The Africa Climate Summit must reject false solutions that worsen the climate crisis, says ActionAid

Addis Ababa – At the second Africa Climate Summit, leaders have a unique opportunity to agree on a pathway that ensures a just and sustainable move away from climate-harming fossil fuels and industrial agriculture. ActionAid believes that the summit presents an opportunity to centre the rights of frontline communities and to reject false solutions that do more harm than good, such as carbon offsets. 

ActionAid also insists that the Summit safeguards the voices, rights, and needs of women, communities, indigenous peoples, young people, workers, and climate-vulnerable groups.

Emmaqulate Kemunto, Africa Regional Campaigner at ActionAid International, said: 

“Africa continues to bear the brunt of the climate crisis. The time has come to demand a just transition from fossil fuels and industrial agriculture. 

“At this Summit, we need Africa’s heads of state and policymakers to ensure that the deals and commitments made deliver a just transition for Africa, by Africa. This means, for instance, committing only to climate financing mechanisms, partnerships and pathways that centre the needs and rights of the people of Africa and not of polluting countries and corporations.” 

The climate crisis is a debt and human rights crisis in Africa, and the time has come to reject climate finance mechanisms and solutions that worsen the impacts of the climate crisis. 

Nigus Simane, the Country Director of ActionAid Ethiopia, said: 

“The time has come for Africa to show leadership and forge a new pathway to address the climate crisis based on the principles of justice, inclusion and equity. The rights of people most affected by the climate crisis must be at the centre of conversations to move away from the systems and false solutions that have perpetuated climate injustice. 

ActionAid has set four major asks of the second Africa Climate Summit:

1. Climate finance for a just transition for Africa. Climate finance for a just transition in Africa must be grant-based, not loans. Countries should support the UN Tax Convention negotiations, tackle tax dodging and illicit financial flows, as well as promote equitable and progressive tax measures to make rich polluters pay. The time has come for African countries to hold the line and demand cancellation of unfair debt.  
2. A just transition for Africa by Africa. We do not accept transition measures that exacerbate inequalities, that violate people’s rights, that enhance poverty, that put profit over people. Africa’s vulnerable communities, young people, women, and indigenous peoples must be at the centre of just transition planning processes.
3. Agree to invest more public finance in agroecology and other community-led solutions to the climate crisis.
4. No false solutions! African governments must push back against false solutions and technologies such as gene editing, geoengineering, and carbon offsets.