Response to climate change is defining test of leadership – ADF VII high level panel

 

 

 

 

Response to climate change is defining test of leadership – ADF VII high level panel

 

 

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, October 14, 2010/African Press Organization (APO)/ — A panel of eminent personalities today in Addis Ababa suggested that appropriate global action to climate change ought to be the defining factors of good governance and true leadership, globally.

Meeting at the first major event of the of the on-going Seventh African Development Forum (ADF VII), the panel identified a number of key governance and leadership challenges that would need to be addressed as part of the global response to the impacts of climate change.

The panel concluded that public awareness is needed in the developed countries for their peoples to understand why it is in their interest for their governments to spend their taxes on climate impacts in Africa.

According to Mr. Meles Zenawi, Prime Minister of Ethiopia (one of the main speakers at the event), a more educated public in the Northern countries would make it easier for their leaders to take the right and courageous decisions on climate change financing, for example.

Messrs Jens Stoltenberg, Prime Minister of Norway; Festus Mogae, former president of Botswana; Jean Ping, Chairperson of the African Union Commission; Abdoulie Janneh, Executive Secretary of ECA; and Donald Kaberuka, President of the African development Bank (AfDB) were also on the panel.

The seventh African Development Forum opened in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Monday on the theme “Acting on Climate Change for Sustainable Development in Africa”.

Members underscored the need to re-construct the entire architecture of the UNFCCC as well as that of multilateral financial institutions as regards climate change financing; so as to remove some of the logjams that often impede access to financing for projects already adopted by international institutions and developed countries.

From the discussions, it became clear that an African perspective has often been lacking during international negotiations, especially as it relates to the principle of climate justice in the context of a new approach to development that encompasses the concepts of green development and green economy.

Echoing the views of most panelists, Mr. Meles Zenawi, who is also the African Union’s spokesperson for climate change chastised what he called a “global leadership deficiency” on climate change.

He cautioned that the “forthcoming Cancun conference on climate change, and indeed, the next one planned for South Africa, would be a flop” if leaders of developed countries did not deconstruct the prevailing notion in the North that, somehow, climate change financing is aid and assistance to Africa.

“It is not aid… it is not assistance… it is paying the price for their carbon emissions for which we in Africa have borne the brunt for too long”; that is, in terms of floods, draughts, food losses, etc. Mr. Meles argued.

“We will no longer accept to pay for the crimes of others… But for our voice from Africa to be heard and taken seriously, it is no longer just enough to speak as one, but we need to be ready to put our own contributions on the table, in terms of financing and concrete ideas”, he added.

He singled out Norway for praise, as one of the rare examples of a developed country that is on record for honouring its commitments and has a sincere approach to climate change financing. Mr. Meles co-chairs the UN-backed High-level Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing with his Norwegian counterpart.

Mr. Stoltenberg shared the experience of Norway in climate change financing and governance, explaining that his country had drawn from previous result-based financing lessons, citing maternal and child health and other social development projects, as areas in which Norway is often cited as an example.

He said that the $100 billion Africa requires for adaptation to the impacts of climate change is not a colossal sum of money, although some think it is.

“If countries of the North consider it as aid to development”, it would effectively sound like a big sum. But in reality, it is not a lot of money if it is taken as the price for carbon emission.

He recalled the recent launch in Norway of the global forest partnership as another sign of his country’s focus on addressing the effects of climate change and expressed the hope that it would help save some of 4 million hectares of African forest that are lost each year.

Mr. Kaberuka of the African Development Bank recalled the devastating impact of climate change on the economies of African countries, and argued that climate change ought to be the defining factor of true leadership and good governance, globally.

He came out strongly against the idea of predicating international financing on Africa’s contributions to climate change funds, arguing that Africa is paying a terrible price for the impacts of the phenomenon that it did little to bring about.

In his closing remarks, Mr. Jean Ping hammered on the point made by Prime Minister Zenawi regarding a common African position at international forums and called on foreign ministers attending ADF VII to carry home the message that their governments would need to emulate the example of European Union whose leaders generally begin their contributions at meetings by agreeing to the EU official stand.

Moderated by Mr. Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the panel concluded that it could be helpful to invite European leaders to their meetings, as this could enhance the European understanding of African positions and thinking on different development issues.

SOURCE 

Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)