But the denominator from the speakers and the dialogue was climate financing. Through the Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi, President William Ruto was able to rally the continental leadership to speak about historical and current injustices, whose consequences are being manifested by the disproportional impacts of climate change.
In his address at the Parliamentarians Dialogue, National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula noted in his “hard facts” and recalled the Berlin Conference for the Scramble of Africa/ Congo Conference highlighted some of the historical injustices that have placed Africa where it is today.
Wetang’ula traced the destruction of Africa, in particular, the Congo, to the scramble for and partition of Africa, in which the continent was shared and at times given as gifts to Kings in Europe at the expense of inhabitant communities.
“They shared Africa into many countries and ended up giving the Congo as a gift,The personal possession to the King of Belgium. And there started the destruction of our continent. They embarked on violently uprooting communities and drawing boundaries separating them. They then built railways running from the inland to the coast everywhere. There is no railway in Africa that was built from one landlocked country to another," he said.
“They embarked on looting our wealth. The entire Western World was built on African sweat, wealth starting with slave trade, slavery, colonialism, imperialism and currently unequal terms of trade where we give them raw materials and take back finished products at 10, 20 times original cost."
Wetang’ula said Africa pollutes the least, yet suffers most. And those who pollute have treated Africa at times with extreme dishonour.
His speech was important because it gives a clear demonstration of why Africa is raising its voice against advanced countries even when they admit they are the main polluters, as US Climate Envoy John Kerry did at the Summit, they don’t want to take responsibility and pay for it.
Instead, they want to lecture and invite Africa to ‘partner’ in finding solutions, as they continue to extract its resources.
“We are not only interested in extracting resources, we want to partner with you. We want to invest in skills, share the technologies with you,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the conference.
It is, therefore, imperative that the Africa Climate Summit offered a platform for the continent to make it clear that the existing arrangement won’t work and call for the West to honour its pledges.
And while Rwanda President Paul Kagame said blame game cannot continue, or President Ruto saying there is no Global South and Global North, the responsibility must fall where it should.
Sierra Leonne President Julius Bio put it very well, “The responsibility for climate adaptation and mitigation is not and should not be evenly distributed. Expecting countries such as Sierra Leone to bear the brunt of a crisis they scarcely contributed to without robust support from primary emitters – the industrial giants – is fundamentally unjust.
Former UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon expressed his disappointment about political leaders from developed countries who have not kept their promise to fund climate adaptation in developing countries amounting to $100 billion.
CoP28 President Sulta Al Jaber called on the donor countries to honourthe $100 billion Paris Agreement climate pledges made more than a decade ago. He further called on the advanced countries to replenish the green climate fund, adding that he will continue to push the issue.
At the 15th Conference of Parties (COP15) in Copenhagen in 2009, developed countries committed to a collective goal of mobilising $100 billion by 2020 for climate action in developing countries, promising meaningful mitigation actions and transparency on implementation.
Additionally, Al Jaber demanded donors should double adaptation finance by 2025, and urged all parties to transfer the global goals on adaptation from theory and text to real actions and tangible results.
“What was promised in Sharm el Sheikh must be delivered in Dubai. No longer accept pledges and announcements without clear roadmaps of implementation,” Al Jaber said.
A new global climate pact – the Sharm el-Sheikh Implementation Plan – was agreed at the COP27 summit, and included a historic commitment by richer nations to give money – Loss and Damage fund – to developing nations to help them recover from the damage and economic losses caused by ongoing climate change impacts, such as destroyed homes, flooded land and lost income from dried-out crops and livestock deaths, among other losses.
The UAE Special Envoy for Climate Change also called for an upgrade of the global financial architecture, which he said was built for a “complete different era”, urging international financial institutions to lower debt burdens, which continue hurting Africa’s economic development, amidst climate change impacts.
A number of pledges were also made, with Kerry announcing $30 million to accelerate climate-resilient food security efforts across Africa, while Al Jaber announced a $4.5 billion initiative between UAE and Africa aiming at unlocking the continent’s clean energy capacity.
The African Development Bank pledged $25 billion, while the EU committed 1 billion euros.
But as Tanzania President Suluhu Hassan said, African states must raise their voice on the establishment and capitalisation of a special fund for the continent.
“Contributions and pledges by the advanced countries have to say what percentage of these pledges goes to Africa. Not just blanket pledges,” President Suluhu said in her statement.
The honest conversations should add the momentum to push for climate justice at COP28 in Dubai by ensuring Africa’s climate demands are respected and honoured.
