Integrating Climate Change into the Environmental Assessment Process: What is the Situation in African Francophone Countries?

Abstract

Climate change (CC) in the form of planetary warming has many negative impacts on the development of many countries. Since the ratification of the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), most African Francophone countries have recently incorporated climate change in their planning process done by environmental assessment (EA) or not. EA is a process of estimating and evaluating significant short-term and long-term effects of a program or project on the quality of its location's environment. It also includes identifying ways to minimize, mitigate, or eliminate these effects and compensate their impacts. The aims of this paper is to present the existing level of integration of situation of CC in EA. As part of a literature review, pertinent documents were assessed accompanied by fieldwork related to the COMDEKS (Community Development knowledge for Satoyama Initiative), studies of population vulnerability and resilience linked to climate change in the region and particularly in Cameroon, CAR, Gabon and Togo. Results show that in sub-Saharan Africa in particular, various strategies have employed environmental assessment techniques, including a participatory approach in developing policies, plans and programs. Climate change