“Delegates to Africa Climate Week urged to reject ‘false’ solutions to climate change” 

Delegates attending the Africa Climate Week in Accra, Ghana, have been told to be wary of false solutions to the climate change phenomenon that fossil fuels industry trade associations promote to open Africa to the highest bidder. Climate justice groups fear that with the International Emissions Trading Association, IETA, funding the talks holding from March 18 to 22, with discussions narrowed down to carbon trading and offsets, real solutions that communities on the frontline of the climate crisis advocate may be shoved aside.

The Africa Climate Week will focus on how engagement between State and non‐State actors can be further strengthened in the key sectors for Africa including the role of future carbon markets to achieve enhanced climate action, towards the goals of sustainable development. The high-level segment on March 20 will bring together ministers and senior leaders – including UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa – and focus on areas such as visions for NDCs enhancement and implementation, carbon pricing and markets, as well as the operationalisation of the ambition cycle in the Africa region...

However, civil society groups insist that the funding of climate talks by fossil fuels industry-aligned groups interfere in the arrival at meaningful solutions and create a conflict of interest within governments and the UN system, thereby stalling progress in tackling climate change. Sriram Madhusoodanan of Corporate Accountability said: “The fossil fuel industry drives and profits off of the climate crisis, so it should be nowhere near the rulemaking process. In order to advance real solutions, we need to kick Big Polluters and their trade associations out of the climate policymaking space and anywhere government decision-makers gather.”