Africans unite over climate

2008-11-21 18:04

Algiers - African countries have agreed to negotiate as a bloc in talks on a new global warming treaty, a move meant to give the continent highly threatened by climate change a greater say in the future pact.

In a first, delegates from Africa's 53 nations signed an "Algiers Declaration" here overnight on Wednesday that seeks to ensure that the continent's voice is heard when the replacement to the Kyoto Protocol is discussed.

Algerian Environment Minister Cherif Rahmani said at a meeting on Thursday that Africans will focus on making sure the world allots enough funds to fight the expansion of deserts, to protect forests, and to create sources of renewable energy - the three fields where Africa has most at stake.

The world's poorest continent, Africa contributes very little to global warming-related pollution, yet its people are by far those who risk most from climate change, UN officials say. About 250 million Africans face the prospect of severe drought by 2020, UN experts say, in large part because of global warming.

Under the Algiers agreement, African governments will create a joint task force meant to forge a common position that they can bring to climate talks. It was not immediately clear, though, how the joint African bloc could affect the negotiations.

UN meetings in Poznan, Poland, next month are meant to build an outline for the new treaty. The pact is meant to be completed in December 2009 in Copenhagen, and will replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on reducing so-called greenhouse gases.

French Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo said the Algiers Declaration would pave the way for Africa and Europe to negotiate on a common position for the Copenhagen agreement. A deal might be reached by the Poznan talks, Borloo said.

Europe wants the Copenhagen treaty to reduce by 20% the amount of carbon dioxide discharged into the atmosphere from transportation, industry and power generation.

US President-elect Barack Obama declared this week he would establish annual targets to reduce US carbon emissions by about 15% by 2020, and aim to lower them another 80% by 2050.

Obama's commitments fall short of European and UN goals. But "it's already a spectacular progress" compared to the George W Bush administration, Borloo said.

Bush declined to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. China also refused to sign, meaning the world's two largest emitters are not included in the treaty, which expires in 2012.

- AP