African leaders have criticized their European counterparts for missing a summit in Rotterdam on how Africa can adapt to climate change. While three African presidents flew to Netherlands for the African adaptation summit on Monday, only Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte was to meet them. Rich countries have unmet promises to financially support poorer countries in boosting climate resilience.
Senegal’s president, Macky Sall said “I cannot help but note with some bitterness, the absence of leaders from the industrial world. I think if we made the effort to leave Africa to come to Rotterdam, it would be easier for the European and others to be here”. Ghana’s president, Nana Akufo-Addo associated himself “wholly with the sentiments of President Mack Sall about the certain vested to be present with us at this meeting” and the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) president Felix Tshisekedi said “it is my turn to also deplore the absence of leaders of industrial nations”.
Ethiopia’s president Sahle-Work Zewde, speaking by video link, echoed their criticisms. She added “sometimes, we should not appear to be talking to each other while those who should be with us are not present”. United Nations Deputy Secretary Amina Mohammed said the meeting was “loop-sided” and “a bird only flies on two wings”. She praised African leaders for showing up, adding “it’s not because they (the African leaders) don’t have anything important to do back home”.
Unmet Promises.
In 2009, rich countries promised to deliver $100 billion a year to developing countries in climate finance by 2020. They fell $817 billion short of this target in 2020 and are yet to meet it. With the US responsible for the vast majority of the short fall.
At the meeting in Rotterdam, Mack Sall linked this failure on finance to the viability of African emission reduction measure. Senegal is promoting offshore oil and gas exploration while DRC is auctioning off oil concessions in rain forests and peat lands.
Sall said “when countries of Africa are asked to renounce polluting developments seal with current state of emergency on the planet, it is only fair that as a counterpart, the cost of adaptation to this should be shared equitably also notably the financial commitment of $100 billion a year. Analysis of six African nations plan by power shift Africa fund on average, they are investing the equivalent of 2.8 % of GDP on adapting to climate change. The UN Environment programme estimates that developing countries will collectively have to spend up to $300 billion a years on adapting by 2030.
Rich countries pledge at last year’s COP 26 summit to double their adaptation finance contribution from 2019 levels by 2025. This would increase it from $20 billion a year to $40 billion. A group of self proclaimed “adaptation champions”, which does not include the US, has formed to try and meet this goal. In Rotterdam, the European commission’s climate leader, Frans Timmermans said that any European citizens would not be persuaded by the “moral point that those suffering the most consequences are not responsible for creating the crisis”.
He said “let’s be frank, many of our citizens in Europe will not buy this argument today because their worries are limited to their own existence in this energy crisis, in this inflation crisis. This might seem very strange from an African perspective but it’s always what is closer to your own worries is bigger than someone else’s worries”. A move convincing argument for Europeans, Timmermans said that “without success in Africa, there can be no success in Europe, our destinies are so intimately intertwined that if we are not collectively responsible for development in Africa, for Africa being able to use the opportunities it has will sink together in an ocean of despair”.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte joined the meeting for the afternoon session. He said “I would have loved more of my European colleagues here”. The global centre on adaptation said it had invited the leaders of its traditional funders in France, Norway, Denmark, Canada, and Finland. France’s Emmanuel Macron met instead with French regional leader in Paris while Canada’s Justin Trudea stayed home to deal with a mass stabbing in Saskatchewan.
The government of Finland and Norway did not reply to requests for comments on what their leader Samna Marin and Jonas Gahr Store were doing instead. Denmark Prime Minister, Mette Fiederiksen was occupied with a national military remembrance day but told African leaders by video message “I know that you want Europe to engage more in your struggles and we should”.