Group photo of different participants, journalists, trainers and Organizers of the conference.
The conference was jointly organised by Media for Environment, Science and Agriculture (MESHA), Power Shift Africa, and Rwanda Media Commission (RMC).
It gathered more than 50 journalists and experts from Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, and Ethiopia.
Climate scientists have stressed that Africa should use the COP 27 Conference to advance the continent’s climate change goals ahead of the 2022 United Nations climate change conference starting in November in Sharm El Sheikh, EgyptMohamed Adow, Power Shift Africa director, said that Africa, which is home to about 17% of the world’s population, accounts for around 4% of the global emissions annually.
“What we neglect is that on historical terms, the 17% of the global population resides in Africa that is domiciled in this part of the world only accounts for 0.5% of the historical emissions.” He added.
Pre-COP27 media conference in Kigali city Rwanda, thanks to different partners from across Africa.
Deputy director-general at the Rwanda Environment Management Authority, Faustine Munyazikwiye, said that Africa’s key priorities need to be highlighted at the gathering.
“We need to work together and this COP 27 should be the wake-up call to all African countries and make it our COP.”
These experts emphasized that the climate talks need an overhaul to cut back the scale of the climate crisis and rectify injustices in the current system.
Effects of Climate Change include hot temperatures, greenhouse gas concentrations rise, global surface temperature, severe storms, increased drought, floods, warming and rising oceans, among others that may be hazardous to environment.
The COP 26 Presidency and the incoming-COP 27 Presidency are committed to ensuring a transparent and inclusive process in the lead-up to COP 27 to be convened in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt from 6 – 18 November 2022.
Throughout the year, the Presidencies will engage at ministerial, head of delegation and technical levels, as appropriate on issues critical to the delivery of work in 2022 and the success of COP 27. Regular multilateral consultations at the level of heads of delegation will provide an opportunity for Parties to engage informally on specific issues and make progress in preparation for Sharm el-Sheikh.
About the UNFCCC
With 197 Parties, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has near universal membership and is the parent treaty of the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement. The main aim of the Paris Agreement is to keep a global average temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius and to drive efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The UNFCCC is also the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The ultimate objective of all agreements under the UNFCCC is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system, in a time frame which allows ecosystems to adapt naturally and enables sustainable development.
Twahirwa Umumarashavu Janat.
