President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa has said that Africa bears the brunt and the cost of climate change, although the continent is not responsible for the phenomenon.
Ramaphosa made this known while participating in a virtual meeting of the African Union Committee of African Heads of State and Government on Climate Change on Sunday.
According to the president, the Covid-19 pandemic had set back multilateral processes, including those around climate change.
He explained that Africa was experiencing the worst impacts of global warming such as droughts, floods and cyclones, adding that it was imperative that the world did not “lose momentum and that climate change is not relegated to the periphery of the global development agenda”.
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“Climate change impacts are costing African economies between three and five per cent of their GDPs,” Ramaphosa said. “Despite not being responsible for causing climate change, it is Africans who are bearing both the brunt and the cost.”
He recalled that last year, the continent spoke with one voice at the COP26 summit in Glasgow, Scotland, noting that the complex Glasgow Climate Pact was intended to strike the right balance by accommodating the differing national circumstances and capacities among the nearly two hundred parties.
“Developed economy countries have agreed to support the implementation of just transitions that promote sustainable development, poverty eradication, and the creation of decent work and quality jobs,” he said.
The president maintained that it was still a concern that the necessary financial flows to enable developing economy countries to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change were still “vastly inadequate”.
“A one-size-fits-all approach to complex issues, such as a transition from fossil fuels that disregard the realities on the ground in Africa, will simply not work, and is neither just nor equitable,” Ramaphosa said.
Story was adapted from news 24.
