Climate and Change at the World Economic Forum on Africa 2008

Thursday, 19 June 2008 | posted by Gillion Bosman

Climate Change: An inconvenient opportunity.

Africa will be the continent hardest hit by climate change, facing losses estimated at between 1.9-2.7% of GDP, unless significant mitigation measures are agreed upon. What is the best strategy Africa can adopt in the current negotiations on climate change? What opportunities does climate change create for Africa? How can African businesses take advantage of these inconvenient opportunities and play a role in shaping the negotiations? This was the questions posed to the delegates at the session on climate change, Kuseni Dlamini, Executive Chairman, Richards Bay Coal Terminal, South Africa, Monty Jones, Executive Director, Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa, Ghana, Kiyoshi Kurokwa, Science Adviser to the Prime Minister of Japan and the moderator Caroline Lambert, Southern Africa correspondent, The Economist, South Africa.

This panel was tasked with discussing the issues that face us on the African continent and as a young person managing a climate change project and also as a representative of the Guildford group, I feel that it is my duty to share with you the session and also to put the conversations that we had at the WEF into context. I was very disappointed at the discussion that I took part in. The session lacked content of how we can clearly fight climate change and what the panel lacked was answering the questions that they were posed. Most of the panellist took the bottom down approach where the business and government sector is expected to take the lead on addressing climate change. But some agreed with me that there should be a bottom up approach and the people that are worst affected by climate change should be involved in the way it is handled.

The private sector perspective felt that there should be a clear strategic issues outline on the burning agenda. They also felt that climate change presented business with the opportunity for entrepreneurship. What they were reluctant to focus on was public education and although some felt the private sector should be heavily involved in raising awareness they agreed that government should lead this drive. One of the biggest questions that I had was where we as Africans are placed in the debate? Are we active participants or are we just in the background and taking instructions from the West.

The session was very clear in terms of what they wanted government to do and they felt that African governments must invest in more research and there should be more postgraduate and masters studies. There should also be a greater focus on adaptation as well as advocating. We need to start looking at how we can adapt the changes to our climate this can include agricultural management.

The role of young people were also highlighted when the panel included but this was only done when we questioned role that youth could play. In conclusion it was felt that we need to empower Africa's minds and start with civil society as they are at the core of Africa's ability to meet the stresses of climate change.