The Bonn Conference on Climate Change (also known as SB58) ended on 15 June 2023 at the headquarters of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Germany. This was the last chance for climate negotiators to meet before COP28 in Dubai in December. But the 10-day talks ended without any clear, concrete commitments from developed countries on the recurring problem of financing climate action in low-income countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.
Toute l'actu sur la protection de l'environnement
The Bonn Conference on Climate Change (also known as SB58) ended on 15 June 2023 at the headquarters of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Germany. This was the last chance for climate negotiators to meet before COP28 in Dubai in December. But the 10-day talks ended without any clear, concrete commitments from developed countries on the recurring problem of financing climate action in low-income countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.
The 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) will be held from 30 November to 12 December 2023 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. As is customary, delegates from around the world met in Bonn, Germany, to prepare the broad guidelines for the next COP. These guidelines appear once again to have overlooked the urgent financing needs of the countries most threatened by climate change, particularly African countries.
« According to current trends, Africa’s climate gap is around 1.3 trillion dollars for the decade 2020-2030. Unfortunately, the crucial issue of climate finance in particular did not gain much ground in the negotiations and discussions in Bonn. The failure to make solid progress in finding concrete and sustainable solutions to the ever-growing climate finance gap is particularly worrying in light of the debt crisis facing many African countries today, which is already being exacerbated by climate shocks », says John Asafu-Adjaye, Senior Researcher at the African Centre for Economic Transformation (ACET).
COP28 is billed as the most important since the one that led to the Paris Agreement in 2015. This summit will see the first global stocktaking, an assessment of the progress made towards achieving the objectives of the Paris Agreement. The agreement calls for richer countries to provide $100 billion in climate finance each year, as well as an additional $40 billion to help developing countries adapt to climate change. But this provision has not been respected.
All is not lost, however. On 22 and 23 June 2023, around a hundred leaders will meet in Paris, France, for the Summit on a New Financial Deal to meet the needs of around 2% of gross domestic product (GDP) in emerging economies (excluding China). To achieve this, they are expected to agree on transformational changes such as tripling World Bank lending to low- and middle-income countries, which could reach $1,200 billion by 2030, and agree on the use of International Monetary Fund (IMF) Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) through similar banks.
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Dr Oulie Keita, experte en Développement, née au Mali, a été nommée Directrice Exécutive de Greenpeace Afrique à l’issue d’un processus de recrutement intensif et compétitif visant à faire passer l’organisation à une autre étape de sa lutte pour la justice environnementale.
Dr Keita rejoint l’organisation dans un contexte où de multiples injustices environnementales continuent de sévir sur le continent, notamment la déforestation dans le bassin du Congo, la surpêche en Afrique de l’Ouest, la dépendance aux combustibles fossiles en Afrique du Sud et l’Afrique de l’Est qui est encouragée à se tourner vers l’agriculture écologique. Des défis que devra relever Oulie, du haut de ses 20 années d’expérience en matière de développement international.
« Greenpeace Afrique est à l’avant-garde de la protection et de la préservation de l’environnement sur tout le continent, qui connaît d’énormes défis. Il est essentiel de construire un mouvement dirigé par des femmes et des jeunes qui constituent la prochaine génération de leaders et de gardiens de notre patrimoine et de notre environnement en Afrique. Nous sommes convaincus que Dr Keita rendra ce mouvement plus percutant à travers le continent« , a déclaré Oury Traoré, Présidente du Conseil d’Administration de Greenpeace Afrique.
Les injustices sociales et environnementales en Afrique sont enracinées dans un modèle économique néocolonial basé sur l’extractivisme. Dr. Keita va ainsi coordonner la mise en œuvre de la nouvelle stratégie de l’organisation qui, fondée sur l’éveil de la conscience et de l’esprit africains, vise à démanteler les systèmes qui, historiquement, n’ont servi qu’aux puissances coloniales, et pillent encore l’Afrique pour ses ressources.
« L’Afrique est capable de mener le mouvement mondial en faveur de la justice environnementale. Nous avons suffisamment d’outils pour cela. Nous ne pouvons pas continuer à suivre le reste du monde sur le même chemin qui mène vers la catastrophe climatique. L’Afrique subit les conséquences des activités des grands pollueurs. Des organisations comme Greenpeace Afrique sont à la pointe de la lutte contre le changement climatique, montrant qu’il est possible de changer cette trajectoire, de gagner des batailles environnementales et sociales, et de promouvoir des modèles de développement alternatifs qui valorisent notre lien avec la planète et avec les autres« , a déclaré le Dr Keita, la nouvelle Directrice Exécutive de Greenpeace Afrique ».
