Joint Action on Climate Change: African Countries -Part of the Problem or Part of the Solution?
Loading...
Date
2015
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Climate change and the associated global warming are a major challenge in
the world today: extreme weather events such as flood and droughts; food
insecurity and famine; disease etc. are reported to be exacerbated by the
climate change. Greenhouse gas (GHG) emission is considered to be
responsible for this change. On one hand, it is believed that the weakest
economies (the majority of sub-Saharan countries) and disadvantaged
poorest people are more vulnerable to impacts of climate change. On the
other hand Sub-Saharan Africa contributes about 3% to GHG emissions, with
per capita GHG emission standing at about 2.3 tCO2e compared to about 24.1
tCO2e for North America. Mechanisms that have been put in place to
mitigate climate change, such as the Clean Development Mechanism, have
not significantly benefitted Africa. This paper discusses the inadequacies of
the existing mechanisms to mitigate climate change in the African context. It
argues that currently Africa is neither part of the problem nor part of the
solution. This, therefore, calls for a separate mechanism for Africa in the next
round of climate negotiations.
Description
Keywords
Clean Development Mechanism, Greenhouse gases, Climate change