Dark clouds gather on key climate change conference

The much-publicised climate conference in Egypt did not record significant gains, claim activists.

They say the effects of climate  change remain a big challenge in the Horn of Africa, which the conference did not address.

According to civil society groups, contrary to expectations of the continent on the 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27), millions of Africans are still reeling from weather-related miseries which are affecting their growth.

The executive director of Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance, (PACJA), Mwenda Mithika, says civil society organisations left Egypt a disappointed lot.

 “We came with the hope that the foregoing discussions in the year ahead of COP27 would inform new solutions to mitigate risks; but nothing tangible emerged,’’ he claims. Mithika says people facing starvation in the Horn of Africa because of climate-related droughts, more so women in Nigeria facing floods, got no long-lasting solution from the forum.

 Delayed until 2024

Similar concerns also affect families buttered by cyclones in southern Africa, which for years have been waiting for signals on action from the international community. “The delay could continue because decisions on loss and damage have, yet again, been delayed to 2024,” he argues in a press statement sent to newsrooms.

Climate activists say they left the Egypt UN climate gathering without seeing any direct commitment by major industrial polluters on what they would do to curb the effects of pollution on the ecology.

 “Why should we be meeting every year in these COPs forums that end up with no substantial outcomes?” tweeted Tracy Sony, a gender specialist from Botswana, in her web portal.

She says the most pressing issue is lack of clear linkages between yearly plans, programmes and discussions from across continents, and adds that there are no concrete outcomes every year.

Augustine Njamnshi, chairman of the Technical Committee, PACJA, also says Africans left COP27 less reassured of the goodwill of global leaders, who are mainly high-polluting industrialised countries.

He notes that climate activists expected to see delegations from the developed countries making bold decisions reflecting the scale and urgency of the climate crisis caused by pollution.

“But no one was keen to advance this discourse,” says Njamnshi, adding that failure to admit Africa’s special needs and circumstances on the COP27 agenda contributed to the slow progress, delays and, in some cases, lowering of ambitions on issues pertinent to Africa.

For instance, postponing to 2024 a decision on financing loss and damage, with no guarantees of an outcome that reflects the aspirations of Africa, was a bad idea.

He claims that the European Union (EU) has downgraded COP in the eyes of Africans because of lack of a clear trajectory for phasing out fossil fuels, for instance. This resulted in the decisions by some countries to continue using high polluting fossil fuels with the same powered economic model behind the current climate crisis.

Take radical actions

“We call on African leaders to reassess the relevance of UNFCCC and COP and take radical actions to strengthen the continent’s voice”, he notes. Njamnshi demands that big polluters honour their engagement to deliver the resources needed to address the climate crisis in Africa, especially on adaptation, loss and damage.

Florence Kasule, an activist from Uganda, says African women felt disappointed by the process and progress of COP, adding that it didn’t explore women’s integral role in climate action. “COP promised to tackle key African issues and women were excited since they are the major implementers of climate action at the grassroots,” she says.

Some 70 per cent of women in Africa drive agriculture. Lucky Abeng, a youth, notes that young people make up 70 per cent of the continent’s population and were disappointed by COP27.