APA-Dakar (Senegal) Senegal’s President, Macky Sall Thursday in Dakar pleaded the case for the so-called green economy with a view to improving access to basic energy in the quest for climae justice and sustainable development.
He warned delegates at the sixth edition of the World Forum on Social and Solidarity Economy (Gsef 2023) which opened in the Senegalese capital that global warming poses an existential threat to the planet which is mankind’s common habitat.
The Senegalese leader therefore saw it as imperative for stakeholders to find common cause taking into account differentiated responsibilities of countries in the face of climate peril,
President Sall said the green economy should be adopted as one of the solutions to environmental and climate threats, exhorting stakeholders to work towards sustainable development ”through low-carbon economic policies…which are fair and equitable to make the difference”.
Championing the cause of climate justice, President Sall also reminded delegates that the world’s poorest countries which account for far less of the world’s environmental pollution should not bemade to bear the brunt from global warming.
He said the world’s most industrialised nations should shoulder such responsibilities given that their emissions are being blamed for plunging the plant into a climate change emergency unprecedented in human history.
The Senegalese leader reasoned that developing countries deserve a fair if not equitable share of the world’s energy transition, which would reverse the energy fortunes of over 600 million Africans living daily without electricity.
He warned that in the absence of basic energy in their lives, the economic competitiveness of such hapless Africans would remain low and suggested an international mobilisation for a more united world front against climate change.
“All of us, together, countries of the North and South, state and local authorities, the private sector, opinion leaders and citizens, must remain mobilized to contribute to the search for concerted and effective solutions” he enthused.
He drew the forum’s attention to the deleterious impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and the conflict in Ukraine on the shaky economies of developing nations which have been further weakened in the past three years and require innovative and supportive responses to bounce back from these crises.
The Senegalese president described young people and women as belonging to the most vulnerable social grouping especially on the issue of empowerment, employability, access to credit and take home pay.
“That is why, with regard to Senegal, I set up in 2018 the Delegation for Women’s and Youth Entrepreneurship (DER/FJ) to help their economic insertion through the granting of loans, including nano-credits, on soft terms, but also through coaching and counseling,” he pointed out.
The World Forum on Social and Solidarity Economy or GSEF2023 Dakar which runs until May 6th is being co-hosted by the City of Dakar and the Network of Actors and Local Authorities for Social and Solidarity Economy (RACTES).
Thay are hosting the forum in collaboration with Senegal’s Ministry of Microfinance and Social and Solidarity Economy.
It is themed “Social and Solidarity Economy and Territories: The transition from the informal economy to collective and sustainable economies for the territories”.
WN/as/APA