Talks on climate change and climate ownership in Africa began on Tuesday 02 August 2022 in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. The three-day conference will provide an opportunity to find appropriate solutions for the preservation of the continent from climate damage. This regional meeting is a preparation for the COP27 which will be held from Wednesday 07 to Friday 18 November 2022 in Egypt.
A regional climate forum opened on Tuesday August 2 in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. For three days, African authorities will discuss climate change issues, a phenomenon that threatens the whole of Africa. The main issues of this meeting are first and foremost African solutions to protect the continent from the impacts of climate change. Also, to put the emphasis on economic and financial subsidies to curb the damage of climate change on the black continent.
For Vera Songwe, Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa, “the COP of Africa is not just a COP where we meet and talk. It must be a club that delivers. We see this COP as a real wake-up call, a post-Covid wake-up call. Unfortunately, we are not there yet, when we are all going to be in a different economic context.
Africa called for synergistic climate action.
The Addis Ababa Forum is an invitation to the entire African continent to mobilise its own resources. This is to empower Africa to address the food and socio-economic challenges caused by the war between Russia and Ukraine.
” We have gas, near our north-western borders and a little to the east. There is also fertile land in the south of our continent. We could start discussing how we can ensure that Egypt creates perhaps six million jobs by buying wheat from southern Africa rather than importing it from outside the continent. We can also export, of course, but this last point generates discussions around the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA),” says Ms Vera Songwe, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.
The private sector is invited to join in.
The contribution of the African private sector is also on the agenda in Addis Ababa. It calls for more mobilisation for more investment and donations to achieve the climate goals.
It should be noted that the 2022 Charm el-Sheikh conference on climate change, known as COP27, is an international conference of the United Nations that is scheduled to take place from 7 to 18 November 2022 on the shores of the Red Sea in Egypt. It will be the 27th Conference of the Parties and will bring together the signatory countries of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Thierry Hounye (Stag).
