The African Youth Assembly has called for compensation for Africa from wealthier nations from the West to mitigate climate change.
Mr Mathew Greene, the West Africa Regional Speaker of the assembly, made the call in a statement on Friday, September 30, 2022, in Jos, Plateau State.
Greene said that the need for compensation became necessary due to the activities of the developed countries that leads to image change in Africa.
He explained that the activities of the developed countries have increased the release of greenhouse gases with high global warming potentials on Africa, hence the need for steps to be taken to avert the situation.
“Countries of the Global South should respond accordingly to the alarming need to compensate the countries of the Global North for the impact of their activities on climate change.
“The series of engagements from the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCCC) should ordinarily have compelling force on the Global South to act speedily in terms of embracing a global respond for climate change.
“The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has on account of its guiding discussions fingered the developed countries for contributing immensely in the
release of greenhouse gases with high global warming potentials and highly positive radiative forces thereby posing the thread to global warming.
“If the average global warming is left to exceed two degrees Celsius, Africans will be bedevilled by diseases, desertification and drought of immeasurable standard for an act we have zero or unrecognisable contribution,” he said.
He maintained that to address the situation, developed countries should support Africa with the technical know-how and funding to fight global warming.
“To avert the menace, the developed countries must raise up to the occasion and provide us with not only meaningful funding alone but also the
technology that will aid Africa protect itself against the heinous impact of climate change,” he said.
Green explained that the assembly is the convergence of African youths from 45 countries in the continent, with the interest of advancing the African project.
In October, the world will gather in Egypt for the United Nations’ annual climate summit. This will be the 27th Conference of Parties, or COP, which has met every year since 1995 to negotiate international climate action.
Once attended mostly by meteorologists and other scientists, as the impacts of climate change have become undeniable, the gathering has grown in significance.
Trillion-dollar financial commitment and major energy initiatives are unveiled at each COP.
This year’s summit is the first on the African continent since 2017, when it was held in Morocco.
For negotiators and climate advocates based there, many of whom are deeply frustrated with the direction of international climate policy, COP27 is a crucial opportunity to make Africa’s case for more financing and support.
The UN said despite producing less than four per cent of the world’s carbon emissions overall, Africa is already facing some of the worst and most tangible effects of climate change so far.
The UN says temperatures on the continent have risen at a faster pace than the global average, and this year alone a warming climate has been linked to devastating tropical storms in Madagascar and Mozambique, flooding in South Africa and one of the worst droughts in the Horn of Africa.
The Mo Ibrahim Foundation estimates that 40 million people in Africa could be pushed into extreme poverty by 2030 due to the ripple effects of climate change.
By Polycarp Auta
