Lobbyists in threat to boycott summit

Three days to the much-awaited inaugural African Climate Summit in Nairobi from September 4 to 6, it is feared that some African professionals could boycott the conference over claims Western powers were plotting to sneak in their agenda through the back door.

In a letter addressed to President William Ruto and copied to African Head of States and Governments, African Union (AU) chairman Azali Assoumani and his African Union Commission (AUC) counterpart, Moussa Faki, over 500 civil society groups have called for an urgent reset of focus of the summit, saying that they were ‘gravely’ concerned about the direction it was taking.

“African professionals and leaders are aware of the capture of this summit by non-Africans and some are already threatening to not attend. This trend will grow as word spreads that this is not an African conference. The risk is the collapse of the event in the eleventh hour,” the civil societies said in the letter.

The lobbyists are now piling pressure to have the African climatic interests take centre stage after fears that Western countries are intending to hijack the meeting to advance their own agenda.

Rather than advancing Africa’s interest and position on critical climate issues, the lobbyists state that the summit has been seized by Western governments, consultancy companies and philanthropic organizations hellbent on pushing a pro-west agenda and interests at the expense of Africa.

Influenced by McKinskey

“Even more worrying, is that the agenda of the summit has been unduly influenced by US-based consultancy firm Mckinsey and Company. The lead of African officials and ministers has been pushed on the back burner,” the letter reads in part.

They have accused Mckinsey and World Resource Institute, both of which are headquartered in the USA of capturing the summit with an intent to influence the agenda and the outcome at the expense of African interests.

“The result is a summit agenda that foregrounds the position and interests of the West, namely, carbon markets, carbon sequestration and ‘climate positive’ approaches,” the organisations said. “These concepts and false solutions are led by Western interests while being marketed as African priorities. In truth, though, these approaches will embolden wealthy nations and large corporations to continue polluting the world, much to Africa’s detriment.”

The lobbyists demand that the countries in the global north desist from proposing false solutions such as carbon markets and geo-engineering which are designed to encourage wealthy countries and people to continue polluting and turning Africa into a dumping ground and field for technological trials.
To ensure the meeting advances Africa’s interests and priorities the organisations are calling for the immediate withdrawal of Mckinsey from the summit and be replaced by an African-led expert group to reshape the Summit’s agenda.

Additionally, they are advocating for a strong focus on renewable energy to counter efforts by the fossil fuel industry, Western interests, and fossil fuel-producing African countries to hijack Africa’s just energy transition.

In a Cabinet statement released on Tuesday, State House disclosed the summit will be graced by over 24 Heads of State and Government, high-level representatives of development partners and international institutions, as well as subject experts while about 30,000 delegates are expected to attend.

While pitching for the three-day Summit, President Ruto who chairs the committee of the African Heads of State and Government on Climate Change said that the world must take a common approach in tackling the effects of climate change. “As Africa we are committed to bringing everyone on board, to make every voice to be heard.

Since the climate crisis does not discriminate between the Global North and the Global South or between rich nations or poor nations, effective climate action must recognize our shared threat as well as the collective opportunity to develop and implement the common global solution,” Ruto said.

Managing Director of Global Partnerships and Africa at World Resource Institute Wanjira Mathai says the Summit gives Africa a chance to lead the debate about climate change.

Mathai notes Africa emits few greenhouse gases in comparison to Europe and US yet it is adversely affected by the change of climate.