The International Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) in its 5th Assessment Report shows that Africa will be the worst hit continent by the impacts of climate change with about 350-600million Africans suffering water stresses by 2050, 1.5 – 3⁰ C average rise in temperatures and in many countries agriculture constrained up to almost 50%. By any standard, those are alarming statistics and yet that is barely half of the expected effects.
One would think such news would put the whole world in some sort of frenzy to help get the poor African nations out of this “should be” alarming situation before the actual catastrophe hit, but no, the world is calm. It will remain calm for a long while until the catastrophe is so bad, much worse than the EBOLA pandemic, then shall Africa get aid. As expected, Africa’s knights in shining armor will be the developed countries bringing the needy and impoverished food and clothing. giving them the fish as usual and never really teaching them how to catch it, exiling Africans to permanent dependency.
At that point in time however, the Africans are always too desperate to realize what’s going on and the cycle will continue. At the end of the day, Africans will be dying in the usual expected numbers, in millions and the world will pretend to wonder and be so saddened by a catastrophe that they long predicted would happen. In fact were so sure it would happen but chose to do nothing about it.
HYPOCRISY?
All through the various international climate change negotiations, many developed countries have played their part in acting so concerned for not just Africa but for all developing nations. This feigned concern is so painfully obvious that in all fairness, the climate change negotiations are the biggest organized international mockery of developing countries ever held.
Majority of industries (causing major pollution) in developing nations are owned by investors from developed countries ranging from a developing China to the developed European and American moguls. These same developed nations that are pledging to dig Africa out of the predicted climate change doom are in fact at the forefront of driving her into a climate change abyss, signing mining and fossil fuel exploration deals here and there, literally stealing minerals worth billions of dollars in the name “developing Africa”.
Ever wondered what happened to walking the talk?
Morality is indeed a rarity and no wonder the climate justice movement clamors in vain. Rich countries shamelessly continue to raise the hopes of developing countries promising to give them billions of dollars to solve their problems, breaking those promises, re-pledging and breaking their promises again and again. It is no wonder that since 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark, only $30billion of the $100billion has been given. Even so, that $30billion was spent on logistical expenses of expatriates from developed countries travelling to discuss climate change issues in poor countries. Even after failing developing nations with this, Germany goes ahead to pledge another 4billion euros per year.
You therefore cannot blame Robert Chimambo (the PAN African Climate Justice Alliance Southern Africa representative) when he says:
“You know these people (developed nations) are very clever; we shall sign these things with good English, but how do we implement? They can agree as they did in the US$100 billion in Copenhagen, but did that money come? We hear that in other places they send their own delegations to discuss climate change and pay for those and call that climate change money. There is a lot of crockery.”
PAN African Climate Justice Alliance says rich countries should be transparent on climate change negotiations and fulfill their 2009 Copenhagen pledge of US$100 billion to save the lives of millions of Africans from climate change-related deaths.
I say Africa is not going to get any help from developed nations, not directly at least, indirectly, maybe and for that matter the elaborate proceedings will lead to no actual action or implementation. These global climate change action were a fallacy from the very beginning. The best bet for African nations is to take charge of their own destiny and work on a tangible plan that works for them and if somehow they get lucky and get funded, good, otherwise, there is no deal coming out of Paris.
