The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has called on developed countries to as a matter of urgency, redeem their climate change pledges to African countries.
This is even as the African Climate Week has kicked off in Nairobi, Kenya,
In an interview, IRENA’s Director General, Francesco La Camera, said that the inability of the developed countries to honour pledges remained a serious concern.
Article 9 of the Paris Agreement states that developed countries shall provide financial resources to assist developing countries with respect to both mitigation and adaptation in continuation of their existing obligations under the convention. Sadly, the $100 billion pledge for the Climate Fund agreed in COP21, financial pledges made to the Adaptation Fund in COP26, and the recent loss and damage fund agreed on at COP27 for Africa have not been fulfilled.
Although Africa accounts for only 2–3 per cent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions from energy and industrial sources, the continent bears the greatest burden of climate change impact, with increasing drought and flood destroying lives and livelihoods and worsening food insecurity on the continent.
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Between 1970 and 2019, about 1.7 thousand natural disasters in Africa have been reported on the continent, causing economic losses of around $38.5 billion, according to available data. In Nigeria for instance, the Federal Government reported that the 2022 flooding in various parts of the country led to an estimated economic loss of $9.12 billion.
During the interview, La Camera, said that the time had come for all developed economies to honour the series of pledges to deal with climate change and its accompanying impact in developing countries.
He said: “From our point of view, we think it is important. IRENA is already working on building a framework that will make the promises become reality. This is the work that we are doing with our project facilitation committee,”.
He noted that the mechanism, if in place, would possibly make an important contribution in terms of models that could be adopted to facilitate realisation of pledges.
Worried by the slow drive towards clean energy in Africa, La camera said that the continent must focus in this direction, instead of purely concentrating on fossil fuel. He noted that Africa, with its huge deposits of clean energy resources, must quickly position itself to become a net exporter and manufacturer of clean energy products.
The director general noted that such a move would leapfrog the continent’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and provide millions of employment opportunities, adding that the role of multilateral financiers in Africa must be to first build infrastructure, while the continent does everything possible to overcome noticeable difficulties in the legal environment.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
