MONROVIA-The vast majority of Liberian young adults 18-38 is unskilled and unemployed. This constituency group makes up 65 % percent of the population and they hold 45 percent of the world’s rainforest that purifies carbon emissions created by industrialized nations.
The Youth Climate Change Preparedness Conference organized in partnership with the National Climate Change Committee gears towards developing Liberian Youth With Climate Finance.
Africa owed a ‘debt of broken promises’ by developed nations despite the scale of existing and declared solutions, a sense of disappointment pervaded the African Adaptation Summit held in Rottenham by African Union leaders on September 9, 2022.
Those attending criticized the speed at which Financial and climate pledges were being delivered.
UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed warned that “the Glasgow Pact is at risk of failing” and highlighted that emissions only rising despite the Paris Agreement.
Yet, African leaders above all expressed regrets that key decision-makers – developed world leaders and the private sector – were not present. “The higher polluters would have immediate answers for us,” DRC President Felix Tshisekedi stated.
Mohammed added that “what is now at risk is that you add another debt to Africa – one of broken promises.”
Attending was Ghana’s Nana Akufo-Addo, Senegal’s Macky Sall, Dutch PM Mark Rutte and DRC’s Felix Tshisekedi at the African Adaptation Summit. From industrialised nations’ leaders, only Dutch PM Mark Rutte and the European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans show up at the summit in person. Traditional donor countries, such as France, the UK, and Norway, sent their ministers for international development as representatives. Danish PM Mette Frederiksen sent a pre-recorded statement.
In total, the donors announced €55 million in new contributions:
African leaders welcomed the contributions and highlighted that African unity cannot pass notice. “I am convinced that those who are not here] will hear about the importance of this event,” President Tshisekedi asserted. GCA’s head Patrick Verkooijen expressed the need for “a much deeper conversation with the private sector on how we can bring them to the table” before COP27
Climate Justice Against The Cost-Of-Living Crisis
The attendees spoke in unison about Africa’s heightened vulnerability to climate change – despite the continent’s minuscule contributions to the crisis. AfDB’s Adesina highlighted that although Africa has emitted less than 3 percent of historical global emissions, 9 out of 12 countries most vulnerable to climate change are on the continent. This inequality is the foundation of African countries’ demands.
Beyond climate justice, the leaders highlighted the benefits of timely adaptation efforts.
Paying for climate adaptation is cheaper than paying the bills every time there is a climate disaster.
The promise to finance developing countries’ climate adaptation has been in place since 2009. During COP15 in Copenhagen, developed countries to jointly mobilise $100 billion (almost €101 billion) a year by 2020 to respond to developing countries’ climate needs.
The Glasgow Climate Pact signed last year at COP26, urges developed nations to at least double collective climate finance for adaptation. The yearly funding gap, howeveer, will likely reach US$41.3 billion (€41.6 billion) by 2030 according to the Global Center on Adaptation.
Liberian citizens depend on subsistence farming, drastically handicapped by a challenging economy and aggravated by climate change, for its living. Agricultural activity and associated productivity have been declining in Africa over the last decades.
This is substantially due to African nations being hit with a series of climate related droughts and other climate hazards. Over the past two decades, African countries have made significant progress in planning climate-resilient and low-greenhouse gas emissions activities to address climate related challenges.
As the continent most vulnerable to climate change, efforts have been made by governments to develop plans, strategic documents and frameworks, as well as institutional settings, and to guide socio-economic paths towards sustainable development.
As of today, most countries’ plans fall short to support their preparation to global challenges related to climate change and SDGs. Conflicting urgencies persistently defy the prioritization of the climate change agenda.
These plans also need to attract finance and investment at an adequate scale, either from domestic or international sources, to be implemented.
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