Climate campaigners demand friendly agenda for Africa in Egypt COP27 Summit

Dakar, Senegal, September 10, 2022: Ahead of the 18^th Session of the Ministerial Conference on Environment in Senegal, pressure groups have urged governments to demand specific agenda items for Africa at the 27th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change set to hold in Egypt later in the year.

Speaking in Dakar while receiving the Climate Justice Torch in the country, Mithika Mwenda, the Executive Director of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) said it is not feasible that COP27 should hold in Africa but be dominated by agenda that are alien to the continent.

“We warmly welcome the commitment by African Environment Ministers to step-up the continent’s response to accelerate the green and sustainable recovery programme to tackle the climate crisis. However, this depends on the unlocking of historical bottlenecks. COP27 offers us the opportunity and we implore upon our governments to be at the forefront of ensuring that the COP, which is set for Egypt be truly an African people’s COP,” said Mithika.

The Climate Justice Torch Campaign is an initiative of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance meant to mobilize, raise interest among the African public and coalesce various African voices towards a common position ahead of COP27.

The Climate Justice Torch will contribute to the effective building of an African narrative on climate justice by ensuring meaningful engagement within targeted communities directly affected by the climate crisis.  

First launched in Gabon on August 27, the Climate Justice Torch will move across countries through communities who will share experiences of good practices on climate actions at local level, voices of which will be used to lobby and advocate for a COP for the African people in Sharma El Sheikh when global leaders meet for the Climate Summit.

African civil society groups hope that the voices so gathered will be enough to pile pressure on global leaders from wealthy and industrialized countries to adopt ambitious Africa-centric climate commitments and outcomes at COP27.   

According to the CSOs, AMCEN has been passing decisions since 1985, but most of those decisions have largely remained on paper and not implemented on the ground.

“We strongly believe that the rigid procedures and global infrastructures have made things as they are. However, in COP27, Africa has the opportunity to ensure the developed countries lessen this procedures to allow for the implementation of the numerous provisions of the Conventions such as the Paris Agreement, the Glasgow Climate Pact talk less of the regional policies,” said Mamadou Barre of Senegal.

While the ministers will focus on reviewing environmental challenges and opportunities that presents itself in Africa in the post-Covid-19 era and consider other issues related to sustainable development in the continent, the CSOs however say it is urgent that the ministers organize to develop a common and coherent position ahead of COP27.

The Resumed Eighteenth Session of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) will be held in Dakar, Senegal from 12th to 16th September 2022 after a two year lull due to COVID-19.

In this year, the theme for the AMCEN is “Securing people’s well-being and ensuring environmental sustainability in Africa”.

The emphasis of this year’s session will be the need for people-centered recovery with an emphasis on people’s well-being through environmentally friendly actions that both create jobs and improve livelihoods.