The president of Kenya, William Ruto, demanded on Sunday, February 19, that wealthy nations be held responsible for causing global warming and that international financial institutions be improved to help combat climate change.
Despite being least responsible for carbon emissions, poorer countries, particularly those in Africa, have been disproportionately hard struck by the effects of climate change, which have exacerbated droughts and flooding.
Ruto stated that the timing was right for a “paradigm shift” in an interview conducted on the sidelines of the African Union summit in the capital city of Ethiopia, Addis Abeba.
“We are at a place where we have no options,” he told AFP.
Africa as a “asset” in climate negotiations
He urged wealthy nations and financial institutions to start seeing Africa as “an asset” in climate discussions, saying that the situation “is not getting better unless something gives way and until we have an honest debate.”
“We want a system that is accountable, that holds the emitters who pollute the world to account. If it is not accountable, then it is corrupt,” Ruto said, adding that Africa should not be treated as “beggars” in climate talks.
African nations have long demanded that the biggest polluters in the world pay for the “loss and damage” that their emissions have resulted in.
The most recent round of UN climate talks, held in Egypt last year, reached an agreement on a fund to pay for the costs associated with natural disasters and effects like rising sea levels that are connected to climate change. Activists claim that the fund is still empty.
Yet more needs to be done, according to Ruto, the chair of the African leaders’ committee on climate change, including a strategy to lower emissions from fossil fuels that heat the earth.
“Continuing the impunity of turning on fossil fuel, turning on coal as is happening today puts the whole globe at risk,” Ruto said.
“We cannot be that reckless. We cannot be indifferent.”
The world’s financial system is unfair.
According to the Kenyan president, if any progress was to be made, Africa must be viewed as a crucial partner, and the world financial system must be completely revamped.
“Emitters and polluters get better rates for development than us… is it the case that those who have caused the least pollution are being punished?””
At the meeting on Saturday, UN leader Antonio Guterres claimed that African countries were subject to a “extortionate” global financial system that was “dysfunctional and unfair” and charged them exorbitant interest rates.
Experts caution that as a result of global warming, droughts, floods, storms, and heat waves will only get worse and more common.
Extreme weather is becoming more frequent and intense in the Horn of Africa, one of the areas most vulnerable to climate change.
Since the end of 2020, the residents of the affected areas—who make a living primarily via herding and subsistence farming—have been suffering through five consecutive bad rainy seasons.
In places affected by the greatest drought, around 22 million people in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia are at risk of going hungry.
“We haven’t made our voice clear. We haven’t spoken about this loud enough,” Ruto said.
African leaders are gathering in Addis Abeba to discuss a number of concerns, including the continent’s record drought and a sputtering free trade agreement, among others.
Guterres also said Saturday that Africa faced “enormous tests… on virtually every front,” and it was bearing the brunt of multiple crises it had no hand in generating.
“The brutal injustice of climate change is on full display with every flood, drought, famine and heatwave endured on this continent,” he added.
