Global warming looms large as one of the factors set to negate the progress many African countries have made over the years towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Crop failures and declining agricultural production due to drought, floods, or unpredictable and untimely rain fall have exacerbated the continent’s food security crisis.  In many countries on the continent dwindling essential resources such as water reserves have heightened fears of an unprecedented outbreak of disease and death. Climate change is no longer only about the rise in the earth’s temperature, in Africa it has also become a paramount development issue where the sustainable livelihood of millions of Africans is at risk, particularly among those that are the most vulnerable and least able to respond to the negative effects of climate change in communities that are being vastly undermined. 

Under these critical circumstances, it should now be the mandate of the world’s leaders from Africa, Europe, Asia, and North and South America to protect their communities and the wellbeing of the world’s citizens across the globe.  

Equally important, that is not only a call for Africa’s leaders to galvanize their efforts in addressing the ramifications of climate change in their countries, but for the developed countries to ensure that African leaders are given the necessary consideration and platform to voice their opinions in the debate on global climate change. Africans have as much to lose as their Western counterparts and it is critical that their voices and concerns are inclusively heard on a topic that threatens the survival and sustainability of our entire global community. 

The 2009 Copenhagen Summit, with its none-legally blinding ‘Copenhagen Accord’ and a fading pledge by developed countries to jointly mobilize $100bn a year by 2020, has reignited the fear that the climate change problem will persist with little action. The ‘blame game’ between rich and poor countries continues to be a sore point in trying to establish a unified global leadership agenda against this phenomenon. But the dynamics of the relationship between rich and poor countries with respect to global warming warrants the urgent and vocal stance of many developing countries.

According to the President of Cameroon, Paul Biya, “Africa generates but a small fraction, estimated at 3 percent, of the global community’s greenhouse gas emissions, yet it suffers the effects of this pollution disproportionately.” Therefore, the grievance of developing countries such as those in Africa is real.  How do they effectively grow and sustain their economies and manage their resources to meet their development needs, and at the same time be burdened with paying the price for a problem they had little to nothing to do with?  Many African leaders are taking the initiative and rising to the challenge to mitigate the effects of climate change.  They remain committed to taking advantage of the potential opportunities for a sustainable ‘green gold’ economic development agenda that many of these countries had envisaged for their future.  These leaders are convinced that economic growth and environmental protection should not be incompatable. 

In 1999 seven Central African nations, hosted by Cameroon’s Biya produced an agreement over the proper management and stewardship of one of Africa’s most fragile ecosystems and the world’s second largest rainforest, the Congo Basin Region, to minimize the effects of polution and climate change.  Throughout the continent there is growing recognition among Africans that their region needs to chart its own course in protecting itself against the threat of environmental and economic degradation.  The recent climate change strategy talks held in South Africa concluded with South Africa’s environment minister along with her counterparts from three other developing countries, stressing that this year’s upcoming climate talks in Mexico, or the talks to take place in South Africa in 2011 need to produce a binding international agreement to reduce greenhouse gases and to help poor countries cope with climate change.  But Africa can not go it alone, as Jean Ping, Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union noted in recently held talks with senior White House officials, “the AU's 53 member states face issues which are global problems, which can only be solved globally.”

Climate change is not just Africa’s problem; it’s not just poor countries’ problem; it’s not just rich countries' problem – it is everyone’s problem. All of us are expected to be negatively impacted if little or no action is taken. Africans have an equal right to be at the discussion table and African leadership should be supported and encouraged  to play their role in slowing the effects of climate change. As President Biya rightly noted in his address during the Copenhagen Summit, “his country and the rest of the countries of the Congo Basin Region are experiencing the full brunt of climate change,” such as the drying up of Lake Chad, and he stated that “global climate change needs a global mobilization and solution. The time for action is now.”

By Melvin P. Foote

President and CEO of the Constituency for Africa (CFA) and expert on issues concerning Africa and the African Diaspora.