Africa rejects new climate change pact

The negotiators said that as the most vulnerable continent, Africa deserved the right for full support to adapt to climate change.

This is also due to the continent’s least contribution to the global greenhouse gas emissions yet its communities stand to suffer the most.

Concerning mitigation, the African negotiators would like to see a firewall maintained between mitigation commitments by all developed countries and mitigation actions by developing countries.

While developed Countries must reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020 and at least 80 per cent to 95 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050, in order to achieve the lowest level of stabilisation assessed by the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report, mitigation actions for Africa should be voluntary and nationally appropriate and must be fully supported and enabled by technology transfer, finance and capacity building from developed Countries.

Other key messages are related to institutional arrangements that must be equitable and transparent; Technology deployment, diffusion and transfer and institutional capacity in Africa.