We local and regional elected representatives of Africa, gathered this Thursday, November 22, 2018 in Marrakech, Kingdom of Morocco, within the framework of the First edition of the Climate Day during the Eighth edition of the Africities Summit organized in preparation for the United Nations Climate Conference COP24 to be held from December 03 to December 14, 2018 in Katowice, Republic of Poland,

Aware of the alert renewed by the international scientific community and concerned by the urgency highlighted again in the IPCC report of October 08, 2018 concerning the effects of global warming of 1.5 degrees compared to the pre-industrial era,

Noting that this IPCC report has emphasized the need for an extremely fast and ambitious transitions, especially in the areas of energy, transport, construction and agriculture to avoid exceeding 1.5 degrees of anthropogenic global warming, and that in order to achieve this goal the world must achieve carbon neutrality by 2050,

Noting that the reality of the current commitments made by the States Parties to the UNFCCC in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) does not make it possible to fit within a trajectory that is compatible with an increase in temperatures below 1.5 degrees Celsius or 2 degrees Celsius by 2100, which are the goals of the Paris Agreement on Climate, but that, on the contrary, current trajectories direct us towards a warming around 3 degrees, with catastrophic consequences for Humanity, with a particularly devastating and even existential impact for African societies,

Recalling the need to learn from the limitations of the Kyoto Protocol and in particular the fact that local and subnational communities and governments were not included as participatory stakeholders, which significantly delayed the global establishment of a virtuous moment in terms of local mobilization, which is nonetheless necessary and efficient,

Emphasizing the fact that the bulk of the global climate policy decisions are made and applied at the territorial level, making local authorities and actors the driving force in the overall transformation towards a green economy, sustainable development and a climate-resilient and environment-friendly human civilization;

Recalling the recent commitments and declarations of local and regional elected representatives in favor of the Climate, including, among others   : the Declaration of the Summit of Cities and Regions of Africa in Yamoussoukro , Côte d’Ivoire (June 2015)   ; the Declaration of the World Climate Summit and Territories in Lyon, France (July 2015)   ;  the Declaration of Local and Regional Elected Officials for Climate’s Summit in Paris, France (December 2015)   ; the Declaration of local and Regional Elected Officials of Africa adopted during the Preparatory Forum for COP 22 held in Cotonou, Benin ( September 2016)   ; the Road Map for the Action of the Cities and Regions of the World for Climate adopted at COP 22 in Marrakech , Morocco (November 2016)   ;  the Declaration of Elected Officials  of Local and Regional Africa adopted at the Summit Climate Chance held in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire (June 2018)   ; and the Declaration of Action World Summit on Climate adopted in San Francisco, USA (July 2018)   ;

Declare the following: