In December 2015, 195 United Nations countries entered into a climate change agreement during the Twenty-First Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held in Paris. The aim of the conference was to come to an agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions and enhance adaptation in a way that will keep global temperature increase to “well below 2° C” and, more optimistically, to attempt to limit it to 1.5 ° C.
The high levels of background poverty, dependence on rainfall, weak infrastructure and limited provision of safety nets combine to make climate risk a major source of vulnerability, even without global warming in Africa. However, Africa’s development and climate change experts are still positive that the adoption of this historic Paris agreement is a win for Africa.
For Africans, two priorities stand out from the Paris climate summit of 2015. The first is an ambitious deal that delivers on the commitment to keep global warming within the 2˚C threshold. Second, the climate agreement would address the financing and capacity-building challenges that Africa faces in responding to the climate challenges.
As of June 2017, 195 UNFCCC members have signed the agreement, and 148 have ratified it. In the Paris Agreement, each country determines the contributions it should make in order to mitigate global warming. There is no mechanism to force a country to set a specific target by a specific date.
But despite the fact that some members have ratified it, certain developed countries reaffirmed their commitment to mobilize $100 billion a year in climate finance by 2020, and agreed to continue mobilizing finance at the level of $100 billion a year until 2025. The commitment refers to the pre-existing plan to provide US$100 billion a year in aid to developing countries for actions on climate change adaptation and mitigation.
Although both mitigation and adaptation require increased climate financing, adaptation has typically received lower levels of support and has mobilised less action.
On April 22nd 2016, then US President Barrack Obama signed the Paris climate change agreement. It was later ratified on the 3rd of September 2016 and enforced in the US climate change plan on 4th November 2016.
When the agreement achieved enough signatures to cross the threshold on 5 October 2016, US President Barack Obama claimed that “Even if we meet every target, we will only get to a part of where we need to go,” and that “this agreement will help delay or avoid some of the worse consequences of climate change and will help other nations ratchet down their emissions over time.”
President Obama further stated that the US being a big donor to most United Nations projects has taken a kin interest to the issues of climate and will do her best to “unite and finance the Paris agreement for developing countries.”
Now, on the 1st of June barely 6 months to current President Donald Trump’s regime, he announced that the US will be pulling out of the Paris agreement which was signed by his predecessor Obama.
He said this in a nationwide broadcast: “to fulfil my solemn duty to protect America and its citizens, the United States will withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord but begin negotiations to re-enter our way into Paris Accord by entering into an entirely new transaction or terms that are fair to the United States, its businesses, its workers, its people and its tax payers.”
A sweeping step that fulfills a campaign promise while acutely dampening global efforts to curb global warming of which the US emits 17.89 percent of green house gases.
“We want fair treatment,” Trump said. “We don’t want other countries and other leaders to laugh at us anymore.”
In triggering the official withdrawal procedures, Trump has sparked a lengthy process that won’t conclude until November 2020 – the same month he’s up for re-election, ensuring the issue becomes a major topic of debate in the next presidential contest.
However, world leaders of France, Italy, Germany and other bodies indicated in a joint statement that the US could not unilaterally renegotiate the agreement. The UN body that facilitated the deal said it “cannot be renegotiated based on the request of a single party.”
Meanwhile, a core part of the Paris deal also involved the United States promising $3 billion in aid to poorer African countries to help them expand clean energy and adapt to droughts, sea-level rise, and other global warming calamities. The Obama administration already chipped in $1 billion, as have other wealthy nations.
The probable question in the hearts of most African leaders would be how they – the developing nations would survive without the backbone of many United Nations projects?
In the words of H.E. Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, President of the United Republic of Tanzania: “Africa, too, has no choice other than join hands to adapt and mitigate the effects of climate change. However, Africa can make a choice on how it can adapt and mitigate and when it can do so in terms of time frame and pace. For Africa, this is both a challenge and an opportunity. If Africa focuses on smart choices, it can win investments in the next few decades in climate resilience and low emission development pathways.”
Alongside the reassurance of other world leaders that they will help to fill the inherent vacuum left by the US, the onus lies on African leaders to step up their commitments and support to preserve the continent. The reason is simple, there is now a greater responsibility on African leaders to act fast.
