The first ever Africa Climate Mobility Initiative (ACMI) was officially launched this week at the headquarters of the African Union (AU) in Addis Ababa with the mission to enhance coherence in the continent’s approach to addressing climate change, an official statement obtained Sunday by APA in Kigali said.
The new initiative also aims at monitoring the implementation of the Blue Economy Strategy which addresses in part issues of climate change and biodiversity conservation while boosting economic development of communities, it said.
Monique Nsanzabaganwa, the African Union Commission Deputy Chairperson who presided over the high-level launch said the launch of an Africa Climate Mobility Initiative has come at a very critical time where global solidarity and shared responsibility is no longer a choice but a central philosophy for governance of global affairs.
“we are calling for transformative action to save lives and livelihoods of the victims of climate forced displacements by integrating solutions into the national and international macroeconomic frameworks that pursue equitable development, interlinkages among conflict, natural disasters and population movement,” she said.
Latest by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) indicates that much of Africa has already warmed by more than 1 °C since 1901, with an increase in heatwaves and hot days.
A reduction in precipitation is likely over North Africa and the south-western parts of South Africa by the end of the century, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
Africa, while currently responsible for a negligible amount of total global greenhouse gas emissions, is under significant threat from climate change, it said.
CU/abj/APA