Demeke Calls for Collective Voice of Africans on Climate Issues

Addis Ababa, August 17/2023 (ENA): Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Demeke Mekonnen has called on African countries to strengthen their collective voice on climate issues.

A two-day African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) is taking place in Addis Ababa. 

In his keynote opening speech to the conference today, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Demeke Mekonnen stated that climate change has serious impacts on different systems in Africa and influences the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2063. 

“Standing together in the matter of climate change and sustainable development is (therefore a continental) and global responsibility,” he noted.  

   Demeke recommended the African Group of Negotiators to come up with Africa’s common position and the need for enhancing global partnership.  

In her welcoming remark, Planning and Development Minister Fitsum Assefa said AMCEN is being held at a critical juncture where climate has become climate emergency.

 

She reiterated the government's commitment to the ratification of global multilateral environmental agreements and development, and the implementation of national environmental and climate change policies and strategies. 

Fitsum revealed the submission of Ethiopia’s updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its ambitious 68 percent emission reduction target, inclusion of 40 adaptation options in the updated NDC and the 20 percent finance commitment of the government to implement the NDC. 

According to the minister, “biodiversity is reducing at an alarming rate even when countries have adapted a framework to curb the situation. Our oceans are being choked with plastic while countries are striving to set ambitious targets on plastic production and use. Toxic chemicals and hazardous wastes have continued to be produced while countries have been striving towards obtaining legally binding agreements.” 

She added that Africans are the most vulnerable to these challenges and communities are being severely affected.

Therefore, this is a collective responsibility, Fitsum pointed out. 

The minister further pointed out Ethiopia’s commitment in implementing the Green Legacy Initiative by citing as an example the achievement in mobilizing more than 35 million people in a day to plant more than half a billion seedlings.

 

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Executive Secretary, Simon Stiell noted that many African countries are setting ambitious target in NDC’s, despite facing many development challenges.  

The Executive Secretary said, "We need transparent, equitable and simplified access to climate finance; particularly, for vulnerable countries in Africa. We need to see increased investment on climate resilient infrastructure, renewable energy, and sustainable agriculture.”