2023-09-04 08:02:33
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The first African Climate Summit opens its doors as heads of state and others raise their voices about a global problem that affects the continent of 1.3 billion people the hardest, even when they contribute the least. .
The government of Kenyan President William Ruto opened the ministerial session on Monday as more than a dozen heads of state begin to arrive, determined to wield greater global influence and attract more funding and support. Among the first speakers were young people who demanded a greater voice in the process.
There is some frustration on the continent that they are being asked to develop cleaner methods than the world’s richest countries, which have long been responsible for the majority of climate-threatening emissions, and to do so while much of the promised support is still missing.
“This is our moment,” Mithika Mwenda of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance told the crowd, assuring that the annual flow of climate assistance to the continent is around $16 billion, a tenth or less of what is needed and “a fraction” of the budget of some of the polluting companies.
Outside summit attendees include United Nations Secretary General António Guterres and US government climate envoy John Kerry.
Ruto’s welcome video released ahead of the summit focused on reforestation, but made no mention of his government’s decision this year to lift a multi-year ban on commercial logging, which alarmed law enforcement agencies. environmental monitoring. The decision has been challenged in court, although the government claims that only mature trees could be exploited in state plantations.
Kenya gets much of its energy from renewable sources and has banned single-use plastic bags, but struggles with other environmentally friendly adaptations. Trees were felled for the construction of a fast lane for some of the summit attendees from the airport, and bags made of informal charcoal are found on street corners in Nairobi.
Ruto arrived at Monday’s events in a small electric vehicle, unlike ordinary government caravans, on streets where dilapidated buses and vans had been removed.
The challenges for the African continent include simply being able to forecast and monitor the weather in order to prevent thousands of deaths and billions of dollars in damage.
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