Why Africa is its own worst enemy in climate crisis fight

Africa leaders need to grow a pair of cojones and either drop this ambitious climate change talk or tell a few truths to the polluters that, going forward, Africa will only deal based on certain parameters. 

The leaders were in Ethiopia attending the second Africa Climate Summit (ACS2.0).

Talks were held, promises made, reports released, and the feat culminated in the commissioning of the Ethiopian GERD dam, a project that has made relations between Egypt and Ethiopia frosty. So tense is the situation that during the Africa Cup of Nations qualifier match between Ethiopia and Egypt, a sports fan noted the resilience of the Ethiopian side, saying it’s because ‘we are playing Egypt’.Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed opened the summit, saying the discussion is shifting from waiting for saviours to crafting homegrown solutions. President William Ruto, who has been a climate change activist, also weighed in, saying the time for the continent has arrived and went on to talk about the potential the continent has. That is where the joke began. In Nairobi, during the first Africa Climate Summit, among the resolutions was that the continent needs to increase power generation to 300 gigawatts by 2030.

In five years, to this lofty ambition, the progress made so far is a paltry 4.4 gigawatts in two years. One of the continent's big power projects is the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Inga Dam project. It is projected to produce more than 40 gigawatts of clean energy. Projected to cost 80 billion dollars, if fully operational, it should power the continent to prosperity. However, the development of this dam has been painstaking.

It is not just the development partners, who happen to be the polluters, who are dragging their feet, but a peek into the political upheavals in the country reveals that leadership is the problem. The DRC government recently auctioned its rare earths to the US and got military protection against its enemies.

Should this deal have factored in the green energy push? If the leaders were thinking long-term, it should have been done years ago when the proposals were being tabled. What about the $26 billion fund that was mooted, but there is no specific way of monitoring how much has come in or has been invested?

When the African delegation was heading to Baku for the COP 29, they were huffing and puffing, saying it is the continent’s way or the highway. They even stormed out of the Azerbaijan discussion after they were told to shove their $1.3 trillion demand as compensation. In a few weeks, after the Addis Ababa agreements, the delegations will converge in Brazil’s Belem city for the COP 30.

The same talk, threats and unfulfilled promises are what Africa is settling for, knowing very well that it holds the trump card on matters of climate change. The polluters are now peddling nice-sounding projects to Africa’s leadership and making them sound like the panacea to this crisis. Carbon markets, sinks and anything with a green prefix are what polluters are offering as a solution, not cutting down on the emissions.

Some multinationals in the oil and gas sector are leading the green push even as they exploit and prospect for more fossil fuels. It is time the leadership stopped begging for a fair financial system or for a reasonable loss and damage fund.

These are the continent’s rights. The problem is that we have set such a low bar and sell ourselves short at the international platform that we are not being taken seriously.

The African Credit Rating agency is a butt of jokes by the purse holders, even though it is yet to be realised. As opposed to individual countries trading their resources for a pittance, why can’t it be Africa on the negotiating table?

Instead of the US dictating exploitative terms to the DRC, why can’t the countries stop the fighting and trade better? Why can’t Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia find a way of utilising the Nile waters without threats and cases at the UN? Isn’t the potential drying up of the Nile’s source, courtesy of the climate crisis, a bigger worry for Egypt and Sudan? 

Yet again, we go to Brazil as a battered lot. We won’t get anything from the polluters, and it will need another summit and another conference to deliberate on the failure. Man up, bargain for our future as a united leadership.

FWWanyonyi@standardmedia.co.ke