« Les femmes et la jeunesse africaines méritent un avenir prometteur et brillant. La crise climatique a des conséquences désastreuses sur elles, les privant ainsi de leurs droits. Notre défi essentiel est de faire en sorte que les gouvernements, les pollueurs et les entreprises à but lucratif soient stoppés dans leur élan et empêchés de détruire notre avenir« , a ajouté le Dr Oulie Keita.
Dr.Keita rejoint Greenpeace Afrique avec derrière elle une expérience combinée de plus de 20 ans dans le domaine du développement international, ayant travaillé entre autres sur les questions politiques, de plaidoyer et de lobbying à divers niveaux. Elle a une solide expérience dans le domaine du développement, de la paix et de la sécurité, avec un accent particulier sur l’autonomisation des jeunes, les questions de genre et la protection de l’environnement. Au cours des trois dernières années, le Dr Keita a travaillé en tant que Directrice exécutive de YouthConnekt Africa, couvrant 32 pays sur le continent, où elle a collaboré avec des partenaires pour connecter la jeunesse africaine en vue d’une transformation socio-économique. Mme Keita apporte de facto près de deux décennies de connaissances et d’expérience acquises à divers titres auprès d’agences des Nations unies, d’institutions continentales telles que l’Union africaine (UA), d’organisations internationales et régionales, d’organisations de la société civile et d’organisations communautaires en Afrique.
Le Dr Keita succède à Paul Ngugi, qui a occupé le poste de Directeur exécutif par intérim de Greenpeace Afrique à partir de septembre 2022, remplaçant son prédécesseur, Lagi Toribau, Directeur exécutif par intérim en août 2022.
Greenpeace Afrique
AFRIQUE : Dr Oulie Keita nommée Directrice Exécutive de Greenpeace Afrique
Dr Oulie Keita, experte en Développement, née au Mali, a été nommée Directrice Exécutive de Greenpeace Afrique à l’issue d’un processus de recrutement intensif et compétitif visant à faire passer l’organisation à une autre étape de sa lutte pour la justice environnementale.
Environnementales 10
Environnementales, le plus grand magazine radiophonique de contribution à la protection de l’environnement, célèbre ses 10 ans.
Yaoundé, esplanade de la Radio Tiemeni Siantou, du 27 au 31 mars 2023.
Partenaires, mécènes, sponsors, prenez contact au 674 03 39 89
Environnementales, 10 ans de radio au service de la nature. Egalement disponible sur environnementales.com.
Environnementales 10
Environnementales, le plus grand magazine radiophonique de contribution à la protection de l’environnement, célèbre ses 10 ans.
Yaoundé, esplanade de la Radio Tiemeni Siantou, du 27 au 31 mars 2023.
Partenaires, mécènes, sponsors, prenez contact au 674 03 39 89
Environnementales, 10 ans de radio au service de la nature. Egalement disponible sur environnementales.com.
At the recently concluded 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Egypt, the Central African Forest Commission (COMIFAC) took to the stage to denounce one of the unfulfilled promises of COP26. At the previous summit, donors committed to funding the protection and management of the Congo Basin forests to the tune of 1.5 billion dollars. This commitment is already insufficient. The countries of the sub-region are asking for $100 billion to preserve the forests of the Congo Basin.
The Central African Forest Commission (COMIFAC) was one of the outraged parties at the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27), which was held from 6 to 20 November 2022 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. The organisation, which works for the conservation, sustainable and concerted management of forest ecosystems in Central Africa, has still not received the funds it was promised at COP26 in Glasgow, Great Britain, from 1 to 12 November 2021. « A year ago in Glasgow, Northern countries pledged $1.5 billion to support climate finance in the Congo Basin countries. Since then, we’ve had nothing but words and no concrete funding. It’s time to pay up, because Africa is suffering enormously from the impact of climate change, » says Cameroon’s Forestry Minister Jules Doret Ndongo, current president of COMIFAC.
