THE inaugural Africa Climate Summit held from September 4 to 6, 2023 in Kenya was a welcome platform to deliberate on the climate crisis.
Heads of States, business leaders, civil society, academia, students and activists convened in Nairobi to map the way forward in the climate change discourse.
The event was held side-by-side with the Real Peoples Summit which called for people-centred interventions to combat the crisis.
These two platforms brought to the fore emerging critical issues in the quest for climate justice.
Africa needs US$600 billion to increase its renewable energy generation by 2030.
While the intervention on renewable energy is welcome, there is contention on the financing of this transition.
Most African countries are in the grip of debilitating debt crises.
Zimbabwe currently has a public and publicly guaranteed debt of over US$18 billion and clearly needs non-debt financing for its renewable energy plans.
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A total of US$23 billion funding was committed by various sectors.
However, it is not yet apparent which form this funding is likely to take. African countries cannot afford to take more loans.
A proposal to develop a financing architecture is also on the cards.
The need to move from fossil fuels is critical for the protection of biodiversity and the reduction of greenhouse gases, however, this comes at a cost.
The development of a new Global Climate Finance Charter by 2025 is welcome.
However, financing of Africa’s energy transition should go beyond availing funds to focusing on debt cancellation.
If the transition to sustainable energy is to be just, the Global North should expedite debt cancellation to enable African countries to focus on their renewable energy plans.
It is noteworthy that green minerals such as copper, platinum and lithium are essential for the energy transition.
Deliberations at the Africa Climate Summit did not comprehensively state how Africa can leverage on these resources.
These strategic minerals could lead to a new scramble for Africa and increase resource leakages if existing legislature and treaties are not amended to protect the minerals so that they increase value for Africa.
Agriculture is both a victim and contributor of climate change and there is need to decarbonise agriculture and transform food systems to enable food sovereignty.
Financing of alternative models such as agro-ecology must be prioritised as the current state of agriculture is regrettable.
The over-commercialisation of agriculture is fuelling the use of fossil fuels, pesticide production and genetically-modified seed varieties.
This has led to biodiversity loss, seed loss and environmental degradation.
Agro-ecology recognises and balances the use of the ecosystem, culture, resources and circular dependence.
Governments and funding institutions must channel funding to such regenerative models and move away from industrialised and aggressive agriculture which excludes communal and small-scale farmers from the food value chain.
Africa needs to guard against resorting to false solutions such as the voluntary carbon market.
While the global market is bent on pushing for a voluntary carbon market where companies can buy carbon credits in exchange for their emissions, Africa should not fall for such unsustainable solutions.
The carbon market will allow companies to continue to emit and are likely to increase their emissions because the more they emit, the more they produce.
A critical question to ask is: “Will the carbon market stop emissions?”
Any answer short of yes is a false solution. The excess profits are essentially an incentive to perpetuate the emission cycle.
Furthermore, the fight against the climate crisis is a threat to humanity and must not be commercialised or left in the hands of the private sector which is profit oriented.
While the Africa Climate Summit is a welcome initiative, talk without action will render it an ineffectual platform.
As the world gears up for the November United Nations Climate Change Conference or COP 28, Africa must strengthen its resolve for non-debt climate financing, refocus its plans towards sustainable and Afrocentric solutions and must not shy away from demanding accountability from the Global North.
- Roselilly Ushewokunze is the Food Justice Network co-ordinator. She can be contacted on [email protected]
