Activists push for animal welfare at inaugural Africa climate summit

As the Africa Climate Summit gets under way in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, activists have asked climate envoys to make animal welfare part of their discussion.

The call was made last week by World Animal Protection and partners to climate envoys to acknowledge the climate and environmental impact of unsustainable livestock production systems and push for adoption of a transition to humane, sustainable, and regenerative livestock production systems.

In a statement, Mr Tennyson Williams, the director for Africa at World Animal Protection, said: “There is a nexus between animal agriculture and climate change, and this discussion should not be overlooked during climate discussions.

Next week (this week), the whole of Africa will be convening in Nairobi to seek solutions to the climate crisis. We ask them to endorse sustainable livestock farming practices, embrace African traditional food systems, and prioritise local communities’ needs as part of sustainable practices that can guarantee a safer future.”

At a pre-climate week media briefing held last week in Nairobi, the animal welfare advocates noted that factory farming is always overlooked as a climate-damaging activity. 

They further claimed that it’s the factory farming that rips down forests to plant crops for animal feed – releasing carbon into the atmosphere, which factory farming they said devastates wildlife habitats, displaces local communities and profits from the cruel treatment of billions of farmed animals each year.

Speaking at the same media briefing, Dr Huyian Ahmend Salih, the director for AU – IBAR, noted that large-scale deforestation, habitat degradation and fragmentation, agriculture intensification, dilapidating livestock production and trade in animal species and plants are drivers of biodiversity loss and emergence of new diseases.

She called for strong interlinkage between animal welfare, environment and socio-economic development and emphasised the need to place animal welfare at the centre of the Global Environment Agenda and Sustainable Development.  

Kenya is co-hosting the inaugural Africa Climate Summit (ACS) with the Africa Union Commission in Nairobi from today until Wednesday this week.

The summit is expected to provide a platform to deliberate on the link between climate change, Africa’s development reality, and the need to push for increased investment in climate action globally and specifically in Africa. 

Several African heads of state are expected to attend the summit.