A group of African Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) on Wednesday called on the international community to treat climate change as an emergency in the same way as COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr Mithika Mwenda, Executive Director, the Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), stated this during a 7-Day conference in Abuja, Nigeria.
The aim of the meeting, which began on July 12, was to deliberate on the effects of climate change and strategies to mitigate its impacts on Africa’s vulnerable communities.
Mwenda said climate change was more devastating than COVID-19 and should be treated with all urgency as COVID-19, adding that it required governments to keep the public informed in the same way they did during the pandemic.
He said that in spite of the declaration and promises by the international community to help Africans mitigate the impact of climate crisis on vulnerable communities it had not responded to African needs.
The director noted that climate crisis was a crisis of numerous injustices to the people of Africa.
“When COVID-19 broke out, within a short time, the industrial countries mobilised trillions and trillions of dollars to address it because their citizens were affected.
“Before now they have been saying there is no money. The question now is: where did the money they are using to address COVID-19 come from?
“This clearly shows that the climate crisis does not affect them but the poor Africans who are the most hit.
“We want that political will from these industrial countries. They have the money but no will to deliver it to Africans,’’ he said.
He stated that the pandemic had affected the implementation of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) of the Paris Agreement.
He explained that the agreement was a global pact aimed at alleviating the impact of climate change while building resilience of countries and communities around the world.
According to him, NDCs are national commitments to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and pursuing adaptation to climate impact.
“We want to consolidate the African position. CSOs play critical role in representing the communities because they are more of the farmers, producers with young and faith based communities.
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“More than hundreds of participants from various countries in African have come up with strategies so that we can tell our governments the position which we want and these are the voices of the people,’’ he said.
The director, therefore, charged those that caused the problem of climate change to take responsibility as agreed at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
“In 1992, we agreed that because they are the cause of the problem they will address it by helping Africans to adopt the impact of climate change, mitigate and providing sufficient finance and technology.
“All those years, we have been having these conferences. They never did and this is the 26th conference without delivery of anything.
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“We want decisions which are going to be implemented. Implementation is very key for us,’’ he concluded.
Also speaking, Selina Sanou, Head of Programmes, PACJA, a Kenyan, said climate change was a global problem and all should be concerned.
She asserted that much had not been done in terms of finance moblilisation even though we know climate change crisis affected everyone.
“Why are they doing these more for COVID-19 and not climate change, yet there are both global emergency issues,’’ she said.
Dr Robert Onyeneke, a lecturer, Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu, Alike, in Ebonyi Nigeria, corroborated Sanous’ and Mithika’s statements, adding that climate change was causing lots of damage.
He, therefore, said emphasis should also be given to climate change crisis.
Jiata Ekele, knowledge management and extension assistant for Climate and Sustainable Development Network of Nigeria (CSDevNet), said the meeting so far was a success as participant were speaking with one voice and vision.
She said the inclusion of gender issues, youth and religious body of Africa into the revised NDC was commendable.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that participants were drawn from numerous countries across Africa, among the CSOs coalescing under the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA). (NAN)
