The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting was held last week in Kigali, Rwanda’s beautiful capital city, amidst protests by a section of Civil Society groups in attendance. The meeting, which was the first since the COVID-19 pandemic lock-down, could not have been held without climate change existential challenges featuring prominently on its agenda.
A major question about climate change advocacy in Africa is on the capacity of African countries to achieve climate adaptation in line with global expectations. It is a known fact many African countries are already bogged down in a quagmire of micro and macro economic problems that have made sustainable living a mirage for the citizens. With a per capital income that exemplifies poverty in its worst form, Africans are generally not in a position to mitigate climate with adaptation innovations.
Hence, the burden of procuring sustainable solutions should be shared with industrialised countries who themselves are the major culprits responsible for global carbon emissions and devastation of the mother earth.
We therefore join African stakeholders, including Climate Africa Media Initiative and Centre (CAMIC), a capacity building and advocacy initiative, in demanding greater commitment on the part of governments and non-state actors towards mitigating climate impacts across the continent. The Commonwealth Heads of Governments should, as a moral obligation, support wholeheartedly the position of African Union with regards to the redeeming of US$100 billion pledged to Africa for climate change adaptation. Otherwise, the CHOGM would have failed in its cardinal goal of supporting the former British colonies especially on a global challenge they partly helped to create in the first instance.