The Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa, CAPPA, has said African countries bear the biggest brunt of climate change impacts across the globe and harped on the need for African leaders to demand effective and workable non-market mechanisms as provided in Article 6.8 of the Paris Agreement.
Speaking at a media roundtable organized by CAPPA on the sideline of the intersessional currently ongoing in Bonn, Germany, Aderonke Ige, Associate Director at CAPPA noted that the global interventions on climate are not fair, just and equitable, stressing that there is a need to develop specific interventions that reflect the peculiarities of the African communities.
“Those global interventions are biased and have failed us, we cannot continue to lament, we need to begin to take action.
Ige also mentioned that the intersessional at Bonn needed to address the critical issues that should be addressed urgently, otherwise they would be missed out during COP27 as intersessional is supposed to set the tone for the Conference of Parties.
Stressing on what needed to be done, Ige said that African governments attending intersessional should set a stable foundation for an efficient Loss & Damage finance facility to be established at COP27 and advance strong arguments to commit industrialized and wealthy countries to provide adequate loss and damage finance.
Corroborating her, Philip Jakpor, Director of Programmes at CAPPA, explained that climate crisis has continued to escalate and no concrete action has been proposed to address the trend, noting that Net Zero cannot
He added that “Africa must challenge and reject pledges made by polluting corporations and governments to achieve ‘Net Zero emissions, which are being used to shift additional burdens onto the African region and avoid responsibility for their role in the global share of emissions to date. Instead, our governments must commit to achieving Real Zero emissions reductions, embracing the concept of equity.”
Explaining how Net Zero contradicts the Nationally Determined Contributions, Olamide Martins, Programme Manager at CAPPA said, “African Governments must ensure that the NDCs of African countries are independent of false solutions and corporations’ influences, but rather accommodate workable and home-grown climate real solutions on mitigation and adaptations.”
Hellen Neima, the Regional Director, Corporate Accountability Climate Campaign noted that this is the time for Africa to take the bull by the horn and demand real solutions.
Neima said, “Africa being the host of the upcoming 27th COP must take this opportunity to shape what remains of the climate talk by unanimously demanding what is owed to her – Loss & Damage finance, a global goal on adaptation, and a workable non-market mechanism for real solutions. The groundwork for these must be laid now in on the ongoing 56th UNFCCC intersessional.”
On his part, CAPPA’s Executive Director, Akinbode Oluwafemi said, “The latest IPCC report is a strong indictment of the global north and a caution against ineptitude from governments of the Global South. As the world gathers in Bonn to review climate change commitments, it is only fair to accommodate the concerns of frontline communities and close corporate influence in our climate discourse.
