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Participants at the
on going Seventh African Development Forum in Addis Ababa have accused
developed nations of paying lip service to funding Africa’s efforts at
combating climate change.

Speaker after
speaker noted that while Africa contributes barely four per cent of
carbon emissions, the continent bears the brunt while those whose
actions endangered the planet remain reluctant at financing the process
that will mitigate the disaster.

Jose Endundo, the
minister of environment, nature conservation and tourism in the
Democratic Republic of Congo who spoke on the theme: Africa and
international climate change negotiations, said previous commitments
contained in the Kyoto protocol and at the Conpenhagen conference must
be met immediately.

“Africa will no
longer tolerate the alibi of using governance issues like transparency
and legitimacy as a pretext to efforts at checking the consequences of
climate change in Africa,” he said.

Mr. Endundo warned
that if the parties concerned do not deploy the required funding to
check the menace of global warming, the number of ecological migrants
would swell to 200 million in the next three decades.

“Common sense show that we can no longer have the rich on one hand and the poor on another.”

Mr Endundo said
historical facts, and fairness require that the advanced nations
provide the technology, the capacity and the funds needed to ensure
sustainable development in Africa in the face of climate change.

In his
contribution, Peter Ekweozoh, an assistant director in the federal
ministry of finance in Nigeria, said as a member of the negotiating
team to the climate conference, he disagrees with the notion that
Africa lacks the capacity to fight climate change.

He noted that for
decades Africa has come to negotiations expecting the European and
American partners to provide critical help on issues, but such help
hardly comes.

Mr Ekweozoh said
the only way out is for the continent to acquire the requisite
technology that will ensure that Africa consumes its quota on
emissions.

“The technology to grow is in the public domain. We must use it to build industries and provide jobs for our people.”

However, Ako Amadi,
the executive director of Nigeria’s Community Conservation and
Development initiative, told NEXT that he is disappointed at Mr
Ekweozoh’s submission that Africa has the capacity which is domiciled
outside the continent.

A retired marine biologist from the Institute of Oceanography,
Lagos, Mr Amadi said Mr Ekweozoh failed to consider the fact that
capacity is an institutional matter, and research institutions have
been destroyed, at least in Nigeria.