Africa could be a renewable giant, it is home to 30 pc of the minerals critical to renewables and 60 pc of the world’s best solar resources, yet in this unfair world in recent decades, it received just 2 percent of the investment in renewables. And too often countries with critical energy transition minerals are exploited and relegated to the bottom of value chain, others make the profit somewhere else.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres
The United Nations UN is asking rich nations to speed the just phase out, of fossil fuel to save Africa. UN secretary General Antonio Guterres also wants African governments to support the phase out.
He is demanding for the expansion of the UN Security Council to accommodate Africa and the restructuring of the IMF and the World Bank to give Africa power to influence financial decisions affecting it.
The Secretary General also called on the G20 nations to honour the pledge on climate finance to developing nations. Speaking at the United Nations Civil Society Conference at the UN office in Nairobi , Guterres said Africa’s survival is at stake.
I urge all governments to prepare ambitious climate plans by next year. Plans that drive sustainable development, attract investment and limit global temperatures rise to 1.5 degree celsius to avert the worst of climate chaos. Africa’s fate rests on meeting that limit!
Guterres
He said the UN is fighting for climate justice and has instituted a panel co- chaired by South African Nozipho Joyce Mxakato that is developing voluntary principles to guide the just transition. The critical energy transition minerals panel is working on issues relating to equity, transparency,investment,sustainability and human rights. This seeks to cushion Africa from exploitation.
” Our world is facing multiple crisis and Africa is suffering this proportionately, this continent is being blasted by extreme weather , a climate crisis, it has done nothing to create; from floods in the East to droughts in the South.
Kenya is still reeling from the effects of devastating floods that has killed over 250 people and displaced thousands delaying reopening of schools. The government is adapting mitigation and has embarked on a nation wide afforestation drive. It targets to plant 15billion trees by 2032 to achieve 30 pc forest cover.
Reports from the World Food Program as quoted by AP News and africanews.com indicate that there are heavy rains in Eastern Congo that has displaced over 470,000 people today. Raging floods have destroyed crops in the farms, and there are threats of the spread of waterborne diseases.
Further in South America, Brazil is battling to contain floods that have so far affected 2 million people. CNN reports that over 100 have been killed in the unrelenting rain that has ravaged parts of the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, spreading to Uruguay.
In mid March, heavy rains occasioned an overflow of river Santa Lucia Chico in Uruguay displacing thousands. A series of storms was witnessed disrupting critical services.
Flash flooding also affected Oman in mid April. The Omans national committee for emergency management reported 90mm of rain.
From Africa, to Asia and beyond, the world faces a sobering reminder of the urgent need for coordinated action to mitigate the growing threat of flooding.
Is the UN call for reforms in the multilateral system to accommodate developing nations the universal panacea to promote sustainable development and strong systems that can withstand the effects of climate change?
The United Nations civil societies conference is a precursor to the UN Summit of the future to be held in September in New York that aims in advancing Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs unlocking finance and reshaping multi laterism for the 21st century.
