Presidents, heads of State, and stakeholders will converge as Africa holds its first climate summit in Kenya ahead of the UN climate conference.
The delegates, comprised of environment ministers, climate campaigners, and business executives, aim to forge a common ground as global summits draw near.
The summit seeks to discuss strategies to fund Africa’s environmental priorities and showcase the continent as the primary destination for climate investment, not as a victim of drought, floods, and famine.
The African climate summit organisers anticipate investment deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars to be signed at the three-day event.
Their discussion will be about the increase of financing Africa’s climate change mitigation and adaptation and will include how to scale up the continent’s carbon markets and the management of rising temperature and food markets.
The heads of government, who will attend climate change summit from Tuesday, are looking to issue a statement defining Africa’s position ahead of next month’s U.N. climate conference in New York and the COP28 UN conference in the United Arab Emirates in November.
Kenyan Environment Minister, Soipan Tuy, stressed the urgency of the moment in her opening remarks.
She said, “The climate change debate has entered a new era. It is no longer just about tackling an environmental or development problem, but about addressing climate change in the context of justice.”
“If we do not develop adequate response measures to deal with the climate change crisis, it will destroy us,” Tuya said.
Also speaking at the Africa climate change summit, the director of energy at the Power Shift Africa think-tank, Mohamed Adow, said “Africa needs funding from countries that have gotten rich off our suffering. They owe a climate debt.”
According to U.N. statistics, African countries contribute only roughly 3% of carbon emissions across the globe but are on the receiving end of climate change through the impacts of extreme weather.
Countries on the Horn of Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia, have suffered the worst droughts in decades after more than three years without rain.
The climate crisis has pushed parts of Somalia into famine, leaving over 23 million people in severe hunger across the region, the World Food Programme has said.
In March, the United Nations said the drought in Somalia may have killed 43,000 people last year, with speculations that around 43,000 people may have died in Somalia last year as a result of several unsuccessful rainy seasons.
It represents the first confirmed mortality toll resulting from the Horn of Africa drought. Under-five-year-old children are believed to account for half of the fatalities.
The UNICEF encouraged the international community to prioritise food security, including funding for failing nutrition programmes.