Kenya calls for Africa climate change unity

Kenyatta

Africa needs to prepare and speak with one voice at COP 24, Katowice, Poland, in December, Kenya’s Environment and Forestry Minister, Keriako Tobiko, declared at the opening of the Seventh Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA – VII) conference in Nairobi.

Speaking on behalf of President Uhuru Kenyatta, he said climate change was a matter of life and death for Africa hence the need for its leaders to speak with a strong unified voice and be heard when participating in multilateral climate negotiations and other global issues.

“We have all experienced the devastating and unprecedented impacts of climate change on our peoples' lives and livelihoods as well as our national economies. Africa is the most vulnerable continent despite contributing only about 4% to global greenhouse gas emissions but when we go to argue our case we speak in tongues and come back with no deal,” he said.

“We need to make sure that we have a unified voice as we proceed to COP24. We should showcase our own solutions to climate change; solutions that are developed and customized to fit our own situation.”

He said given Africa’s shared ecosystems and that natural resources know no boundaries, it was essential that “we continue to speak in one voice to safeguard the basis of our development and seek transformative solutions.”