By Zhu Weidong
CHINESE State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi made it clear in his remarks at the reception commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) on Nov 12 that China is ready to work with Africa on a framework of strategic cooperation on climate change to jointly tackle this challenge.
Just several days before his speech, scholars from China and Africa who attended the 3rd sub-forum on “China-Africa Cooperation on Climate Change” of the 9th China-Africa Think Tank Forum held in Beijing on Nov 5-6 also called on both sides to fight climate change together. In fact, China and Africa have made cooperated on climate change in the past few years. Though Africa generally contributes less to total global greenhouse emissions (4 percent or so), the scale of climate change impacts on Africa is devastating and will be even more significant in the future.
The impacts of climate change in Africa are so worrisome that studies have considered the continent as the most vulnerable in the world. For instance, six of the 20 countries that are most vulnerable to climate change are African.
According to UN Environment Program, global warming of 2˚C would put over 50 percent of the continent’s population at risk of undernourishment. Projections estimate that climate change will lead to an equivalent of 2 percent to 4 percent annual loss in GDP in the region by 2040. Assuming international efforts keep global warming below 2°C, the continent could face climate change adaptation costs of $50 billion per year by 2050.
Most common climate events in Africa are drought, flooding, desertification and land degradation. According to the research, climate change in Africa has caused and will cause great adverse effects on infrastructure, agriculture and food security, human health and access to water. Climate change in Africa also has resulted in the forced migration and even conflicts in some parts of Africa, seriously threatening the political and economic stability and in turn damaging the sustainable development in Africa. Just as the message from Dr. Donald Kaberuka, president of the African Development Bank Group, said, “We have two challenges, fighting global poverty and fighting climate change. Fail the one, fail the other.”
The implication of climate change on development makes both mitigation and, in particular adaptation, essential to responding to the impacts on climate change. China has made great efforts in improving the capacity for climate change adaptation and mitigation and for sustainable development in Africa. China and Africa have a long history of cooperation. The building of the China-Africa Community with a shared future and the synergy of the BRI with the 2063 Agenda of the African Union and the national strategies of the African countries provide more opportunities of the cooperation on climate change. China has indeed implemented many climate change cooperation programs with African countries under the China’s Africa Policy and the Action Plans of the FOCAC.
For example, China’s Africa Policy Paper published in 2006 states China will promote cooperation with Africa on climate change by increasing scientific and technological cooperation. China’s second Africa Policy Paper published in 2015 stipulated cooperation on climate change as being one of the six areas for which China’s assistance would be primarily used, and that China will boost and consolidate cooperation with African countries under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
In 2009, China and African countries agreed to include cooperation on addressing climate change as one of the new areas for cooperation under the FOCAC. Since then the Action Plans adopted in the following FOCACministerial conferences all contained the provisions on climate change cooperation between both sides.
From past experience, China-Africa cooperation on climate change focuses mainly on the financing, climate infrastructure building and capacity building, as well as the development of green and renewable energy for African countries.
– The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
