Africa should demand justice and enough funding at COP27

Members of CERIOPS environmental organization take part in a mangrove restoration exercise in Mombasa. [Courtesy, CERIOPS]

The world heads to the Egyptian resort of Sharm El Sheikh this week for the 27th global climate change conference.

For a conference whose aims include reduction of carbon emissions, it would be interesting to measure the carbon footprint of the expected 40,000 guests.

For the footprint to be worth it, the conference must get real commitments and action on critical issues that remain outstanding. In terms of agenda, it is expected that the focus of the Global North will be pushing countries to invest in climate change adaptability and resilience strategies, recognising that climate change is upon us, and we can only adapt to it, even as we invest in strategies for long term solutions. Such long-term strategies will include follow ups on Paris Agreement to reduce global warming to 1.5 degrees centigrade, a feat now deemed impossible.

While these issues are important, African countries must join with other developing nations to ensure the agendas that respond to local realities are not pushed to margins.

The impact of climate change in Africa has been devastating. One only needs to see the devastating floods in parts of West Africa while the Horn of Africa, including Kenya, is undergoing the worst drought in decades.

For the first time in decades, even wildlife has been dying in hordes, threatening much-needed tourist industry in the affected areas. These impacts of climate change continue to lambast the continent even as it is acknowledged that it's contribution to the climate emergency is negligible.

For instance, the most generous assessments of Africa's 1.5 billion population's contribution to global warming place it at a meagre 4 per cent. In comparison, America's 300 billion people have contributed an estimated 25 per cent of cumulative global warming impact over the years.

Needless to say, while calls for climate change adaptation and mitigation are priority for all, they resonate well in regions whose economies, despite going through their own shocks, have nevertheless sufficient wiggle room to put in the massive investments required.

But for Africa, our crisis is different. Not only are we more dependent on reliable climate, with more than 70 per cent of our population depending on agriculture, which is largely rain-fed and weather dependent, but budgets in the continent have no room for investing in mitigation, leading to huge deficits in food production.

In ten years since COP18, Africa's undernourished population has increased by 46 per cent due to poor harvests and lack of access to food and safe water. Consequently, Africa's agenda in COP27 must be about financing climate change adaptation and mitigation. In 2009, the global community pledged 100 billion dollars of climate funds annually to developing countries by 2020. This figure, which is nowhere near sufficient for absolute needs, has not been met despite endless annual commitments.

Even where finance has been provided, it has been loans, not grants, further burdening a continent spending more than half of its revenue on debt repayments. Africa's COP27 demands must therefore be for real commitments, including redefining climate financing to grants.

Such grants will enable the continent invest in greener energies and thus stop deforestation. To call for ending deforestation, while local people have no access to other forms of greener energy for basic survival is impractical and unjust. Climate change funding will also enable the continent invest in water efficiency, reducing dependence on rain-fed agriculture and increasing food capacity.

It will allow investment in post-harvest storage infrastructure to limit the grievous impact of climate-led crop failures. Finally, funds will facilitate increased research in drought resilient and contextually relevant crops for the continent, reducing dependence on exotic crops which are unsustainable, expensive, and harmful to Africa's ecology. Ultimately, this is not about charity, but justice. Africa must be unrepentant in demanding climate justice if COP27, being in an African dessert, will have any meaning for its suffering population.