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FinalCall.com News
World News
African nations: Western polluters should pay
By Newton Sibanda
Updated Jul 2, 2008 - 10:30:00 AM
African nations: Western polluters should pay for climate change
JOHANNESBURG (IPS/GIN) - The 12th African Ministerial Conference on Environment ended five days of deliberations with calls for developed world polluters to pay poor African countries for the devastating impact of global warming.
“Climate change is the defining human development and security issue of our generation,” said Ewah Eleri, director of the International Center for Energy, Environment and Development in Nigeria. “Those responsible should compensate the people whose livelihoods have been destroyed as a result.”
Mr. Eleri was speaking at a joint June 12 press briefing on the sidelines of the conference by 20 civil society organizations from across the continent. The groups noted Africa contributes least to greenhouse gas emissions, yet millions of Africans were being forced to daily deal with devastating impacts of climate change. Mr. Eleri said mandatory compensation must be paid to Africa by global polluters.
He was particularly critical of the suggestion that African governments should obtain loans to fund climate change adaptation. “You don’t burn someone’s house and then offer them a loan to rebuild it,” said Mr. Eleri.
Omokaro Osayade, project officer for environmental group Friends of the Earth Nigeria agreed. “Just as Africa is emerging from a horrible debt trap, we could be re-indebted by developed countries and told to use loans to deal with the horrible damage that has been done to us. We are opposed to re-indebting of the African people by way of climate adaptation loans.”
The groups called on developed countries to contribute at least one percent of their gross domestic product to the climate change adaptation fund. It is estimated that at least $1 billion is needed to help Africa adapt to climate change.
Environmental groups raised several key issues for African governments to address such as the failure of the Clean Development Mechanism to deliver the benefits promised to African countries. They said the Clean Development Mechanism simply allows rich countries to continue polluting in exchange for funding projects in developing countries.
They also identified a need for investment in affordable renewable energy technologies so that African states can develop their economies with low carbon emissions, and called for precautionary regulations to ensure that the development of biofuels does not threaten food security in Africa.
The formal outcome of the conference was in some ways more circumspect. African environment ministers agreed to establish a work program with clear milestones for the development of a common position. Delegates proposed that an African expert panel on climate change be formed, on which senior officials will work in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Program, the New Economic Partnership for African Development secretariat and the Commission of the African Union to define African focal points for the Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Representatives of government and civil society also agreed—separately—on the importance of developing a common position for Africa at next year’s climate change talks in Copenhagen.
Algeria will host the first meeting of the panel in October 2008; and a special session of environment ministers to adopt a final common position at the end of June 2009 in the margins of the 13th African Union Summit.
The conference proposed that Africa should seek agreement on a future global emissions reduction regime under which all developed countries would by 2020 reduce their emissions to 35-40 percent below 1990 levels, and by 2050 have cut emissions dramatically to between 5 and 10 percent of the 1990 baseline.
South Africa’s environment minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk, who will serve as chair of African Ministerial Conference on Environment for the next two years, said, “We will ensure that we go to the negotiations united because that is what we want as Africans to be united. A lot of countries in Africa have already committed themselves to cutting carbon emissions by 2050. We want developed countries to commit themselves to the 2025 emission targets.”
