Towards COP27 Statement: Delivering an African People’s COP

Kigali, Rwanda | March 5, 2022 :Towards COP27 Statement

Whereas at the invitation of the Pan-African Climate and Environmental Justice Alliance (PACJA), more than 100 civil society representatives (joined by representatives from government, the private sector, and the academia) from throughout Africa met in Cairo, Egypt on 16^th, 17^th and 18^th December 2021 and in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on the side-lines of the 35^th African Union Summit on 4^th and 5^th February 2022 to reflect on COP26 and develop strategies for mobilising African stakeholders to make COP27 an African People’s COP.

Conscious of the diversity of the African continent and its people and determined to ensure that the communique to the political leaders captures the spirit and imagination of all actors to the extent that is possible, a cross-network consultative forum was held at the side-lines of the 8^th African Regional Forum on Sustainable Development (ARFSD) from 1^st to 5^th March 2022 in order to synthesize and polish the strategy and to build a broader consensus on the recommendations made in Cairo and Addis Ababa.

Recognizing that Africa have a common interest in achieving climate resilience and sustainable development as espoused in the Agenda 2063 amongst other climate intervention strategies such as AU Regional Climate Change and the Climate for Development in Africa Initiative;

Recalling that justly addressing climate change requires that states and those for whom they are responsible such as corporations and others with high greenhouse gas emissions bear the burdens and duties of mitigation, adaptation, and reparations proportionate to their historic and current emission of greenhouse gasses; that the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities – a divisive issue in international climate negotiations  – also requires those with more resources do more to address climate change than those with weak capacities; that international climate change negotiations operationalise this principle, but that litigation against emitters and solidarity campaigning for climate reparations outside the COP process move forward more rapidly, given how reticent the leading Western and emerging-market powers are in recognising their liabilities. Read More