The amount of 1.5 billion dollars, or more than 980 billion CFA francs, was intended for the development of indigenous peoples and local communities in their efforts to protect tropical forests. This amount is already insufficient in view of the climate emergency. Seasonal disruptions, flooding, drying up of water sources, advancing desert, etc. are some of the climatic phenomena that the populations of this part of the continent have been experiencing regularly in recent years.
A central role in maintaining the global climate balance
To preserve their tropical forests, the countries of Central Africa need much more than the 1.5 billion dollars promised at COP26. Meeting in the city of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on 5 October 2022 ahead of COP27, the forest ministers of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) set a new financial target for the international community. This is a financial envelope of 100 billion dollars per year.
The need for climate financing could be justified by the contribution of the Congo Basin to maintaining the global climate balance. According to COMIFAC’s figures, the Congo Basin, which covers 11 Central African countries, has 24 million hectares of managed forests, including 5.3 million hectares certified according to responsible management standards. Its deforestation rate is estimated at less than 1%, making it one of the largest of the three tropical forest basins, with average greenhouse gas emissions of 530 million tonnes and average absorption of 1.1 billion tonnes of carbon.
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COP27: Comifac demands the funding promised for its forests at COP26
At the recently concluded 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Egypt, the Central African Forest Commission (COMIFAC) took to the stage to denounce one of the unfulfilled promises of COP26. At the previous summit, donors committed to funding the protection and management of the Congo Basin forests to the tune of 1.5 billion dollars. This commitment is already insufficient. The countries of the sub-region are asking for $100 billion to preserve the forests of the Congo Basin.
Two West African crocodiles living in the Parc de la Tête d’Or in Lyon, France have just arrived in Morocco. The 49-year-old male and the 32-year-old female have been installed in the Agadir Crocoparc in order to reproduce. Their young will then be reintroduced into the wild, where the species has been extinct since the 1950s.
The announcement made on 5 July 2021 by Grégory Doucet, the mayor of Lyon in France, has now come true. In early September 2022, two West African crocodiles, a 49-year-old male and a 32-year-old female, arrived in Morocco from the Parc de la Tête d’Or in Lyon, France.
The two reptiles, born in a breeding farm in Chad, had arrived at the Zoo de la Tête d’Or in 1975. They will now live at the Crocoparc d’Agadir, the first crocodile zoological park in Morocco, which opened in May 2015 in the west of the kingdom, where an area has been specially designed for them. It is a pool of about thirty metres in length (larger than their pool in Lyon) with different water levels (between 20 cm and 1.60 m deep). The two crocodiles also have burrows for shelter, similar to what they have in the wild.
The pond in which these crocodiles live is especially suitable for their reproduction. Their arrival in Morocco is part of a programme to reintroduce the species. « My hope is to reintroduce generations from this pair of crocodiles into the gueltas in the south, near the Oued Draâ, where they used to live. A biology student (from the Faculty of Corte in Corsica) has been working on this subject for several months, trying to identify areas where these animals could still be reintroduced, » explains Luc Fougeirol, the director of Crocoparc.
The Moroccan crocodile
The Moroccan crocodile is thought to have disappeared in 1950 from the Guelta de Tanzida in the south of the Cherifian Kingdom, due to desertification and human pressure on natural habitats. « Crocodile skin was in fashion and there was an upsurge in hunting. As long as their presence is no longer of economic interest, wildlife populations unfortunately disappear. The populations living around their habitats really need to find an interest in them, » explains Luc Fougeirol.
The Moroccan crocodile, which is no more than two or two and a half metres long, is genetically identical to its West African counterpart (in Senegal or Ivory Coast). It would therefore have found itself, only a few thousand years ago, isolated in a few gueltas by the emergence and progression of the Sahara. However, it is genetically different from the more massive Nile crocodile, which can weigh more than a ton and lives in a large part of Africa, particularly in the Great Lakes region and in the Nile basin.
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MOROCCO: the reintroduction of the Moroccan crocodile, which disappeared 70 years ago
Two West African crocodiles living in the Parc de la Tête d’Or in Lyon, France have just arrived in Morocco. The 49-year-old male and the 32-year-old female have been installed in the Agadir Crocoparc in order to reproduce. Their young will then be reintroduced into the wild, where the species has been extinct since the 1950s.