Climate activists warn against the commodification of climate crisis

African climate activists meeting in Kigali Rwanda have cautioned against commodification of climate crisis, instead said “it is all about people”.

Speaking on the sidelines of the eighth African Regional Forum on Sustainable Development, Robert Muthami, a climate policy expert and a Programme Coordinator at the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, said that amidst the climate crisis, economic losses as a result are now estimated at USD520 billion annually, “in the end it is human life that is at stake hence a social crisis. And this is what should inform the debates around just transition.”

Muthami states that the people must be central to the call for the political will and the means to implement it.

“When, we in Africa demand raise of ambition in addressing the climate crisis coupled with insecurity and the covid 19 crises, from the background of common but differentiated capacities and respective capabilities, what we mean from Africa is urgent action to save livelihoods which are already at dire risk” he said

He added that science has time and again shown that a rise of temperature above 1.5 ⁰C will incapacitate the African people to adapt. “And am not sure if this is what those in the developed north want,” he posed.

Tracy Sonny, from Botswana and a Board Member of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance, which is Africa’s largest coalition of climate activists who clamour for fair and just climate regimes for the African people noted that the danger Africa faces emanates from bilateral agreements with the governments in the West. Therefore, most governments don’t invest what they have committed and remain on the fossil fuel development pathway.

The global north originated the idea of just transition. This idea was founded on the preservation of capitalistic interests before trade union movements were coopted in order to secure employment opportunities.

This concept outlines principles and demands that workers and communities are not disadvantaged through environmental protection policies. Unchecked, this can seriously compromise environmental and social safeguards.

The idea has gained traction since the publication of ‘Guidelines for a Just Transition towards environmentally sustainable economies and societies for all’ by the International Labour Organisation in 2015 and following its inclusion in the preamble of the Paris Agreement adopted in the same year. However, the definitions of this concept vary across institutions, not just in Africa.

Muthami states that Just Transition is an inclusive support mechanism to climate action and not a concept for slowing down action.

“Just Transition is a tool aimed at smoothing the shift towards a more sustainable society and providing hope for the capacity of a green economy to sustain decent jobs and broadly livelihoods for all,” said Muthami.

Eugene Nforngwa is the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance’s energy thematic leader. He said that the expression reflects a range of concerns about the potential negative effects of decarbonisation in multiple sectors on equality, access to resources, and development.

There is a growing need for a wider conversation about development rights. As nations abandon certain types of productive activity to align with global decarbonisation goals, there is a greater need for broader discussions.

“This includes risks of asset stranding as nations and other actors phase out fossil fuels and certain extractive sectors (upon which most developing economies rely). Analysts in certain fields have coined the expression “just development” to embrace this burgeoning scope,” he said.

Hope Okuthe, of PACJA puts it in a plain language “Just Transition should be by the people and for the people supporting local development with Africa leading the solutions. This should not be a trade-off between transition and development”

“Africa needs to guard against polluters taking control of her desire to transit to low carbon.  In such a context the risk to compromise Africa’s future with high cost of energy mix is real” asserted Jiata Ekelle from Civil Society Development Network, Nigeria.