The African climate change summit just ended days ago in far away Nairobi Kenya with a call for African countries to be part of the ongoing strategies to find lasting solutions to the toxic discuss on impact of climate change on the region.
The gathering which brought leaders of different organizations, heads of states, and over 500 civil society advocacy groups provided just another platform to review the subject matter, with special focus on three key areas, which include climate change, climate change finance, and the future of of Africa’s energy system.
The summit tagged as, “The real Africa change summit” by participating civil society groups, seeks new grounds to make Africa a hub for clean energy, and one which sought a new role for Africa in the coming years, as a potential leader in low carbon economy based development.
One of the fall outs from the summit is the Renewed concerns expressed by the civil society organizations, that efforts to make the continent push it’s agenda for achieving it’s renewable clean energy revolution may not be achievable at least in the near future amidst continued and intensified exploration activities by fossil fuel companies on the continent’s oil and gas resources , particularly in the face of new exploration activities within the biodersity hotspots in Namibia and Senegal for example .
Just few Months ago the British government granted new licenses to exploration companies thereby raising questions among some interest groups including some members of parliament on the commitment of the home government to the energy transition deadline and the double standards by the global north on their commitment to ending the challenges of climate change in Africa and elsewhere .
The Nairobi summit which ended without a strong call for ending oil and gas exploration over a specified timeline only exposes the double standard by leaders within the continent, leading to the call by some of the participating civil society groups which included Nigeria’s health of mother foundation, for an urgent need for African leaders through the African union instruments to find home grown solutions to building renewable energy systems, electrification, including other critical infrastructure to drive the clean energy revolution in the region, in the face of emerging facts suggesting that western driven solutions on climate change are indeed structured to sustain the status quo.
One other critical fall outs of the Nairobi summit is the call by civil society groups for the continent’s leaders to also develop the continent’s energy systems in such a manner to meet the needs of Africans rather thinking only of energy for export.
