Copenhagen: What climate change means for Africa

Between December 7 and December 18, 2009, Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen, will be arguably the busiest city in the world. Heads of government and over 8000 representatives from 170 countries will descend on the Scandinavian capital to attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference at Bella Center - a conference that will lay down the global framework for climate change control beyond 2012.

On a continent where the leading causes of death is HIV, followed closely by Malaria, Africans - governments and populace alike - struggle to fathom the true implications of climate change and its impact on their everyday lives.

For many African politicians, Copenhagen will be just another opportunity to receive handsome par-diems and take spouses on shopping sprees, and, bless their souls, African’s back home will not bother to hold them accountable. Simply because the cause of climate change is assumed to be too foreign - ‘Leave that to the Al Gores of this world,’ many will suppose.

Africa is economically and socially dependent upon its high abundance of natural resources and ecological diversity. About 60 percent of African workers are employed by the agricultural sector. No continent on the planet reflects a closer dependency of people on natural resources than Africa. The United States contains 4% of the world’s population but produces about 25% of all carbon dioxide emissions. By comparison, Britain emits 3% - about the same as India which has 15 times as many people.

Despite the fact that Africa is least responsible for causing the current changes in global climatic conditions since it emits the lowest amount of greenhouse gases, it is at the highest risk of facing the most dire effects of the changing climate conditions due this over dependence on natural resources. There is a need for the continent’s representatives to take a more proactive and united position at the Copenhagen summit.

Tackling climate change is not just a responsibility, but also an opportunity - one that Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame is eager to seize. Addressing a recently concluded special United Nations session debating climate change in New York, the head of state suggested a ceiling for carbon emission per person/per year for all nations. He further proposed that nations with higher emissions could ‘offset’ their emissions by trading off with less emitting nations.

This, he suggests, will provide a financial incentive to developing countries to maintain low levels of greenhouse emissions by trading with developed countries that exceed their quota. He adds that “the global trade in this ‘commodity’ would eventually yield a carbon dioxide global value in the region of one trillion dollars.”

However, carbon trading is not a harmless attempt at carbon stability. Offering financial incentives to developing countries will strip their governments of regulatory authority over this sensitive issue. Wealthy nations are likely to capitalize on cash strapped low developed nations treating them as carbon offsets while corrupt African officials  continue to turn their backs on the basic rights of their communities. turning their backs on the basic rights of communities… The developed countries are capitalising on cash poor countries only to treat them as carbon offsets!!!

Either way, the use of sound economic science to leverage limited global resources in order to achieve the most good for the continent’s economy and the planet’s preservation is what Africa will need to realize at the Copenhagen summit.

With only three months left for it to take place, there is a need for a stronger continental process that will prepare Africa to engage the world not only as an equal partner but as the most important stakeholder - a victim of pollution by more developed nations and continents.

Popularity: 60% [?]