2015 UN Climate Change Summit in
Paris: Africa Must Go As a Team
By Mawutodzi Kodzo Abissath
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| How industrialized nations contributed to global warming over the years |
A
legendary broom stick of Ghanaian folklore says: “When I stand alone I cannot
sweep and even a baby can break me up into pieces. But when we are bound
together we sweep beautifully and a giant cannot break us up into pieces!”
UN Climate Change Summit 2015
On
Saturday, August 22, 2015, the Daily
Graphic carried a well-researched feature on page six (6) of its GLOBAL
OUTLOOK column. The academic piece was written by no less a person than H.E. Jon
Benjamin, the British High Commissioner to Ghana. The headline of the article
was: “100 Days to Paris – Securing a Global Deal and Transitioning to a Low Carbon
Future.”
It
was the sub-heading “Securing a Global Deal and Transitioning to a Low Carbon
Future” that fascinated me. In Political Ecology of Global Environmental
Politics, it is known that when countries engage in debates during negotiations
at global forums of the UN World Environmental Programme (WEP), some advanced
nations tend to adopt some funny tricks or strategies to their advantage.
Analytically
and critically, I read the High Commissioner’s article with rapt attention. And
I could deduce that if the author is not an expert in environmental issues,
then he a fantastic writer who knows his stuff. I have enjoyed every bit of his
argument and totally agreed with him on all five critical points raised, except
one. Although I cannot claim to be an environmental expert, it is from that
point of disagreement that I am struggling to write this article for the
attention of African environmental gurus. I should be pardoned for my ignorance
mercifully!
Contribution to Global Warming
First
of all it has been noted that out of 17-paragraph-exposé, the author named
Ghana eleven times and the European Union five times. But he did not mention
his own country Britain at all. In fact, the article did not refer to any individual
European nation by name except Paris, the capital of France where the summit
takes place in 100 days. Why did the
author not mention any European country by name? It is simply because all
European nations are going to Paris under the banner of the European Union.
They are not attending the summit individually as Britain, or Germany, or Italy,
or Portugal etc. Is Africa Union (AU) alive and kicking?
In
paragraph 11 of his article, the learned High Commissioner wrote: (…) “For all
these reasons, the EU has and will continue to play a strong climate active role
in contributing to global climate agreement. Recognising that we have a common
responsibility to reduce global emissions, the EU submitted its Intended
Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) to the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNCCC) in March.”
Then he added: “Our contribution commits us to a binding target of at
least a 40 percent domestic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030
(compared to 1990 levels).”
From the above quoted paragraph, our beloved Diplomat
was informing the world about the 40 percentage point of greenhouse gas
emissions the EU has agreed to reduce. What the High Commissioner did not tell
the globe is what percentage of greenhouse gas emissions EU has contributed to
the rise or increase in global warming since the 18th Century to
date.
It is common knowledge that it was the Great
Britain that started the industrial revolution. And it is in Europe that some
of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions are climatically devastating. How many industries or greenhouse gas
emissions has Ghana contributed to global warming or temperature rise levels
globally since the creation of the world? Ghanaian scientist should find out!
Commending Ghana
Diplomatically,
however, the writer commended Ghana highly for “mitigation actions” as far as
climate warming and greenhouse gas emissions were concerned. His concluding
paragraph reads: “We very much hope that Ghana will be a vocal advocate in
Paris of an ambitious global deal that keeps all of us on track to achieve the
grand total average temperature from increasing beyond 2 degrees Celsius more
than it was in the pre-industrial age.”
Ghana may be having her fair share of global warming, but who set the
industrial age into motion?
Furthermore,
in January 2014, Concordia University, based in Canada, conducted a study on global
warming and it was found out that of
about 194 member states of the United Nations, just seven (7) of them were
contributing to over 60 percent of total global warming. The study identified
the United States of America, China, Russia, Brazil, India, Germany, and United
Kingdom as being the biggest contributors of “man-made global warming.”
The
research indicated that out of the seven, the US alone is responsible for
global temperature increase of 0.5 degrees Celsius, that
is about 20 percent of global warming. China and Russia 8 percent, India and
Brazil 7 percent, UK and Germany 5 percent. Not a single African country was
among these biggest global climate offenders, let alone Ghana. www.natureworldnews.com/article/5664/20140116/seven-nations-contributed-60-percent-global-warming-study.htm
If not yet, then it is suggested the AU should
quickly convene a meeting of environmental experts for the Continent to adopt
its “Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) to the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNCCC)” like the EU, before December
2015!
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The
author works with the Information Service Department (ISD) Accra. abissath@gmail.com
