African civil society organisations championing for climate justice have criticised the Intended Nationally Determined Commitments (INDC’s) presented to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, calling them “weak, inadequate and not ambitious enough.”
“If you study carefully what has been submitted by the developed countries like, Russia, USA and EU compared to that from poor countries, you will clearly see that goalposts have been shifted to have Africa bare mitigation and adaptation costs, which goes against the principle of Common But Differentiated Responsibility and Respective Capacity (CBDR+C) of the Convention” said Sam Ogallah, the Programme Manager at the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) – the umbrella organisation that brings together over 1000 African civil society organisations.
At the previous UNFCCC negotiations, countries agreed to publicly outline climate actions they intend to take, geared towards mitigation and adaptation to the changing climatic conditions, in a pact that came to be known as Intended Nationally Determined Commitments.
But just weeks after the submission deadline, African civil society organisations feel that rich countries, which are responsible for global warming, are taking advantage of poor countries who are already suffering the effects of climate change.
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Initiated in 2015, the French Ministry for the Armed Forces organized the first international conference “Defence and climate: what are the stakes?”. Since then, the Ministry has been constantly adapting and developing its capacity of anticipation.
On 25 January 2019, the UN Security Council held an open debate to discuss the security implications of climate-related disaster events. The meeting, initiated by the Dominican Republic, underscored the global nature of climate-related disasters. Most speakers highlighted the need for better climate risk management as an important contribution to safeguarding international peace and security. The debate marks the beginning of a year in which climate security ranks high on the UN’s agenda.
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