South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has said that Africa continues to bear the brunt of climate change. Speaking at the Committee of African Heads of State and Government on Climate Change (CAHOSCC), the president who is also the Coordinator of the Committee mentioned that the global crisis brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic has affected all countries exposing socio-economic vulnerabilities and increased debt burdens in African countries.
“The pandemic has created new challenges as we work towards the Sustainable Development Goals, responding to climate change as envisaged in the Paris Agreement, as well as attaining our Agenda 2063 aspirations. While the continent is dealing with the impact of the pandemic on human health, our societies and our economies, Africa continues to bear the brunt of climate change, with annual costs to African economies of between 3 to 5% of their GDPs on average,” he said.
“Africa continues to be one of the most affected regions and frequently experiences phenomena associated with global warming. These include droughts, floods, cyclones and other extreme weather events, which have caused enormous damage to infrastructure and displaced thousands of people,” he added.
The president also directed attention to the just concluded virtual Climate Summit of World Leaders convened by the President of the United States, in which more than 40 world leaders participated. He said that the Summit reaffirmed that the international community needs to significantly scale up its efforts, raise the level of ambition and support developing countries with the means to implement climate actions.
“Progress in addressing the global challenge of climate change can only be made when we all honour our mutual commitments and respect our common, but differentiated responsibilities. It is absolutely imperative that everyone must contribute their fair share if we are to limit global warming to the agreed target of well-below 2 degrees, build the resilience of our economies and ensure the safety and well-being of our citizens. Therefore, at this critical juncture, Africa needs to speak with one clear voice to emphasise the primacy of multilateralism and to express our unwavering support for the full implementation of the UN Climate Change Convention and its Paris Agreement,” he said.
” We need a strong and well-coordinated Common African Position. We need to adopt key messages that encapsulate Africa’s aspirations and work together in the spirit of unity and solidarity as a Continent. We need to send a clear message that all African countries require support from international partners and that our development space should be respected to achieve our climate goals and ambitions, while contributing our fair share to the global effort. We need recognition of our different national circumstances and capacities as it is not realistic to expect us to meet the same timelines as developed countries to transition our economies and to disinvest from fossil fuels,” he added.
The African Green Stimulus Programme
President Ramaphosa mentioned that while the pandemic is having a profound impact on sustainable development and the efforts to combat environmental degradation, it also presents opportunities to set recovery on a path of transformative sustainable development. In this regard, many governments and regions are prioritising a green recovery as part of their stimulus packages to address the crisis.
The African Green Stimulus Programme adopted by the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment in December 2020 is an innovative African-led initiative to support the continent’s recovery. The African Green Stimulus Programme seeks to harness the opportunities of a green recovery through a more coordinated approach and the scaling up of resource mobilisation, capacity building and technology development.
He further concluded by saying that it is clear that Africa will need climate change, environment and sustainable development initiatives to be implemented at a much larger scale. “This is not only to contribute significantly to Africa’s green recovery, but also to fully realise the Africa We Want as espoused in Agenda 2063. We must therefore do everything within our means to ensure a successful outcome of COP26 in November this year, particularly for Africa,” said president Ramaphosa.
