Civil Society Demands for Stronger, Africa Responsive Climate Ambition at COP27

Libreville, Gabon | August 26, 2022 FRENCH    ENGLISH

Whereas at the invitation of the Pan-African Climate and Environmental Justice Alliance (PACJA), more than 100 civil society actors, representing youth movements, women’s rights defenders, academics, faith actors and journalists from throughout Africa and other regions met in Libreville, Gabon on August 26, 2022 on pre- Africa Climate Week. The meetings were part of a series of strategic regional post-COP26 and pre-COP27 engagements, consultations and capacity building that started in Cairo, Egypt, in December 2021 and continued in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on the side-lines of the 35^th African Union Summit on 4^th and 5^th February 2022. The aim of these engagements is to mobilize African stakeholders and work towards an African People’s COP in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt later this year.

Conscious of the diversity of the African continent and its people and determined to ensure that our messaging to political leaders and other major stakeholders captures the spirit and imagination of all actors to the extent that is possible, a cross-network consultative forum was also held at the side-lines of the 8^th African Regional Forum on Sustainable Development (ARFSD) from 1^st to 5^th March 2022 to synthesize and polish the strategy and to build a broader consensus on the recommendations made in Cairo and Addis Ababa. An explicit Loss and Damage and Climate Financing forum was held in Lilongwe, Malawi, to firm up our asks on loss and damage. PACJA convened further forums on the side lines of Common Wealth Heads of States and Governments (CHOGM) to firm up the position and build wider consensus.  Safeguarding spaces relevant to Africa agenda and Africa’s priorities in the UNFCCC processes issued a statement in SB56 ‘No COP27 Without A Firm Commitment on Loss and Damage’

Recognizing that the climate crisis is today among the main drivers of poverty and suffering in

Africa (cyclones in southern Africa, droughts in the Horn of Africa, erratic rains throughout

the continent, and other extreme weather events have left millions without food, shelter, adequate nutrition, and a reliable source of livelihood); that as African advocates have argued for decades, adaptation and increasingly loss and damage are the main climate action priorities for the continent; and that these are only possible with a climate finance architecture and other means of implementation that respond to Africa’s unique needs and circumstances.

 Recalling that justly addressing climate change requires that States with high greenhouse gas emissions bear the burdens and duties of mitigation, adaptation, and reparations proportional to their historic and current emissions; that the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities” also requires that those with more resources do more to address climate change; that international climate change negotiations needs to operationalize this principle; that litigations against emitters and solidarity campaigning for climate reparations outside the COP process need to move forward more rapidly, given how reticent the leading Western and emerging-market powers are in recognising their liabilities.

Noting that with barely four per cent of global emissions, Africa has the lowest historical and current emission levels compared to every other region; that even then, emission levels are concentrated in a few countries so that most African countries are net zero and net negative emitters; and that the most ambitious mitigation actions by African countries are, therefore, highly unlikely to make any significant contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to levels commensurate with science and climate justice.

Welcoming the Glasgow Pact on Loss and Damage but further uncertain about the time needed to translate it into action as extreme events devastate livelihoods and economies in Africa

Further noting that the Loss and Damage resulting from anthropogenic climate change as evidenced unjustly afflicts African people; that cyclones Idai, record flooding and extreme wildfires and climate-induced droughts in the Horn of Africa, southern Africa and the Sahel, in the wake of locust plagues attributed to climate change are unjust legacies for people in Africa that has adversely affected the human rights and fundamental freedoms of the African people.

Concerned that despite little to no responsibility for climate change, African communities bear a disproportionately higher burden of its impacts than most parts of the world; and that the recognition of its special needs and circumstances as spelt out in  Article 4.1(e) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change remains marginal to global negotiations; despite the science most of the African countries temperatures are increasing two to three times the rate of global warming, adaptation to the crisis remains a low priority in global efforts to combat climate change.     Read more FRENCH    ENGLISH