Africa Climate Summit: Environmentalists ask leaders to stick to practical climate actions
President William Ruto speaks at KICC, Nairobi on Monday, September 4, 2023 during the during the Africa Climate Summit 2023.
What you need to know:
- The environmentalists and climate justice advocates this reporter spoke to argue that leaders must shift from mere round table meetings to actions that can help communities mitigate, adapt, and build resilience in the age of climate crisis. They say meetings are simply rhetoric and not helpful
As the Africa Climate Summit (ACS) kicked off Monday in Nairobi, Kenya, under the theme ‘Driving Green Growth and Climate Finance Solutions for Africa and the World, environmentalists have asked leaders to take more action than just talk in conference hall meetings.
The summit provides an opportunity for African Union Member States and supporting partners to call for action against the devastating impact of climate change and global warming on several regions of the world, including the Horn of Africa. It is also an opportunity to launch a new determination for Africa and invite partnerships with the rest of the world.
The environmentalists and climate justice advocates this reporter spoke to argue that leaders must shift from mere round table meetings to actions that can help communities mitigate, adapt, and build resilience in the age of climate crisis. They say meetings are simply rhetoric and not helpful.
Mr Christopher Tusiime, a Communications and Advocacy Officer at Joint Effort to Save the Environment (JESE), argues that the summit is timely when climate change, which is causing global warming and other extreme weather conditions, is a threat to the human race, but what works better is localizing the climate agenda and making it work on the ground.
"We need similar efforts at the village level so that everyone clearly understands the threat of climate change and what they need to do in their individual capacities. This way, we shall be able to have concerted efforts from the grassroots," he told the Monitor on Monday.
"We simply need to localize the whole debate on climate change, break down the concepts into local languages, and stop looking at it from conference halls. Making resolutions without implementing them doesn't work. In most cases, issues remain in the conference rooms. There are no clear actions, plans, or ways forward," he added.
Eng Jan Willem van Es, an impact entrepreneur at Amelia Agro Africa Limited, says the climate talk is rather simplistic and too much talk with too little action to help people in the face of the disaster.
"All actors keep checking their wallets. Profitability maximization, career concerns, and spreadsheet funnel views frustrate practical solutions for this issue," he argues.
Eng. Willem, who is also the Vice Chairman of the World Without Waste Environmental Consortium Initiatives, suggests that efforts would be better if experts went to the ground and invested more in helping communities adopt new practices and safeguard measures, adding that there are some contributors to climate change that have been ignored, yet they matter.
"Soil organic carbon loss in agricultural soils is among the biggest contributors, yet nobody speaks about it. Since the start of industrial farming, the world has lost an excess of 1.6 trillion tons of carbon dioxide, which was stored in virgin soils."
According to Willem, the growth of the carbon credit market is a positive development for environmental social governance investing and sustainability, which he says provides a way for businesses and individuals to take action to reduce their carbon emissions and help mitigate climate change.
