Africa can take the lead on climate and development agenda

Abstract

The UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, Mr. Carlos Lopes, has called on Africa to go beyond global negotiations on climate change in their current format and seek solutions that effectively address African concerns on global warming. Denouncing what he sees as negotiations which are “largely driven by global and external interests”, M. Lopes tabled a six-point agenda before some 500 experts, scientists and policymakers who began meeting in Addis Ababa today for the Third Annual Conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA III). He called on Africa to “firm up its own views on how to put the continent’s interest first”, saying that climate change offers Africa an array of incredible investment opportunities that can reap dividends. In this respect, he said that, because Africa is not locked in any technology preferences, it could follow a green and clean energy pathway and leapfrog old carbon-intensive models and pursue a low carbon development pathway.