by Joan Leon &Ibrahima Thiam

By Ibrahima Thiam

The 27th Conference of Parties holding in Egypt has been called the ‘African COP’ principally because it is holding on African soil. However, this is not sufficient to make a COP African. For this to happen, climate justice activists and heads of government and negotiators from Africa must insist that the peculiarities of Africa in the context of climate change are taken into consideration and acted upon.
Africa is one of the world’s most vulnerable regions to climate change impacts including in energy
sustainability, agriculture and other livelihoods, health, water, sanitation, security, ecosystem resilience,
migrations and population shifts, etc.

The challenges of climate change in Africa is not only found in how the weather is changing, but also how these changes are interacting and influencing the way people live, including how they provide for their livelihoods, their security, their habitation, their migration patterns and wellbeing.

The reality is that current responses from international frameworks and national governments to climate change fail to adequately address the African peculiarities and have rather compounded the problems and further entrenched the negative conditions of local communities.

For instance, warming in Africa is greater than the global average, and this trend is expected to continue into the near future. Current temperature targets being promoted and pursued by those not directly impacted, spells outright doom for Africa.