[LIBREVILLE] Africa must seize the opportunity of the UN climate conference COP27 to address climate injustice and pursue green energy solutions, urged political leaders gathered in Gabon.
Africa is being forced to pay for the mistakes of countries whose carbon emissions fuel climate change and prevent the continent’s sustainable growth, the high-level meeting of Africa Climate Week (ACW2022) heard.
Last week’s meeting (September 2) highlighted how the continent suffers the worst effects of climate change, despite being responsible for less than four percent of the world’s carbon emissions.
The conference is part of the regional climate weeks 2022 series leading up to, COP27, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, in November.
“Africa is at the forefront of the climate crisis but it is also an area with great potential for action.”
Inger Andersen, United Nations Environment Programme
Egypt’s foreign affairs minister Sameh Shoukry said: “Africa is obliged, with limited financial means and a small level of support, to spend about two to three percent of its GDP per year to adapt to this effects. [This is] a disproportionate responsibility that cannot be described as anything other than ‘climate injustice.’ “
Shoukry, the COP27 president-elect, added: “African governments and all other African voices from civil society, youth, women’s groups … implementation.”
According to Shoukry, ACW2022 reinforces the need for urgent actions including the adoption of ambitious mitigation measures to ensure that the goal of keeping the global average temperature increase at 1.5 degrees Celsius can be achieved. .
“The geopolitical realities and energy crisis facing the world open the door for the withdrawal of climate commitments, and we must do everything to ensure that this does not happen,” he explained. “COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh will strive to continue the important dialogue needed to move from ambition to action.”
Ovais Sarmad, deputy executive secretary for climate change at the UN, said: “Science tells us that if we continue with business as usual, the average global temperature will rise by an average of more than three degrees Celsius in end of the century.”
Inger Andersen, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme, said that Africa was strategically chosen to host COP27.
“Africa is at the forefront of the climate crisis but it is also an area with great potential for action,” Andersen explained. “The COP in Egypt represents a unique opportunity to accelerate the implementation of effective climate solutions with renewables and increased efficiency. We can reduce emissions and solve energy poverty and air pollution.”
Andersen said that using nature-based solutions can help restore ecosystems and improve resilience against issues such as zoonotic diseases, floods, and heatwaves.
Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba has called on Africa to take climate change seriously by leading the search to find answers as rising sea levels threaten African megacities such as the Cape Town, Dakar, Lagos and Libreville.
Adapting to climate change will benefit African economies, the meeting heard.
“In Africa, we need to remember that every dollar spent on adaptation generates two to ten dollars in economic benefits,” explained Mahmoud Mohieldin, the COP27 high-level climate champion.
Abdoulaye Seck, the World Bank’s country director for Gabon, urged African countries to agree on the main priorities to solve the climate crisis.
“This requires ramping up climate finance and at-scale investments to protect and develop natural capital and build the resilience of vulnerable people and communities against the impacts of climate change in Africa through a collective effort,” said Seck.
This piece was produced by SciDev.Net’s Sub-Saharan Africa English desk.
