Bottom-up climate legislation in Cameroon
To implement the Paris climate change agreement at the national level, countries will have to review existing governance frameworks and develop new rules and regulations. This may result in “top-down” legislation that does not reflect the concerns of particularly climate vulnerable groups and communities. There are opportunities to take more “bottom-up” approaches, as demonstrated in this new report. Under the umbrella of the African Climate Legislation Initiative (ACLI), The Cameroon Climate Change Working Group organised several stakeholder consultation meetings in Cameroon, with a view to developing a demand-oriented law review and development approach that values the perspectives of affected people and has the potential to be applied in different jurisdictions. This report summarises the consultation process, outcomes and possible next steps. It does not offer generally applicable findings for Cameroon, but presents a general approach that – with the necessary resources and time – could be employed to organise a societal dialogue on a larger representative scale. The meetings had a standardised format (including focus group discussions and a survey) to elicit the views of participants on priority areas for legislative initiatives on climate change in Cameroon and on the specific features of such interventions.