The quest for a just, inclusive and green transition in Africa will only be realized if governments and lenders channel greater resources to grassroots-based initiatives aimed at taming the climate crisis, campaigners said Sunday.
The green campaigners said in a statement issued in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, that sustaining low-carbon growth in Africa called for placing communities at the heart of climate mitigation and adaptation financing.
Tracy Sonny, a Botswanan national and board member of the Nairobi-based Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), stressed that people-centered policy, legislative and funding regimes were required to hasten green transition in a continent bearing the brunt of runaway temperature rise.
According to Sonny, communities on the receiving end of climatic shocks should be involved in the design and execution of programs aimed at strengthening their resilience.
Robert Muthami, a Kenyan climate policy expert, said that as African countries raise their ambition toward achieving carbon neutrality, they should prioritize the needs of grassroots communities that have suffered from devastation linked to extreme weather events.
“Even as we ramp up efforts to address the climate crisis, insecurity and effects of COVID-19 pandemic, the interests of local communities must inform this objective to ensure the green transition is just and sustainable,” said Muthami.
There was an urgency to improve the adaptive capacity of vulnerable groups like subsistence farmers, nomads, women, children and the disabled as climate emergencies continue to disrupt their livelihoods, said Muthami, stressing that a people-centered green transition will unleash myriad benefits.
Eugene Nforngwa, the energy thematic lead at PACJA, said that empowering African communities through training, access to capital and innovations is key to boosting the decarbonization of key economic sectors, adding that financial incentives were required to boost uptake of green technologies at the grassroots and arrest runaway carbon emissions that had escalated the climate crisis.
Motorists are seen along a section of the Nairobi Expressway under construction in Nairobi, capital of Kenya, on July 13, 2021.(Photo: Xinhua)
