Africa deserved post on climate change team
- By News Hound
- Published 06/4/2007
- Politics
- Unrated
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View all articles by News HoundAfrica deserved post on climate change team
THE RECENT appointment of three special envoys for climate change by the United Nations Secretary-general, Ban Ki-Moon, was a turning point in the search for a solution to climate change and should be lauded by everybody.
The three — former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Chilean President Ricardo Lagos Escobar and former president of the UN General Assembly Han Seung-Soo — are as good a team as one can assemble anywhere in the world.
Madame Brundtland has made a mark as a proponent of sustainable development, notably in her landmark report, Our Common Future, and as the chair of the World Commission for Sustainable Development, while Mr Escobar has made remarkable contribution to environmental efforts through the Club de Madrid. Mr Seung-Soo now brings his global negotiating credentials to the climate change agenda.
Their appointment clearly demonstrated the seriousness with which Mr Ki-Moon is taking climate change, and the political will that has lacked ever since parties ratified the UN Climate Change Convention as well as its Kyoto Protocol.
The credentials of these three top citizens of the world will, indeed, add more impetus to the negotiations as we enter the transition between the current Kyoto regime whose legal lifespan comes to an end by 2012, and the post-Kyoto arrangement that should depart from the current one, which has largely oppressed the African continent.
However, by failing to name even a single African as an adviser on climate change, Mr Ki-Moon made a fundamental oversight, since, as the continent that will be most impacted by climate change extreme events, Africa requires more urgent focus than any other region in the world.
Africa has faced isolation and neglect right from the Stockholm Conference on Environment and Human Settlements of 1972, to the UN Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, which radically transformed environmental issues into a critical subject of human well being, global safety and international equity. Come the first Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change held in 1995 in Berlin, Germany, Africa was upbeat that, as the most threatened region, at least concrete action would be taken in order to forestall more suffering in the continent.
By the time the 12th such conference was being held in Nairobi in 2006, only three Clean Development Mechanism projects for combating climate change had been approved for Africa, out of 403 in the world, representing a paltry 0.7 per cent of the total projects approved for implementation. Out of the 47 least developed countries that have contributed least to the greenhouse gas emissions, 32 are in Africa.
Climate change is now an emotive issue in the continent. Human lives are being lost, and properties lost and/or damaged. In addition, there are more cases of diseases, direct threats to food security, jobs (for example, the horticulture industry, tourism), and reduced gross domestic product among other problems. All these need urgent attention.
But who will speak for Africa? As is the case in other issues, Africa seems to have been marginalised once again.
Grace Akumu
Climate Network Africa
Nairobi – Kenya
http://www.nationmedia.com/eastafrican/current/Opinion/opinion0406074.htm
The three — former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Chilean President Ricardo Lagos Escobar and former president of the UN General Assembly Han Seung-Soo — are as good a team as one can assemble anywhere in the world.
Madame Brundtland has made a mark as a proponent of sustainable development, notably in her landmark report, Our Common Future, and as the chair of the World Commission for Sustainable Development, while Mr Escobar has made remarkable contribution to environmental efforts through the Club de Madrid. Mr Seung-Soo now brings his global negotiating credentials to the climate change agenda.
Their appointment clearly demonstrated the seriousness with which Mr Ki-Moon is taking climate change, and the political will that has lacked ever since parties ratified the UN Climate Change Convention as well as its Kyoto Protocol.
The credentials of these three top citizens of the world will, indeed, add more impetus to the negotiations as we enter the transition between the current Kyoto regime whose legal lifespan comes to an end by 2012, and the post-Kyoto arrangement that should depart from the current one, which has largely oppressed the African continent.
However, by failing to name even a single African as an adviser on climate change, Mr Ki-Moon made a fundamental oversight, since, as the continent that will be most impacted by climate change extreme events, Africa requires more urgent focus than any other region in the world.
Africa has faced isolation and neglect right from the Stockholm Conference on Environment and Human Settlements of 1972, to the UN Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, which radically transformed environmental issues into a critical subject of human well being, global safety and international equity. Come the first Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change held in 1995 in Berlin, Germany, Africa was upbeat that, as the most threatened region, at least concrete action would be taken in order to forestall more suffering in the continent.
By the time the 12th such conference was being held in Nairobi in 2006, only three Clean Development Mechanism projects for combating climate change had been approved for Africa, out of 403 in the world, representing a paltry 0.7 per cent of the total projects approved for implementation. Out of the 47 least developed countries that have contributed least to the greenhouse gas emissions, 32 are in Africa.
Climate change is now an emotive issue in the continent. Human lives are being lost, and properties lost and/or damaged. In addition, there are more cases of diseases, direct threats to food security, jobs (for example, the horticulture industry, tourism), and reduced gross domestic product among other problems. All these need urgent attention.
But who will speak for Africa? As is the case in other issues, Africa seems to have been marginalised once again.
Grace Akumu
Climate Network Africa
Nairobi – Kenya
http://www.nationmedia.com/eastafrican/current/Opinion/opinion0406074.htm
