By Joseph Ebi Kanjo
Environmental activists mostly drawn from Africa have raised the alarm that the the forthcoming Africa Climate Submit/Week is nothing but an event built on false solutions rather than a real solution.
They further argued that the event, disguised to offer solutions to the many climate issues in Africa, is a false, and never a solution to climate issues such as mining, etc, which, according to them, are caused by “the greed of filthy lucre by both African governments and their former colonial masters.”
The environmental activists and civil society members who took this position via a Webinar on Tuesday, were drawn from South Africa, DRC Congo Zimbabwe, Nigeria etc.
Speaking, Ubrei-Joe Maimoni, Coordinator, Climate Justice and Energy Program Coordinator for Friends of the Earth Africa, described as sad that state of climate justice in Africa.
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Maimoni, who doubles as Program Manager, Environmental Rights Action Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), lamented that even after 67 years of oil exploration in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, people in the region are still living in a polluted environment and complete darkness.
“Friends of the Earth Africa believes that a Just Recovery Renewable Energy Plan for Africa built on environmental, social, gender and economic justice is urgently needed to address all the impacts of the multiple interrelated crises across the continent, which are being compounded by the neo-liberal doctrine,” he added.
He noted that while the crisis created by the climate and COVID-19 still lingers, Africans have seen how the invasion of Ukraine by Russia is mounting pressure on the African continent to help bridge the gap of the energy cut from Russia to other parts of Africa.
While calling on the global North not to let Africa burn, Maimoni said it’s obvious that Africa has witnessed the worst cases of climate disasters – such as cyclone, flooding, drought and sesertification among others.
He emphasized the need for Africa to move away from harmful fossil fuels towards a transformed energy system that is clean, renewable, democratic and actually serves its people.
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He further emphasised the need for African leaders to recognise socially owned and controlled renewable energy as a right, and also to ensure that it is prioritised in policy agenda and fiscal budgets, warning that energy should not be developed solely for profit but to ensure dignity.
He also called on African governments to work with all people and remove all obstacles that may retard progress and/or detract from attaining this goal.
In her remarks, Energy Program Coordinator/Friends of the Earth International Climate Justice, Tyler Booth, identified some of the false solutions as the calls for a carbon market; driving Renewable Energy growth for global needs rather than for African needs, and the commodification of nature through the planned Blue economy ideas.
She argued that Africa doesn’t need carbon markets but rather needs real climate finance.
She added that carbon markets are dangerous distractions and do not offer a financial solution capable of reaching the grassroots communities that are already feeling the impacts.
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According to her, the most anticipated Blue Economy is a commodification of nature while the promotion of liveable cities is focused on African cities to the detriment of Africa’s rural areas.
‘…data from the World Bank estimates 58% of the total population lives in rural areas in sub-Saharan Africa; In Africa, over 400 million people live in rural areas ” she quoted, adding that transforming Africa’s food systems needs is to ensure it is towards food sovereignty and agroecology,” she added.
In her presentation, titled “How Just is the Transition in Africa?”, a supporter of the Don’t Gas Africa, and Africa Movement of Movements, Lorraine Chiponda from Zimbabwe, stated that Africa with over a billion people and 55 countries is home to diverse economies, resources, ecosystems and cultures.
Chiponda lamented that decades after independence, African countries continue to face famine, energy poverty, regional conflict, patriarchal oppression, economic insecurity, & debt crises that are increasingly compounded by climate change, systemic and structural as well as financial and trade systems development, climate and energy justice.
She said what an African transition can look like is to have decolonized systems; decentralised systems;
Champion people’s alternative circular economies and ensure food and water sovereignty; monetary and energy sovereignty as well as breaking free from development traps and false solutions.
Others who spoke at the Webinar lamented the dire effect of mining on Africa which included human rights abuses, land grabbing, environmental degradation, gender oppression as well as the inherent health challenges which continue on a daily basis.
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