The Africa Climate Summit 2023 has culminated in the Nairobi Declaration, with the continent’s leaders asking developed nations to honour their commitments to provide $100 billion in annual climate finance.
African heads of state and governments on Wednesday also called for urgent reform of multilateral financial system in their bid to secure funding for climate mitigation and climate adaptation projects.
The declaration calls for “a new financing architecture that is responsive to Africa’s needs including debt restructuring and relief”, as frustration mounts over the high cost of financing on the continent.
It also asks rich carbon polluters to honour long-standing climate pledges to poorer nations and urges world leaders to back a proposed “carbon tax on fossil fuel trade, maritime transport and aviation”.
The 54-nation continent is acutely vulnerable to the growing impacts of climate change, but the summit largely focused on calls to unlock investment in clean energy.
“A new Africa is there, and it means business,” Kenyan President William Ruto said.
The summit saw funding pledges worth $23 billion “for green growth, mitigation and adaptation efforts” across the continent.
The Nairobi Declaration comes even as the United States maintains it will not pay climate reparations to developing states. At a press conference with journalists on the sidelines of the African Climate Summit, United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry said that while he knew the US was one of the biggest polluters, all the world’s economies were in the same predicament when it came to climate change, and declared that under no circumstances would his country be forced to pay climate reparations.
His statement at the congress and when he spoke to heads of state contradicts his plans to be actively at the forefront of ensuring that a Loss and Damage mechanism is put in place.
Loss and Damage refers to the irreparable effects of climate change that can neither be adapted to nor mitigated.
During his presentation to world leaders, Kerry insisted that the Loss and Damage process should be completed in about a year and sympathised with people affected by climate-related loss and damage.
However, in response to a question from a Nation journalist, he said that his stance on Loss and Damage payments, a form of climate reparations, is that the facility, which was historically agreed at COP27, should not be designed in a “punitive” way.
All he wants is for the Loss and Damage Facility to be exempt from any kind of civil liability that developed countries have to pay for.
“This is not a unique position for the United States and many nations in the world. We have said we are not going to create a liability structure on the court,” he said.
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