PACJA meets with faith groups to chart an African roadmap to UNFCCC Climate conference COP26

By Charles Mwangi

PACJA join hands with Faith leaders in the continent under the umbrella of All African Conference of churches (AACC) to chart the way forward regarding the engagement of Faith based institutions in the climate negotiations. The engagement the Faith based institutions has been one of the missing link in the fight against climate crisis which has revenged the African continent. The faith leaders need to push for higher ambition and commitments for touchable action to confront climate change. Africa is already witnessing the effects of rising temperatures, excessive droughts, changing weather patterns leading to cyclones and excessive flooding, conflicts arising from competition for resources such as grazing lands due to droughts.

Cognizant of the need to strengthen the involvement of faith institutions in the climate change discourse, AACC and PACJA met with bishops and pastors from across the continent in Addis Ababa on 19^th and 20^th May, 2021 for a climate change roundtable meeting under the theme “The welfare of the earth is our welfare”

African Climate Justice Advocates under the umbrella of PACJA stressed on the need to press for a Conference of Parties (COP26) outcome desirable to the African people, demand sufficient finance to support African nations to meet their Nationally determined contributions targets and unequivocally demand the primacy of the adaptation approach to climate response. It is critical to galvanise the continent into a strong collective voice capable of securing major victories in the negotiations will press upon their government negotiators to demand for negotiations that would facilitate meaningful technology transfer and capacity building, foster a low-carbon, just and equitable pandemic recovery strategies.

“After the failure of COP25 to deliver meaningful progress, Africa now counts on COP26 for a global climate policy and action framework that responds to their unique circumstances created by the injustices of disproportionate vulnerability, exposures to risks and incapacity to protect itself without help – despite its insignificant contribution to climate change,” noted a statement released from the meeting that brought members of diverse groups coalescing under the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance from across Africa.

The Climate Justice advocates say they will use the COP 26 Summit which is set to hold form 1-12 November 2021 in Glasgow, UK to call upon industrialised countries to substantially increase climate finance flow to Africa and address the challenge of disproportionally small flow of desperately needed adaptation finance to the continent, which today stands at only 25%, despite the global commitment to raise it to at least 50%, at par with mitigation spending. PACJA challenged the faith leaders attending the conference to cut out their niche and develop a faith based narrative that could inform the COP negotiations.

The faith leaders in Addis Ababa noted that, as a vulnerability hotspot, Africa should head to COP26 to demand premium placement on strategies and frameworks that lean heavily towards adaptation given that the continent faces an even wider adaptation gap, with far-reaching impacts already being felt in agriculture, health, infrastructure, and livelihoods, talk less of floods and cyclones which have killed more than 1000 people and affected millions on the continent in the past few years alone.

Further, the meeting resolved to demand meaningful technology transfer and capacity building targeting the developing nations especially in renewable energy to address the energy needs of the African people by harnessing the already abundant natural resources like solar, geothermal and wind resources.

At the same time, it was clear that a demand should be placed upon the developed countries to continue along the path of a low-carbon emission that fully integrates climate change and the need to strengthen the resilience of African countries and communities, and other developing regions to minimize the adverse impact of major disruptions.

The meeting in Addis took place against the background of the on-going global public health crisis occasioned by COVID-19 which continues to exacerbate an already dire situation, particularly in the global South and Africa in particular. The participant in the meeting concluded that there is a great need to push for integration of climate changes strategies in Covid 19 response.

Addressing, the meeting on a virtual platform, the COP 26 presidency indicated that Although the clouds of uncertainty still linger across the world, consultations spearheaded by the COP26 Presidency-designate as well as the UNFCCC Secretariat continue to keep the momentum and optimism that workable solutions would emerge and which might narrow the north-south divide which almost collapsed the discussions at the COP25 held in Madrid, Spain two years ago. The presidency committed to broadening the ongoing consultations regarding COP 26 to include faith based organization.

“The breakdown of COVID-19 and its aftermath to the global economies is a stark reminder to the global community that a time will come when the entire humanity will be put at the same scale irrespective of the level of technological sophistication, resources, race or region,” noted the participants.

The global shutdown and the trillions of Dollars mobilized within record time to tackle the pandemic signaled that with political will, those who bear the biggest responsibility to address climate crisis have ability to raise sufficient resources to build resilience of communities and the acceleration of actions towards net zero emissions at the turn of the century.

The outcome of the Addis meeting was a position paper from the faith based organisations which will be presented in various fora as the world gear up to COP 26.

The writer is the Thematic Lead, Resilient People Society and Economies, Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA)