The single most important priority commitment that will propel Africa to lasting security, sustainable stability and shared prosperity is an opportunity-oriented focus on climate action, said the President of the Republic of Kenya and Chair of the Committee of African Heads of State and Government on Climate Change (CAHOSCC) H.E Dr. William Samoei Ruto
President Ruto delivered his Key Note Address on the second day of the 3rd Pan-African Parliament’s Summit on Climate Policy and Equity held under the theme: “The Continent at the Crossroads; Graceful just transition and NDCs implementation responsive to African development aspirations and economic realities”.
The Summit seeks to galvanise a critical mass of stakeholders capable of catalysing broad support for pro-poor, just, equitable, locally-led, and science-based decisions in NDC implementation and overall climate action.
“Our continent’s abundant wealth of natural resources, immense endowments of untapped green renewable energy and our youthful demographic profile precisely constitute the fundamental elements required to mitigate and then reverse climate change while driving a new, green industrial revolution,” said H.E Dr. Ruto.
“The need to urgently undertake a fundamental shift in understanding Africa’s global role is overwhelmingly evident on the subject of climate change. At the moment, conversations about climate change in Africa focus on the fact that Africa’s contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions is minimal at only 4 per cent, yet the impact of consequent climate change on our people is huge. The discourse also mainly focuses on the important questions of compensation for loss and damage, and funding for adaptation and resilience.”
Additionally, H.E Dr. Ruto disclosed that the upcoming African Climate Summit in Nairobi this year will be a major gathering of African and global leaders to deliberate and consolidate a clear African position and clear African voice as we project our agenda in the Global Stock take engagements and the buildup to the COP28. The summit is set to provide an opportunity to highlight and forge consensus on the modalities of unlocking Africa’s vast potential to positively impact the climate agenda and rally the world to tap the numerous opportunities that Africa presents towards global net-zero ambition.
The President also highlighted that the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) is a critical organ of the African Union, whose full institutional potential is going to become manifest as the continent rally to formulate effective and sustainable solutions to the tremendous crisis confronting people and humanity in general.
He added that the Parliament rises higher, and goes further than the sum of its legislative, representative and oversight mandates for Africa.
“PAP provides a fundamental deliberative forum where the peoples of Africa gather to reason exhaustively together and develop African Solutions to Africa’s Problems,” he said.
Airing his concerns, H.E Dr. Ruto mentioned that the discursive profile of the continent has too often been focused on the challenges and difficulties faced and the assistance needed in a way that depicts Africa as chronically subordinate, eternally vulnerable and perpetually incapable.
“As a consequence, an emerging psychology of victimhood implicates both African and global leadership in a politics of pity and helplessness. It also denies the world’s youngest continental repository of unparalleled abundance the agency to articulate appropriate solutions to its own problems and to offer its unique, indispensable contributions on the broader global stage,” added H.E Dr. Ruto emphasising that he is persuaded that the current generation of African leadership has the historic mandate to retire this unhelpful profile and in its place articulate a more accurate and compelling portrait of Africa that is both faithful to fact, yet also developmentally aspirational.
While commenting about the Africa Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA), H.E Dr. Ruto accentuated that the initiative is a major step in the right direction to the extent that it seeks to enhance trade within the continent and presents the continent as one large trading area.
“It is absolutely essential to set up a sound global regime of trade and market with robust incentives for low-emission production of goods and services with lower emissions. Such a framework would position Africa as the world’s most competitive industrial, investment and trade destination.
“I wish to direct your attention to the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) and the potential negative impact it will have on African exports. Our exports are produced in older and smaller industrial facilities that are not managed to minimise emissions compared to their European counterparts. The EU’s mechanism is transmitting the most emphatic demand signal and lays down a set of incentives that make low-emission production competitive. This is exactly what Africa can offer through transition,” he said.
In the meantime, H.E Chief Fortune Charumbira applauded H.E Dr. Ruto as a “rare breed transforming Africa”.
“Your speech is legendary; we are pleased to have a leader like you in Africa. What you shared with us here today speaks to the Africa of today and tomorrow. We need to make it a priority that your speech is printed in all African Union languages and distributed across the continent. Every African must be aware of your existence and correct ideology you are spreading across the world,” he said.
The Summit is held at the sidelines of the Second Session of the PAP’s sixth parliament which is currently underway in Midrand, South Africa, held under the 2023 AU theme, “Accelerating the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)”.
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