By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK | NAIROBI. 11 September 2023 (IDN) — In a first for African leaders grappling with climate issues from droughts to floods, a summit was convened from 4-6 September in Nairobi, Kenya, with a focus on mobilizing the finances desperately needed for extreme weather, conserving natural resources and developing renewable energy.
Co-hosted by the Kenyan government, this was the first time the African Union had summoned its leaders on the issue of climate change.
Over 20,000 participants, including over a dozen heads of state and multilateral organizations, responded to the call by Kenyan President William Ruto, who has spearheaded a new narrative focused on Africa’s switch to clean energy even as the continent reels from climate-related disasters.
On the final day, African political and business leaders, backed by a continent of 1.3 billion people—a population set to double by 2050—called on the world’s biggest emitters of planet-warming greenhouse gases and its richest countries to keep their promises, particularly the unfulfilled pledge of $100 billion annually to developing nations in climate finance, made 14 years ago.
They also called for reform of the world financial system that forces African nations to pay more to borrow money.
The “Nairobi Declaration,” adopted unanimously, calls for Africa’s vast mineral wealth to be processed on the continent.
Further, the Declaration calls on the world’s biggest emitters of planet-warming greenhouse gases and its richest countries to keep their promises, especially the unfulfilled pledge of $100 billion annually to developing nations in climate finance, made 14 years ago.
The summit offered an opportunity to reframe the African continent, which has enormous amounts of clean energy minerals and renewable energy sources, as less of a victim of climate change driven by the world’s biggest economies and more of the solution.
But western calls to invest in the continent in exchange for the ability to keep polluting elsewhere—also known as ‘carbon markets’—has angered some in Africa who prefer to see China, the United States, India, the European Union and others rein in their emissions of greenhouse gases.
Carbon markets are “bogus solutions,” said Pricilla Achakpa, founder of the Nigeria-based Women Environmental Program. Her remarks provided a sharp reminder that all Africans do not support richer countries using the continent’s green spaces to offset continued polluting at home.
Preparing for COP28
The voluntary carbon market, which remains dominant in Africa, has been plagued by integrity and transparency concerns.
Environmental groups are concerned it is a free pass to keep polluting. “We reject forced solutions on our land,” Achakpa told summit participants on the event’s final day. She called on the so-called “Global North” to “remove yourself from the perspective of the colonial past.”
The summit is part of Africa’s preparation for the next United Nations climate change conference, also known as COP28, which is scheduled to take place in Dubai from 30 November to 12 December.
“In Africa, we can be a green industrial hub that helps other regions achieve their net zero strategies by 2050,” Ruto said at the summit. “Unlocking the renewable energy resources that we have in our continent is not only good for Africa, it is good for the rest of the world.”
Efforts at the summit to up investment in renewables were given a boost as the Africa Development Bank (AfDB) announced $23 billion in financing “for green growth, mitigation and adaptation efforts” to the Africa Climate Fund for the next 27 years. The United Arab Emirates also pledged $4.5 billion, while Germany committed $482.31 million to help with the development of green energy infrastructure. [IDN-InDepthNews]
Photo: Group photo of African heads of state. Credit: Africa Renewal
IDN is the flagship agency of the Non-profit International Press Syndicate.
