African Climes

COP 27 refers to the annual climate summit attended by all members of the UN Climate Change treaty. In 2022, this is taking place in the resort city of Sharm-el-Sheikh in Egypt as from November 6 th to 18 th . The summit comes hot on the heels of COP26, the pivotal meet that took place last year in Glasgow. It takes place in quite a crucial year, 2022, because of events in the international space. There are tensions around global energy supply and the effect on energy security which underpins economic development and stability for many countries.   Also there are shocks in food supply chains and disruptions in the manufacture of products such as fertilizers. Significantly, climate related events have grabbed world headlines in negative ways this year. COP27 comes on the backdrop of intense floods that covered well over 30% of Pakistan and caused massive damage, the floods in Nigeria, and the scorching heat waves in Europe of which this year’s summer was the hottest in half a m...

Transparency refers to the clarity and visibility of the work done in climate action. It is clearness in the processes and efforts in the climate fight. Because the nature of climate change is that it is a global challenge, it needs a concerted worldwide effort to deal with it. This necessitates all hands on deck, and internationally the governing body, the UNFCCC, follows the principle of common but different responsibilities and the cutting of emissions according to respective capabilities. That is, everyone should carry out mitigation, but as according to their levels of emissions. Therefore big emitters should cut more and so on. Consequently all efforts to implement the purposes of the UN convention on climate change should be transparent and clear. Transparency is an important part of the climate fight, being involved in practically every aspect of climate action. In emissions reduction, it is necessary for every concerned party to openly see that polluting entities are clear...