African leaders summit to confront climate change

NAIROBI, Kenya

Kenya hopes to use a gathering of African leaders and delegations attending the inaugural Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi next week to discuss how to confront the devastating effects of climate change on the continent.

Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, helps a schoolboy to plant a tree at the Chobe National Park, Botswana.

Kenyan President William Ruto says the three-day summit, which kicks off on Monday, will take place at a time when the Africa continent faces unprecedented challenges and setbacks on global progress.

“Between 4^th and 6^th of September," he explained," Nairobi will host the Africa Climate Summit where our continent will gather to define and refine its fresh and distinctive position regarding how humanity should engage in effective action in order to save this planet from a climate catastrophe and at the same time lift hundreds of millions out of poverty.”

Kenya will co-host the inaugural Africa Climate Summit with the African Union Commission in Nairobi next week, starting on Monday through Wednesday.

Soipan Tuya, Kenya’s Environment, Climate Change and Forestry Cabinet Secretary, said, "The summit will be unique and special as it will be the first of a kind where all African heads of states and governments are convening under the umbrella of African Union dedicated to climate discussions. His Excellency President Ruto is clear that the summit will chart a green growth pathway for the African continent.”

As the impacts of climate change continue to intensify, the World Bank reports that millions of people across Sub-Saharan Africa are facing extreme poverty and suffering.

The increasing exposure to climate change and its associated costs has led to catastrophic droughts in the Horn of Africa, triggering a food shortage crisis exacerbated by the war in Ukraine.

The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is expected to attend the Nairobi summit.

Ambassador Stephen Jackson, the United Nations resident coordinator in Kenya, said, “What we found most inspiring in what the entire Kenyan leadership had to say was there are important questions to discuss about loss and damages; there are important questions to discuss about climate financing for adaptations, but this is not Africa coming with the begging bowl. This is Africa coming with solutions, and saying we have the solutions not only for the continent but for the globe.”

The establishment of a Loss and Damage Fund was the highlight of the last year’s United Nations Climate Conference (COP 27) in Egypt and the culmination of decades of pressure from climate-vulnerable developing countries.

FILE - Steam comes from a coal-fired power station in Witbank, now called Emalahleni, South Africa, Oct. 11, 2021. Courtesy

The fund aims to provide financial assistance to nations most vulnerable and impacted by the effects of climate change.

Officials say the Nairobi meeting, the first of its kind on the continent, will bring together leaders from Africa and beyond to come up with actions and solutions for tackling climate change, while prioritizing Africa’s development agenda.