Africa: A Potential Market For Clean Development
Technologies- Zenawi
Africa
has been described as a Continent with great
potential market for clean development technologies
and the creation of a potential carbon sink.
The Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi made this
comment during a meeting convened by the UN Economic
Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa to promote the
African negotiating position on Climate Change.
The continent’s spokesman on climate change said
Africa had "no intention to free-ride" a post-Kyoto
agreement.
He said that Africa’s interest was not to claim
compensation for climate change and its damages but
to prevent that from happening. In his words, “It
makes no sense to us for someone to make large parts
of our continent unliveable and then pay some
compensation for doing so."
Appreciation
Zenawi's message was warmly welcomed by
representatives of rich countries attending the
meeting, many of which have lobbied for developing
countries in particular, the more economically
advanced ones to make stronger commitments to
mitigation.
The Ethiopian Minister was chosen to chair a new
high-level committee to steer the African
negotiation process by heads of state meeting in
Libya last week.
It is the first time that Africa has spoken with one
voice at international climate negotiations.
Zenawi said by partnering with Africa on green
development, the developed world could create a more
robust market and overall environment for the
mitigation efforts that it alone must shoulder.
Scidev / Qasim / Funke