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Ahead of next
month’s climate conference in Cacun, Mexico, African countries must
commit to a range of actions in order to impact on discussions, Josue
Dione, director, food, security and sustainable development, UN
commission for Africa, has said.
Speaking at a media
briefing yesterday, shortly before the opening ceremony of the Seventh
African Development Forum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Mr. Dione noted
that although Africa is not responsible for the actions that have
brought about global warming, the people are not insulated from the
effects, which have impacted on food security, water security, and
energy security.
He said the aim of
the Forum is to ensure that the continent reaches a common level of
understanding and take common positions in the negotiations that will
be reached in Cacun.
“It is a platform to build concencus statements that are clear, and capable of being monitored,” he said.
Mr. Dione noted
that unless climate change concerns are mainstreamed into such
programmes as NEPAD, the development objectives will fail. He said many
infrastructural programmes will be adversely affected because in the
event of sea water rising, roads, dams, and other infrastructure will
be destroyed, a few years down the line, unless the effect of future
climatic changes are taken into consideration when developing polices.
“It can no longer be business as usual,” he said.
He said the Forum’s
plenaries have been tailored to focus on such critical areas as:
examining current evidence on climate change; the challenges and
opportunities in adopting to climate change; and outlinning strategies
for African leaders who would be making policies on climate change. He
said breakout sessions will be articulated around key blocks that will
relate climate change to human development, health, and education,
among others.
Lots of ambiguity
Answering questions
from reporters, Mr. Dione agreed that there is a lot of ambiguity among
the 53 African nations regarding how to tackle climate change and said
one of the aims of the Forum is to provide enough information for
stakeholders to understand the issues and the extent to which Africa is
willing to commit to the resolutions that will be reached in Cacun.
He said if Africa
goes as a team advocating common goals, it can easily block any
proposition that will adversely affect growth in the continent.
Earlier, the deputy
executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, Jennifer
Kargo, said Africa intends to take the position that it has not caused
global warming so Africans cannot be subjected to the same level of
sanctions on carbon emmissions.
“We have to ensure that policy response are adequate to the extent that they do not impact negatively on development,” she said.