Windhoek is playing host to the annual Climate Change and Development in Africa conference in which participants are expected to focus on how to scale up the use of renewable energy on the continent.
Organizers of the event, which comes less than two weeks to the global U.N climate summit, said the meeting is a final chance for the continent’s negotiators, government officials, climate scientists, grassroots civil societies and farming associations to fine tune the continent’s interests and agree on a common position to promote at COP27.
According to Africa Climate Policy Centre‘s James Murombedzi, how the continent will transition towards clean energy without leaving the poorest communities behind and ensuring renewables help boost nations’ economies will form the major discussion point during the conference.
“Participants are also likely to look at how to finance more renewable power on the continent as well as seek additional funds to help vulnerable communities adapt to weather extremes and ensure food security,” he added.
Instructively, according to International Renewable Energy Agency, Africa attracted juts two per cent of the world’s clean energy investment in the last 20 years. African countries are increasingly calling on the global north to account for the damage it does to the environment through pollution.
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“As we have argued for decades, adaptation and increasingly loss and damage are the main climate action priorities for the continent,” Mithika Mwenda, one of the meeting’s co-conveners and part of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance, said.
Data shows that Africa is responsible for about three per cent to four per cent of global emissions despite being home to nearly 17 per cent of the world’s population but experts say it is particularly vulnerable to climate change as it’s less able to adapt.
