NZOVU TIPS AFRICA AHEAD OF COP-27

With just about a fortnight ,before the 27th session of the Conference of the Parties -COP 27,Zambia's Green Economy and Environment Minister, Collins Nzovu says Africa must demand the 100 Billion US dollars per annum pledge to be fulfilled by the developed world.

The conference which will be attended by countries which signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change-UNFCCC - a treaty agreed in 1994 will take place from 6-18 November 2022 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. 

Speaking during the African Climate Justice Torch Tour of Zambia held in Lusaka today [Thursday-20 Oct,2022]  Mr. Nzovu said Africa must also demand that the developed world undertake ambitious mitigation actions to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save the planet.

The Minister said there was a need to underscore Africa's special needs and circumstances as well as the need to focus on adaptation to build the resilience of people.

"Africa is disproportionately bearing the brunt of the climate crisis despite being the least contributor to global Greenhouse gas emission of less than 4 percent as confirmed by the latest scientific findings by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change-IPCC. As Africa and Africans, we continue to suffer the consequences of the climate crisis [but] we have contributed the least to causing. Clearly, there is no justice in this. This is not fair at all. That is why as Africans we must not tire of telling and retelling the developed world that cause the climate crisis to do more to reduce the greenhouse gas emission in order to hold the global average temperature rise to well below 2 Degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. This is what will save our planet," Mr. Nzovu said.

In 2009, the developed countries most responsible for global warming pledged to provide $100 billion per year by 2020 to help developing nations deal with its consequences. That commitment is currently not expected to be met until 2023.(https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/japan-pledge-brings-100-bln-climate-funding-target-closer-us-envoy-says-2021-11-02/)

Mr. Nzovu noted that "Africa is highly vulnerable to the impact of climate change which poses a major threat to the sustainable development aspiration of our continent outlined in the African Union Vision 2026. Climate Change has led to adverse effects such as drought, floods and extreme temperatures and affected key sectors including energy, agriculture, water  security and forestry adversely impacting food and water security, water quality, and energy livelihoods of our people, especially those residing in rural communities across Africa."

The Minister however, indicated that the African government acknowledges its local communities' resilience and tenacity in the face of the climate change crisis, hence it was placing communities at the heart of mitigation and adaptation programs.

Meanwhile, the Minister assured that Zambia being the Chair of the African Group of Negotiators would rally the African countries and voices to speak about climate justice at the 27th session of the Conference of the Parties-COP-27.

Mr. Nzovu was represented at the event attended by stakeholders from various Civil Society Organizations championing the fight against climate change by Ministry Permanent Secretary John Msimuko.

 MGEE Permanent Secretary John Msimuko.

Speaking in her welcoming remarks Zambia Climate Change Network Board Chairperson Monica Chundama said the meeting allowed stakeholders to raise their voices in demanding climate justice.

She said their desire is for a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment.

"As a platform for Civil Society organizations advancing climate resilience, climate justice is at the core of the Zambia Climate Change Network's advocacy and we collaborate with many stakeholders including the government to take actions which we believe will ensure that climate is addressed so that local communities and vulnerable especially women and children and the physically challenged and other for that matter are not further inconvenienced. We want to encourage climate change adaptation and mitigation measures, to them high on the agenda," she said.

Zambia Climate Change Network Board Chairperson Monica Chundama 

Speaking at the same event Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance-PACJA Head of Program,Charles Mwangi reiterated that Africa remains the most impacted continent by climate change despite contributing only 4 percent to Global warming.

"Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance is actually a coalition of civil society actors in Africa and we have more than one thousand members from across 51 countries. We operate through platforms and Zambia is one of the active platforms we have on the continent we are grateful to Zambia for hosting the Climate Justice Torch on behalf of the Southern African region. "

"We are suffering because of actions of people who are not necessarily within the continent and this one underpins our mandate and as an organization and alliance advocate for justice first and foremost for the African people when it comes to climate change issues.

He said, "we are all aware that the COP-27 edition is happening here on the African soil. The last time it happened in Africa, it was in Morocco in 2016 and we have yet another opportunity to host COP-27 in Africa. Even though COP is a global event, we are quite self because we are saying this must actually be named as African People COP. We want to see COP-27 deliver the aspirations of African people and we must not lose it and I know there is a big burden on the shoulders of the chair African Group of Negotiators-AGN in terms of carrying those aspirations of the African people all the way you know to Egypt in the next few weeks. I want to say that COP in itself is not an event,[nut] COP-27  is actually a process. I want to mention that since we left COP-26 in Glasgow last year, we left a disappointed group of Africans, we left without having achieved what we hoped to achieve in Glasgow because they are always many voices that are against Africans' position yet we can not drop the ball because we are the victims and we must speak for ourselves because nobody will speak for ourselves. Therefore, this journey for us as CSO in  Africa, our journey started in Egypt after COP-26 and I remember only two weeks after we left Glasgow we went to Cairo and hosted a big forum where we had more than one hundred organizations even private sector was involved and we agreed to hold this meeting because in Glasgow we met the deputy Prime Minister of Egypt and we agreed we needed that conversation so that we start planning early so that COP-27 can actually achieve deliver for Africa. In that particular meeting in December last year  we agreed to come with a strategy of engagements .That particular draft strategy was later discussed further during the African Union Summit which happened in February this year....I think in that particular meeting we developed some position that was communicated.

He indicated that, "most importantly we have been collecting views from the communities ,particularly the communities that are mostly affected by climate change and those are communities from small island states and we have Comoros represented here ,we have Madagascar ,the Hone of Africa. Remember that the Hone of Africa is exposed to drought as more  8.1 million are facing starvation because of drought that has never been over the last 40 year. This information has been confirmed by the IPCC,This impact are felt in African than in more than any other area in the World.

"We have been calling for justice [but] people don't seem to reason and therefore we thought they are not seeing properly and so we have to come with a torch  so that we can actually illuminate the position that for Africa just to make sure that people can be able to see properly the realities of that we are facing as African continent .We are all aware of the flooding that happened in Malawi and in Mozambique and those of you who managed to come to Malawi for "Our loss and Damage Conference " that we hosted in April this year ,you could actually remember that we heard women crying on the podium because and for the first time we heard community speaking for themselves, narrating stories how they lost their relatives ,how they lost their livelihood and therefore we must put human face in all climate change discussion ,its not about the numbers ,its not about the articles, etc. but its about the face of those women, those men and children who suffering the impact of climate change."

COP is an international climate summit. Every year, world leaders gather to discuss climate change at COP, which stands for Conference of the Parties. Since 1995, the United Nations has brought together 190 countries to agree on how to tackle climate change.

If you want to know what was in the COP26 agreement? click the BBC link attached below. 

(https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-56901261)

Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance-PACJA Head of Program,Charles Mwangi

Below are some video clips of Mr Msimuko and Ms.Chundama speaking during the event