AU Tips Climate Change As Panacea For Africa 's Development

AU Tips Climate Change As Panacea For Africa 's Development

African Union Commission Chairperson, Jean Ping, has said that climate change provided an opportunity for Africa to pursue a sustainable development path.

Speaking on Monday in Addis Ababa at the meeting of the committee of African Heads of State and Government on Climate Change (CAHOSCC), Ping  noted that climate change promoted responsive leadership and good governance at all levels.

Untapped opportunities

He emphasised the need for Africa to focus on its key sectors, including energy, water, agriculture, in the post 2012 new international funding architecture for climate change.

He was quoted as saying that opportunities abound in Africa to harness its water resources not only for developing its hydropower sector, but also to boost agricultural productivity.

Ping stated that the conference on Agriculture, Climate Change, and Food Security hosted by the African Union (AU) in collaboration with the Government of Ethiopia, FAO, and others, urged implementation of Africa adaptation measures.

“The key messages of the conference informed the outcomes of the Global Conference on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change that took place in the Hague ,'' he noted.

Ping said the recent conference of African Ministers of Agriculture in Malawi , reviewed the AU-NEPAD Agriculture Climate Change Adaptation-Mitigation Framework.

He said that the conference's framework would play a key role in enhancing coherence, harmonisation and alignment of the various programmes on agriculture, climate change and financing.

Implementing climate change programmes

Ping lauded the role of CAHOSCC in continually strategising for the continent's legitimate climate change concerns and interests at Conference of Parties and said that Africa must reaffirm its priorities to implement climate change programmes and projects, by promoting a moral obligation to safeguard the livelihoods of its peoples.

Ping said the CAHOSCC meeting would further afford the continent the opportunity to give political leadership and guidance on emerging issues following key climate change related talks held in 2009 in Copenhagen, before the Cancun conference.

The Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Mr. Meles Zenawi, said the committee was striving to have a common climate agenda, aimed at pursuing a common goal to be presented at the Cancun conference in Mexico .

Zenawi, who is the Chairman of CAHOSCC, said the committee would ensure a united agenda that would be presented at the 16 th and the 17 th Conference of Parties (CoP) in Mexico and South Africa respectively.

NAN/Evelyn/Yinka