Since yesterday like many similar minded Kenyans and Africans at large with some sort of grasp on matters climate change, I’ve been closely follow the ongoing Africa Climate Summit at the KICC in Nairobi. I’m excited of course, seeing an event of such magnitude taking place on our home soil. This means a lot to us ordinary folks who by the way are the most affected by climate change.
Come COP28 in Dubai, UAE, we must have a united voice and a progressive agenda to present on the world stage as Africa.
Learnt a new term as well, “Carbon Credits” and if half the talk I’m hearing about it is legit, then as a young African farmer with a couple of trees to his name, I’m optimistic. Through climate financing we can change our future for the better, but only if our leadership and those leading the African voice on the Global arena are serious.
In the same breath, going by the number of representations from the so called Global North gracing the event, I’m a bit pessimistic. I’m obliged to agree with those dissenting voices outside KICC. If these “visitors” only attended to watch and listen, and take notes, and ask questions later like what happened at the BRICS summit in South Africa. You can’t trust these folks. At the Africa Climate Summit, unfortunately these intruders have a voice, and they’re here with their on agenda. Most likely to undermine us like they have always been doing.
Even the so called African speakers, few are honest. Few have a grasp on the the reality of what’s happening at the grassroots. And if we’re not careful, at the end of the summit the only winners would be those foreign owned companies being given a platform to market themselves. The biggest losers will be us poor Africans depending on rain-fed farming to put food on the table and send children to school.
As Africans we need to be told in layman’s terms how we stand to gain in our little conservation efforts. Otherwise this summit will be nothing more than a social place for our fancy technocrats out to search for more handouts from the West.