A landmark climate summit has kicked off in Kenya capital as of yesterday 4th of September, 2023. There are more than 30,000 delegates and over 40 African heads of state in Nairobi for a 3 day summit. We stand together as African activists to emphasize that climate change must cease to be a huge obstacle to the development of the continent. We are responsible for only 3% of the greenhouse gas emissions which have caused the climate crisis, yet our continent is heating up faster than anywhere else. Unfortunately there has been little success in attracting climate finance to enable our communities to deal with the daily climate change issues.
“Africa could be entirely renewable energy self-sufficient but currently only 3% of global energy investment is made here”, said William Ruto, the Kenyan president. If you look at what we have got on thermal, solar, wind and hydro energy, we are a powerhouse awaiting to be unleashed. We demand that Africa is placed at the center of global climate conservations. We are united as Africans to find and figure out our solutions. The African vision must be at the center of climate global solutions. We must see green growth, not just as a climate imperative, but also as a foundation of multi-billion dollar economic opportunities, that Africa and the world is primed to capitalize on. The fact is that the African potential for climate mitigation and resilience is limitless.
Africa can be the best ground for carbon credits or offsets, which aim in reduction and removal of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gasses to compensate for emissions made elsewhere. These strategic financial instruments can be generated by projects placed in our continent to curb emissions such as planting trees, or switching to cleaner fuels. The Kenyan president is showing a great example to the rest of the African leaders in the way forward to climate action solutions through devising several unique adaptation finance instruments. Other African states must as well earnestly push for ways of claiming for climate finance, especially ahead of the upcoming COP28.
Ironically, the oil-producing UAE has been pushing itself as a climate financing leader in Africa. Therefore, some activists think carbon credit could be a pretext for continued pollution by wealthier countries and corporations, who should instead pay for their “carbon debt”. Through direct compensation to African countries and debt relief upon our economies. Although these carbon credits could be an important tool, a lack of commonly agreed standards is undermining their integrity and diminishing value. Yesterday, this caused many African climate activists to oppose and campaign against the climate finance approach at the African Climate Summit, so we marched in downtown Nairobi to protest.
Despite what happened yesterday, we still agree with “Patricia Scotland, secretary-general of the Commonwealth of 56 countries, who said, ” The private sector really remains an untapped opportunity that now must be seized.”
At Agape Earth Coalition we know that Africa has a vast potential to contribute to climate solutions, beginning from our enormous renewable energy resource, young workforce and natural assets.
Investing in these resources can deal with some of the daunting challenges upon our people like hundreds of millions of people who currently have no access to electricity and hamstrung mounting debt costs.
We are urgently demanding for an inclusive climate action and Adaptation finance practical to the African continent.
