Many African governments are neglecting the climate emergency while the continent is facing the highest risk of climate and biodiversity crises, Greenpeace warned.
In his inaugural address, Macky Sall, the new current chairperson of the African Union (AU), briefly mentioned environmental protection as one of the “many and pressing” challenges facing the continent.
According to the NGO Greenpeace Africa, this issue deserves the full attention of the Senegalese head of state. For, Africa is very vulnerable to the effects of climate change, the NGO said.
“Industrialised countries have the historical responsibility of being at the origin of climate change, but the climate crisis is a global threat and African leaders have a shared responsibility to act now to save the planet,” said the head of the Oceans campaign at Greenpeace Africa, Dr. Aliou Ba, in a statement seen Friday by APA.
According to Greenpeace Africa, climate change, which manifests itself in drought, floods, difficulties in accessing water and livelihoods, can be a source of violent conflict because resources are dwindling.
With this in mind, Dr Ba urged President Sall to use his diplomatic skills to develop a pan-African response based on the African Union’s Agenda 2063.
ARD/id/lb/abj/APA