Kemi Busari
Just 9 days to the COP 21 climate change summit to be held in Paris, the United Nations (UN) has charged African countries to be steadfast in their approach to climate change.
This message was conveyed through the organisation’s Assistant Secretary-General on Climate Change Mr Janos Pasztor in a video conference on Thursday 17th November 2015.
Pasztor noted that the continent has the fastest temperature rise in the world although it contributes less to the greenhouse gases that are suspended in the atmosphere.
“All countries need to be part of the solution taking into account their different capacities. Developing countries pledge that they will increase their support up to a hundred billion per year by 2020 but they want assurance on when and how the problem will be solved.
“In the convention, developed countries must take the first step but the developing countries also have increasing responsibility due to the economic and health effects on the continent. It is now down to each country to recognise what they can do with additional support.
Noting that the agreement in the conference must device a solution to climate change, he said that the world needs to reduce its emission level and device techniques of adaptation.
“The first thing is that we need to reduce emissions so that it won’t go up in the atmosphere, it doesn’t matter how we reduce it but it has to be reduced, so the question is how do we share the reduction. This is what we already have in the National Plans and what we need to agree upon in Paris.
“The second part is adapting to climate change because the climate is already changing. Even if we stop the entire CO2 and greenhouse emissions climate will continue to change for decades and centuries because of the harmful gases that are already in the atmosphere and cannot be removed. We have to build more resilient environment.”
Pastor emphasised that chatting a solution to climate change is not yet late even though the effects is already taking toll in some parts of the world.
“It is not too late. The fact that climate is already changing does not mean that nothing can be done. The global temperature level is already at 1 degree centigrade and about 2 in regions with high altitude. Just yesterday, the World Meteorological organisation said that science is good at attributing some happenings to climate change and that is the reality. I think it is not too late to keep the global average level at less than two degree centigrade.
“We have about 166 national climate plans already in submitted, if properly implemented; the climate will be well managed. In addition to national plans, countries need to find the rules of the game on how they will get together to achieve the global aim.”
Pasztor said that the conference should focus on four different areas as there is no other option than reaching an agreement.
“The Paris conference must take note of these four areas; first is the national plans, secondly, we need to reach a global agreement to effect it. In addition to these two, there must be an arrangement of finance and lastly an action plan to be followed religiously.
“There is no plan B because there is no planet B, we must reach an agreement at the conference”
The COP 21UN Climate Change Conference will start on the 30th of November 2015 in Paris, France.
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