Africa – Making COP27 an African COP – Ensuring that African voices and concerns are heard and prioritised!
The upcoming COP27 provides Africa with an opportunity to present its agenda to the world. Previous COPs have been gravely disappointing. African leaders and civil society organizations (CSOs) have consistently been excluded, not taken seriously, and/or ignored. In part, this is because Africa’s well-founded demand for ‘climate justice’ unsettles the Global North, including those who have the power and privilege to shape the UN climate change (UNFCCC) process.
As a climate hotspot, Africa is already experiencing dangerously high temperatures, droughts, floods, and cyclones, which affect agriculture, health, infrastructure, natural ecosystems, biodiversity, and people’s livelihoods. These are the direct impacts of unjust and unsustainable overconsumption in the Global North, where leaders seem unmoved by the consequences their actions have for people on this continent.
At COP27, Africa must change the narrative and use the COP as an opportunity to amplify the voices of those who suffer most from climate change and environmental degradation. This is not a moment to apologize or sheepishly seek concessions behind closed doors. It is a time to demand justice. Ironically, those best placed to lead this effort are not politicians or professional negotiators, but are rather the young people already making these demands in communities and countries around Africa. Although the global news media have focused mostly on youth activists from the Global North, African youth climate movements are strong and growing.
Young people across the continent are rising up, making their voices heard, and finding solutions for the climate crisis. They do not just need to be present at the COP; they should be setting the agenda for global policy.
A reflection by Ngonidzashe Edward, SJ
Source : Jesuit Mission
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