Proposal to recognise Africa’s circumstances, needs

THE Negotiating Group for Africa (NGA) has put forward a proposal for acknowledgement of the continent’s special circumstances and needs to the UN climate change conference in Spain.

It relates to the continent’s increasingly high risk from climate change because of extreme weather events, and the increasing economic burdens as nations considered high-risk borrow at high rates to meet their development agenda affected by climate change.

Research by the African Adaptation Initiative indicated that seven out of 10 African nations were at high risk of debt distress after debt build-up from disasters caused by global warming.

The NGA said greenhouse gas emissions were putting the world on a path towards unacceptable global warming, with serious implications for development prospects in Africa.

This year, an analysis from Save the Children organisation indicated that more than 1 200 people in Mozambique, Somalia, Kenya, Sudan and Malawi had died from cyclones, floods and landslides. In South Africa and Zimbabwe, drought has devastated access to water and energy supply, farming, and wildlife survival.

Mohamed Nas, Egypt’s ambassador, and co-ordinator of the NGA, said the proposal was part of the package offered to Africa during the Paris Agreement, because it was not included as part of the least developed countries and small island developing states.

He said the continent was not seeking anything other than to comply with the convention and the Paris Agreement. |