The world's eyes turned to the port city of Durban, South Africa today. As 30,000 delegates from across the globe streamed into various points around town to begin the deliberation of what many believe to be one of the most important meetings in the history of humankind. Those aren't my words but the words of South African anti-apartheid activist and current Green Peace International Executive Director, Kumi Naidoo.
Naidoo was engaged in a discussion today among some of Africa's leading community and faith-based leaders at the Diakonia Centre. Today's "Africans Dealing with Climate Change: Citizens Approach to COP17" was the first meeting I attended at this year's COP inter-faith dialogue program. It is a two day conference sponsored by Idasa (African Democracy Institute) and includes presentations from Hon Awudu Mbaya (president of the Pan-African Network on Climate Change), Dr. Nancy Dubosse and Richard Calland (both of Indasa) and Dr. Naidoo.
The themes covered in today's presentations included:
1) Africa's role within the climate change negotiations
2) The development of an "African Green Climate Fund" to aid African nations in adaptation efforts to deal witht he changes in climate
3) The lack of political will in adopting concrete solutions to climate change
4) The need to educate, equip, and mobilize the people of Africa in regards to the climate justice movement.
Some of the most interesting insights to come out of today's discussions included the follow:
1) 3.1 billion people have acces to electricity worldwide, yet only 30% of Africans have access to it
2) The effects of climate change have already begun to bring massive destruction to the African continent in the form of floods, droughts, and desertification. And while Africa will be untimately bare the biggest brunt from the effects of climate change, it is the lowest emitter of the 6 populated continents
3) Of Africa's 53 nations, only 8 have the "right of access to information" within their public and international policy structures
4) Foreign aid and international development within Africa is indeed a form of investment and must be seen as such (essentially everything comes at a cost)
5) The single greatest challenge facing Africa might be the lack of information sharing structures and legislation (information=international leverage in the negotiation process)
6) Africa must not ask itself the question "Where do we get the money to mitigate and adapt Africa to climate change?" but instead we should ask the following question "How do WE pull ourselves out of this challenge?" (It was stated by Dr. Dubosse that the first question is framed in the mindset of colonialism, the second frees our minds from it)
Some of my favorite quotes came from Green Peace's Dr. Naidoo, including:
"We are living in a global state of environmental apartheid. Separated along the lines of rich and poor, the rich consume as they please and the poor suffer from their consumption."
"Forget about the arms race...the green techonolgy (race) will become the dominant race in determining the world's greatest superpower." (In reference to Naidoo's meeting with China's governmental leaders on climate change)
"The key to addressing climate change is thinking outside the box, infact we should throw the box away."
As you can see we hit the ground running today. This will certainly not be a conference for the weak of heart! While the inter-faith perspective is one steeped in hope and unity, the road ahead will be long and grinding for all delegates involved. Today we were woken up to the sobering realities that Africa faces in this journey. And while these words can be hard to swallow at times, they also inspire us to work harder towards our goals. To hope is to push one's self past the darkness of despair and into the light of possibility. It was South Africa that showed the world that hope is one of the most powerful forces on the planet, as it broke the shackles of apartheid in the 1990's. Maybe it is appropraite then, that the most important of meetings is being hosted here. No better place to sow the seeds of climate justice, to sow the seeds of hope.