that Angola must take to reduce its dependence on oil – one of the highest in the world.

The mission to the African Carbon Forum 2018 in Nairobi, Kenya, from 11–13 April was part of UNCTAD’s ongoing National Green Export Review of Angola, which is itself part of the EU-UNCTAD Joint Programme for Angola: Train for Trade II.

The programme for Angola was officially launched on April 11 in Luanda, Angola, in the presence of UNCTAD Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi and senior officials from Angola and the European Union.

Delegates to Nairobi included representatives of businesses and institutions that are active promoters of non-oil sectors:

• Elizabete Dias dos Santos, chairman of DISIDE, a holding group controlling 37 companies primarily in the agribusiness sector, including fish, poultry, animal feed and egg production

• Luis Diogo, director-general of pan-African group FABRIMETAL group, which in Angola runs metal recycling operations, making construction materials made of 95% of metallic waste

• Josefa Leonel Correia Sacko, African Union Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, who is an Angolan national

• Giza Gaspar Martins, a key climate negotiator for Angola

Sectors the participants represent – fish and metal recycling – are non-oil sectors that both create jobs and promote positive environmental stewardship, and thus good examples of possible areas into which the Angolan economy could diversify.

The public sector representatives have strategic positions in development of non-carbon-intensive sectors in Angola and across Africa, and contributed to high-level debates at the forum and to future training related to the National Green Export Review of Angola.

Participation in the pan-African event, grounded in the business of decarbonization, exposed the Angolan representatives from public and private sectors to new ideas for upscaling their work.

This has special relevance in 2018, in which circular economy practices have been selected as a key theme of technical examination meetings leading to the COP24 climate conference in Katowice, Poland in December.

The Angolan participants joined a Regional Technical Expert Meeting workshop on 13 April, which was organized by the Technology Executive Committee of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Climate Technology Centre and Network, and UNCTAD.