Countries in the African continent have been urged to mobilise their available resources for investment and to build on the foundation of solid and sustainable development.
The African Union Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy, and Sustainable Environment, Josefa Sacko, said Africa remains the key player in charting the way forward for sustainable development.
She said climate change is a pandemic in Africa which is responsible for life and economic distress among the citizens of the continent due to its increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather effects that are causing disasters.
The Commissioner said the disasters that happen have had a compounding effect as they do not allow people to recover from earlier disasters as the pandemic strikes before people recover from the previous ones.
Sacko said governments in Africa spend a lot of funds from their budgets and Gross Domestic Products (GDP) to address and mitigate disasters, a need she said requires the continent to build resilience.
“Some governments use 2 per cent of their budgets on disaster while some use 50 per cent of GDP per year in response to climate change to reduce disasters,” she said.
She noted that the economic losses resulting from climate change stand at 5 per cent of the annual GDP for the continent, adding that the promised resources by the developed countries have not been delivered.
Speaking during the inauguration of the Africa Climate Summit 2023 in Nairobi on Monday, Sacko said Africa will continue to work on how strategies can resolve climate change.
She said the primary goal of the summit is to propel the continent’s collective effort on climate and sustainable development, noting that the fundamental driver of success for the African green transition will be the availability of resources for investment, which should be accompanied by strengthening the ability of the African countries to mobilise their own domestic resources.
Sacko said the developed countries have been promising the continent financial support to mitigate climate change but have never received the funds, and he urged the partners to honour their pledges.
“Africa has refused to wait; we shall continue to pursue the partners to honour their pledge as we continue to work on how we can resolve climate change,” she said, adding, “We want to move from a donor-recipient to invest and reap in development aspirations for the Africa we want.”
She urged the Member States to start adding value and creating jobs for youth and women.
The Commissioner, however, cited funds as one of the challenges facing the continent, noting that the AU is looking into mechanisms where it can capitalise on resources.
She said the cost of addressing climate change in Africa is skyrocketing as it requires at least 3 trillion US dollars in investment to implement.
“We are determined not to be bystanders but to lead by doing. Together, we can alleviate the discourse surrounding climate change,” she added.
The Commissioner said Africa has a climate-resilient future and called on all Member States to embrace the continent’s collective strength towards the summit to achieve its objective as their partners support the outcome of the summit.
Sacko also called on member partners and states to align on the strategic actions on climate change to avoid duplication on what already exists on the continent, saying that Africa’s potential to foster sustainable development and green transformation must be designed.
“We need to structurally align the economy and reduce the impact of shocks by building a value chain,” said Sacko.
She assured that the African Union is committed to working with member states.
By Bernadette Khaduli
