Reflection on SBSTA Day 1 virtual meeting

The Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meeting kicked off this week albeit under a thick cloud of uncertainties brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The conference is being held under very special circumstance with the resolve to host it virtually, the first time this is happening.

The decision to hold this important conference virtually elicited mixed reactions among the parties and other stakeholders including the non -state actors.

It was clear from the outset that parties especially from Africa would significantly be disadvantaged by the decision owning to the fact that the internet connectivity, electricity supplies and near obsolete gadget are a major challenge on the continent yet this conference is so important to the African people given the continent’s inordinate vulnerability and limited ability to respond to the impacts of already occurring climate change.

Many African economies are already incurring an estimated 3% loss of their GDP due to the impacts of climate, which will undoubtedly limit their ability to achieve any of their sustainable development goals.

Thus the success of meetings such as the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA), SBI and the Conference of Parties (COP), particularly the COP 26 are very critical moments for Africa. It is imperative that the world take a holistic ambition approach commensurate with the climate crisis that Africa and the world faces.

Africa had looked to the SBSTA/SBI 2021 conference with much anticipation and seen this as an opportunity to redeem the opportunity wasted in Madrid during COP 25, agreed by all that as the least productive of all COPs and demoralized the African participants during the negotiations who left the with none of the African expectations met.

The plight of the African continent is amplified by the Covid-19 pandemic that has hit a continent already struggling with other challenges such as drought, floods, malnutrition, water scarcity, energy deficiency which can be attributed to climate change.