Financial Energy Review
……by Ben Ndubuwa……
Africa has been described to be the solution to climatic change as it stands to play a major role in the global campaign to reduce carbon emissions. This is based on the fact that the huge natural resources in Africa will no doubt be the determinate factor in net-zero narratives.
Speaking yesterday at the Asharami Square, a Sahara Group Initiative aimed at promoting sustainability through effective media advocacy, the keynote speaker, Dr. Chichi Aniagolu-Okoye, Regional Director, West Africa Ford Foundation said in her paper titled “Carbon Footprint and the Africa Narrative” that Africa should not be seen as the victim of climatic change but as the solution to climatic change. “Africa story should be understood and narrated properly,” she said.
According to her, the climatic change is real and has an existential threat. She insisted that the African narrative should not be focused on challenges but on opportunities. “We must highlight Africa’s contributions to climate feasibility to the World,” she said.
Aniagolu-Okoye pointed out that two major narratives are ongoing in Africa, The first is that Africa should not be dictated for on the route to follow. The argument is that Africa has huge natural resources and can always use the natural resources to develop at her our pace. However, She said the fact remains that if the developed West insists that such natural resources are not good enough for carbon emission reduction, then Africa may be in a dilemma on how to exploit and produce those natural resources because Africa does not have the technology to develop those natural resources.
Secondly, as carbon reduction is a must for the world, Africa cannot shy away from this reality and therefore should follow the rest of the world to be part of the campaign even though African carbon emission is just about 4 percent compared to those of the developed countries.
In her paper, she mentioned the issue of energy justice. Adding that in the case of the international oil companies divesting from fossil energy businesses should not be the discussion but the wake of environmental devastation they are leaving in their host communities. She also talks about the Green Mineral extraction and its effect on the environment. “Nowhere in the world that the issue of environmental devastation is felt more compared to that in Africa,” she said. Additionally, the economy of Africa is reduced by 15 percent by climatic change.
