By Isaiah Esipisu
PARIS France (PAMACC News) – African civil society organisations at the ongoing Conference
of Parties (COP 21) in Paris today took to the streets to protest against what
they called unnecessary delay of the negotiations.
Speaking to the press just after the protest, Sam Ogallah
of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance said that the civil society will
not be deceived by technical or procedural tricks. “The negotiations on a new
climate deal are struggling due to trust issues and unnecessary delay,” he
said.
He said that the civil society is aware that finance
for adaptation, loss and damage are being pushed out of the Paris text. “This is
already creating anxieties and turning back the progress so far made in
previous climate negotiations before Paris,” he told international journalists
at the conference venue in Le Bourget, in the outskirts of Paris City.
“We were promised that emission cuts would be strengthened
this year, but according to the text, they weren’t. Instead African countries
are been saddled with additional load of paying for climate debt which they
least contributed,” said Augustine Njamnshi from BCDP, Cameroon and
Technical/Political Affairs Chair of PACJA said.
The
negotiations in Paris under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change lasting two weeks are focused on increasing climate actions in the
near-term and on creating a new climate agreement in 2015 – to come in to
effect in 2020.
“In Paris, we demand
equity, fair deal and
legally binding agreement. Countries must be mandated to include
contributions on all the elements including provision of money for adaptation
for developing countries by developed countries.”
Robert Chimambo, of Zambia Climate change Network and PACJA member, said.
He said that if the African negotiators are not careful,
the Paris deal could trigger even greater climate crisis in Africa.
“Africa must stay united and strong in
Paris climate talks. Any climate change deal that is
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