A coalition of environmental groups, comprising activists and climate crusaders have demanded immediate climate justice, an end to fossil fuel extraction, payment of loss and damages and reparations, among others, to African countries by the Global North responsible for over 95 percent of global greenhouse emissions and worsening climate crisis worldwide.
The groups made the demands at a post-event media briefing in Lagos to unveil their declarations after the first African People’s Counter COP (APCC), which was held in Sally, Senegal from October 7 to October 10, 2024 under the aegis of the African Climate Justice Collective (ACJC) with the theme: Africa United Against Systemic Oppression and Climate Change.
Exposing the hypocrisy and lip service being paid to climate solutions at previous Conference of the Parties (COP) meetings, which they described as ‘a jamboree,’ they argued that the APCC was held because all the COPs since inception had been co-opted by capitalism and the Global North, which continues to replicate the injustices that caused the climate crisis.
“Therefore, we as the Global South and Africans in particular, need to lead actions that remedy the climate crises in a just and holistic manner,” they stressed.
The Nigerian groups that signed the declarations are the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA); Community Development Advocacy Foundation (CODAF); Sustainable Research and Action for Environmental Development (SRADev Nigeria); the Center for Earth Works (CFEW); Pan African Vision for the Environment (PAVE) and the Renevlyn Development Initiative (RDI).
Others are the Environmental Defenders Network (EDEN); Green Knowledge Foundation (GKF); Policy Alert; Lekeh Development Foundation (LDF) and Community Action Against Plastic Wastes (CAAPW).
Their representatives y joined over 100 participants from social movements, grassroots communities, civil society organizations, academics, experts and others from Republic of Benin; Burkina Faso; Cameroun; Côte d’Ivoire; Democratic Republic of Congo; Gabon; Gambia; Ghana; Kanya; Mali; Mauritius; Mauritania; Madagascar; Mozambique; Niger; Nigeria; Senegal; Sierra Leone; South Africa; Togo and Zimbabwe.
Representatives of CODAF, a member of the GAIA coalition, who attended the APCC, Melody Eyinnaya and Elvira Jordan, who presented the declarations at the weekend in company of the Executive Director of RDI and Anthony Akpan of PAVE, insisted that the only way countries of the Global South, and especially Africa can be rewarded for the grave environmental harms caused by the Global North was to ensure climate justice and pay reparations to Africa.
“We demand climate justice for Global South communities at the centre of the climate crisis. The Global North Nations who have contributed the most to the crisis must lead the process of cutting emissions at source, and fund the needed energy transition as payment for the climate debt owed to the Global South.
“We call for reparations, remediation and compensation to the impacted peoples of Africa. We denounce all forms of false solutions to climate change such as REDD+, Net zero and Geo-engineering which further entrenched the climate crises,” they said.
They also demanded an end to all forms of fossil fuel exploration, extraction and production across Africa must be halted immediately, adding that it was time to prioritize sustainable practices through people-centred renewable energy sources that protect Africa’s ecosystems and support local economies.
“Fossil fuel companies must pay for the rehabilitation of degraded land, oceans and rivers resulting from hydrocarbon extraction,” they stressed.
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“With increasing climate crises, many Africans are forced to migrate, risking their lives in dangerous journeys to the Global North or becoming climate refugees within Africa leading to food, land and conflict insecurities. Addressing this requires mitigating climate impacts, such as droughts, flooding and desertification and ensuring that communities have the resources to remain in their homelands.
“Climate reparations, alongside colonial reparations, must be paid to African nations and the Global South, reflecting the scale of damage caused by climate change and historical exploitation. These reparations should be in the form of grants, not loans that further entrench debt.
“African countries should focus on value-added beneficiation and strategic partnerships that elevate Africa’s position in the value chain. There is an urgent need for structural tax reform of the current financial architecture to ensure that transnational corporations (TNCs) pay appropriate taxes in their host countries from where they extract resources, rather than their headquartered nations,” the declarations read.
They also demanded that African governments must embrace food sovereignty by prioritizing local food crops over cash crops and promoting seed preservation methods that resist genetically modified organisms (GMOs) crops.
“This protection must include ratified binding policies such as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas. There is an urgent need to re-evaluate customary laws that empower local communities.
“The shift to renewable energy within Africa must be supported as a priority before Africa exports our resources for the Global North’s transition. Renewable energy projects must be socially owned and benefit local communities before industry. The transition must be grassroots-driven, ensuring that policies prioritize the well-being of people and the environment, not corporate profits,” they added.
Further insisting that Africa is not a dumping ground and Africans are not disposable, they stated: “It is, therefore, paramount for us as Africans to adapt to the Global Plastics Treaty, which allows us to address plastic pollution across its lifecycle, from extraction to production to disposal.
“Communities’ rights to Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) need to be ratified and implemented in all extractive projects. Communities must have the right to say no or yes to development. Should communities say yes, they should dictate the terms of the project in a manner that benefits them and their environments, compensations should be commensurate with the level of displacement and losses.
“African peoples, governments, negotiators on climate change and the African Union (AU) should rise against systematic oppression and climate injustice by sharing their resilience skills and traditional knowledge through storytelling, experience sharing and learning and put this knowledge into practice in our African communities. This knowledge must be respected and incorporated into other systems and processes, as expert knowledge demands,” they concluded.
