Participants at the just-ended first physical conference in Saly, Senegal have emphasised the need to highlight the impacts and viable solutions of climate change on African communities.
The African People’s Counter Cop stated this at the end of the first physical conference in Saly, Senegal, after three years of virtual convening on the theme: Africa United Against Systematic Oppression and Climate Injustice.
This is as the African People’s Counter Cop (APCC) criticised the Conference of the Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of Parties (UNFCCC) of fueling the climate crises, while falsely claiming to solve the causes of climate change.
The participants, however, demanded reformation of land laws and promotion of food sovereignty, involvement of the impacted and marginalized people in decision-making, and stoppage of waste colonialism, among others.
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The APCC further demanded climate justice for natives of the Global South and Africans who are at the centre of the climate action, energy sovereignty and democracy.
The body decried the exclusion of African voices from the COP of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of Parties (UNFCCC).
COP is the supreme decision-making body of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
But, the conference affirmed that the solutions on the impacts of climate change were done through knowledge sharing and activism from the most vulnerable African communities at the frontline of the climate crisis, especially women and youths, activists as well as Civil Society Organizations (CSOs).
The participants observed that APCC has created a space, where the voices of grassroots communities and activists were heard, and lauded the COP, where these voices are marginalised.
According to them, the conference afforded delegates the opportunity to share their stories of climate change impacts, which included droughts, floods, erosion, crop failure, cyclones, sea level rise, dust storms and threats to marine and terrestrial ecosystems, which they said were compounded by resource and land-grabbing, including climate-induced conflict.
‘‘The negative impacts of climate change, ecological and social crisis the participants noted, have resulted in displacement, loss of livelihoods, related losses and damages, victimisation, arrests, harassment and even death of community members and activists who defend their territories.
Thematic areas of discuss during the conference included: Food Sovereignty, Just Transitions that interrogated labour considerations in energy sovereignty, Zero Waste Systems, Climate Finance among other areas.
The African People’s Counter COP (APCC) became necessary because the COP has been co-opted by capitalism and the Global North, which according to the organizers, has continued to replicate the injustices that caused the climate crisis.
The participants, as natives of the Global South and Africans in particular, resolved that there was need for them to lead actions that will remedy the climate crisis in such a manner that is just and holistic.
More than 100 participants drawn from social movements, grassroots communities, women, youth, civil society organisations, academics, workers, leaders of NGOs and several others from 21 countries took part in the conference.
Reported by By Emmanuel Okon
