Africa Calls For Climate Change Mitigation -

African Leaders @ Davos

African leaders at the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland have called for increment in the global finance for Climate change mitigation in the continent.

The Nigerian Vice President Kashim Shettima and South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Ronald Lamola, made this call for a fundamental rethink of the international financial architecture.

The leaders warned that the retreat of major donors from multilateral platforms is leaving Africa to face disasters it did not cause.

“Our reality in Africa and sub-Saharan Africa – that we only receive maybe about 5 per cent of the global finance in terms of climate change mitigation. Whereas we are the most affected,” Lamola said at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday.

Lamola highlighted that the pullback in aid by major donors, led by the United States, had a significant impact on the continent.

“The retreat by major donors, obviously led by the US, from these big multilateral donor platforms does need a rethink, and also a rethink of the international financial architecture itself,” he added.

He also warned that the climate-finance gap is forcing countries to rely excessively on shrinking donor grants, particularly in critical sectors such as healthcare.

“As we speak now, most of sub-Saharan Africa is being ravaged by huge inclement weather And we now carry the burden to respond to this challenge that has been caused by global industrialisation,” he continued.

The minister concluded by stressing that South Africa has long called for a ‘global awakening’, in which the international community speaks with one voice to confront these challenges, emphasising that collective action through multilateral institutions remains the only way out of today’s crises.

According to African Development Bank and the Climate Policy Initiative, Africa receives just 2 to 4.5 per cent of global climate finance. As worldwide climate funding surpassed $1 trillion, the continent gets only about $43-45 billion a year, far short of the $190-250 billion annually needed to meet its 2030 climate goals.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) is a not-for-profit foundation, known for its Annual Meeting which takes place in the modern Davos Congress Centre.

The aim of the meeting will be to set an agenda that drives greater multistakeholder collaboration to address political, economic and societal challenges of our times.

Over the course of the year, the Forum, also convenes regional meetings each year in locations across Africa, East Asia, and Latin America, and holds two further annual meetings in China and the United Arab Emirates.

Beside meetings, the Forum produces a series of research reports and engages its members in sector-specific initiatives. It also has offices in New York, Beijing, Tokyo and San Francisco.

Over 2,500 leaders from business, government, international organizations, civil society, academia, media and the arts are attending the meeting.