Africa's strategy at the climate talks needs a rethink

By Isaiah Esipisu

As the negotiations at the highest decision making authority on how to tackle climate change enters the critical political stage, the outgoing chair of the African group of negotiators has warned if African ministers do not remain vigilant, decisions will be taken without their inputs.

“We have already done our technical part in the negotiations, and we are already advising the ministers accordingly. But if they do not sit in to ensure that the African demands are adhered to, then decisions will be made, and they will be binding to their countries whether they like it or not,” said Dlamini Emmanuel from Swaziland, and the outgoing chair of the African team.


Environment ministers from some of the 194 countries at the UN climate talks in Warsaw are joining negotiators this week to take decisions and agree on particular issues.

“The minister’s session is the most critical stage,” said Emmanuel. “Decisions taken at this point are usually binding, and they come with timelines,” he told a group of African civil society representatives in Warsaw.

One African negotiator, who has been involved with the talks for five years and whose environment minister did not turn up at Warsaw, says the process is all about compromise. “In negotiations, there are no winners.

It is all about compromise and it is all about give and take. And if the ministers are not there to compromise, then the other part takes it all in their absence.”

He notes that some of the biggest challenges facing Africa at the talks include a lack of resources to bring enough negotiators, inconsistencies – such as governments bring on board new negotiators every year who need to learn the ropes – and a failure of negotiators to prepare beforehand.

In previous negotiations, decisions have been taken without involvement of representatives from some African countries either because they were busy elsewhere or they were simply not available to defend their interests.

According to Emmanuel, sometimes negotiations enter into an extra day after the planned end of the talks, and decisions are taken on that day, after African ministers have flown home.

“Nobody will hold on a decision because it is being taken when some ministers have already flown back to their countries following the return trip on their air tickets. A decision will still be made, and it will be binding to all the parties, present and absent,” he said.

Kenyan Mithika Mwenda, the head of African civil society groups under the umbrella of Pan African Climate Justice Alliance, said the biggest problem for Africa is that ministers are often changed, and the ones pushing ahead previously made decisions or pledges are not in many cases the same ministers who passed the resolutions.

“New people always come with new priorities, and this is not always good for a continuous negotiation process,” Mwenda said.

At the talks, negotiators strategise on how to help farmers, individuals and communities adapt to changing climatic conditions, and how to stop climate changing emissions, as well as how to transfer appropriate technologies to poorer countries to enable adaptation and mitigation, and how to finance those activities.

In Warsaw, the African team says their main demands are compensation for loss and damages related to climate change they did not cause, and increases in funding for adaptation and technology transfer.

The developed world, in turn, wants the developing world to take an active role in mitigating climate change, a position that has been criticised by civil society groups from Africa and Asia.

“The entire African continent contributes just three percent of greenhouse gases. Though we are advocating for green economies and advising our people to pollute less, our contibution is too insignificant to worry anybody,” said Muaiwia Hamid Shaddad, president of the Sudanese Environment Conservation Society.

However, the main goal of the negotiations is to find ways to enable people to survive in shifting climatic conditions, reduce further emissions of greenhouse gases which cause global warming, and generally, to make the world a habitable place for the current and the future generations.

“This is our world. And our actions determine our survival,” Mwenda said.