African countries are losing up to five percent of their gross domestic products (GDPs) a year due to the impacts of climate change, outgoing coordinator of the Committee of African Heads of State and Government on Climate Change (CAHOSCC) and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Sunday.
Ramaphosa said Africa is experiencing the worst impacts of phenomena associated with global warming such as droughts, floods and cyclones.
“Climate change impacts are costing Africa between three and five percent of their GDPs. Despite not being responsible for causing climate change, it is Africans who are bearing both the brunt and the cost,” Ramaphosa in an address to the CAHOSCC meeting.
He noted that the COVID-19 pandemic had “set back multilateral processes, including around climate change.”
“It is imperative that we do not lose momentum, and that climate change is not relegated to the periphery of the global development agenda.”
He congratulated African countries for speaking with one voice during the 26th Conference of Parties (COP26) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change held in Scotland at the end of 2021, but bemoaned the sluggish progress by developed countries to stick to their pledge to provide US$100 billion annually to assist developing countries to cope with climate change impacts.
“As we prepare for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change COP27 taking place in the Arab Republic of Egypt in November, Africa must once more speak with one voice, expressing their unwavering,” Ramaphosa said.
He announced that the continent had developed the African Climate Change and Resilient Development Strategy and Action Plan 2022-2032 that was expected to be launched on Sunday.
“It provides a broad outline for harmonised and coordinated actions to respond to the impacts of climate change, as well as to plan for the continent’s low-emission and climate-resilient future.”
JN/APA