U.S. Climate Chief Calls On Africa To Slash Emissions

Africa, which is home to many of the most climate-vulnerable countries, needs to make its fair share of efforts to reduce global emissions and curb temperature rise, the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John Kerry, said at an African conference on the environment.

“It is true that 20 countries – including the United States — are now responsible for 80 percent of all emissions. It is also true that 48 countries in sub-Saharan Africa are responsible for only 0.55% of total emissions,” Kerry said in a speech at the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN).

“But we are all in this together. All of us are threatened by emissions — and Mother Nature does not care where those emissions come from. The challenge of the climate crisis comes from the crisis of emissions in every country — the cars we drive, how we cook our food, heat and cool our homes,” the special Presidential climate envoy said.

Many African nations argue that they wouldn’t curb investment in fossil fuels which are vital to allowing hundreds of millions of people access to electricity. The developed nations, for their part, are calling on Africa to help curb emissions, but no concrete plans have been proposed to help developing nations, including those in Africa, with increased funding to fight climate change.  

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During the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow last year, the world’s least developed countries said their concerns were not being heard by developed economies and called for support for poor countries.

The Least Developed Countries Group at UN Climate Change negotiations said the group of countries that “are the most impacted by the climate crisis despite contributing the least to it – is anxious to see real progress that will see emissions halved by 2030 and climate finance scaled up to support climate action in developing countries.”   

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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