Kenya to host Africa Climate Summit slated for September

The Committee of African Heads of State and Government on Climate Change (CAHOSCC) will meet up in Nairobi, Kenya, from September 4-6 this year, the Kenyan leader has announced.
“I am convening a Climate Action Summit in Nairobi, to take place from September 4-6, 2023. There is consensus in this meeting that Africa is the continent of the future. It is time to escalate this consensus and propel Africa to join the leadership of global climate action. This is the momentous mandate that we, as CAHOSCC, must now provide,” President William Ruto who coordinates the committee said in a statement.
Ruto argues that hosting the meeting is in keeping with the pledge to advance opportunities in green industrialisation, as well as the Green Agenda for Africa.
The Kenyan leader has called for an overhaul of the financial system to connect climate action and development finance, Nation Africa reports. For the African leader the present set-up of the global economic and financial system is inequitable and inadequate in the face of the challenges confronting the continent.
“We are adding our strong voice to the now urgent calls for the reform of international financial institutions and multilateral development banks, these reforms must proceed all the way to the radical overhaul of international financial infrastructure and institutional architectures to make sure that funds are accessible, affordable, mobilize relevant technology, are adequate and most importantly, timely, ” he said.
“Yet as dire as it gets, this situation is further exacerbated by geopolitical upheaval whose disruptive effect have impaired global logistics, driven up energy prices, pushing the cost of basic commodities beyond the reach of millions of severely impoverished people, and further diminishing the resilience of many economies that are still contending with post-pandemic recovery, ” Dr Ruto said.
“In order to radically change the course of events and switch our course back from a headlong rush to the precipice, we must commit as leaders that CAHOSCC deliberations about our continent are action-oriented,” he further stressed. For Ruto, Africa’s contradictions and paradoxes must be reconciled in order to chart a path that will take us out of our present challenges.
“Energy poverty persists in our continent, where 600 million people have no access to electricity, while 970 million live without clean cooking fuels and technologies,” he said.
The CAHOSCC was established in 2009 by the AU Assembly of Heads of State and Government to spearhead African Common Position on Climate Change and to ensure that Africa speaks with one voice in global climate change negotiations.