![]() As African countries take steps to grow their economies, ensuring that climate dialogues and decision-making are inclusive of the continent’s needs and priorities will be key to ensuring that future emissions from the region do not eclipse progress made elsewhere. Under President Biden’s leadership, the United States is working to reestablish its leadership on international climate action, and is taking steps to break with the previous administration’s foreign policy. Often missing from these conversations is the recognition that African countries are in fact critical partners for global climate change response. Historically, the continent has contributed the least of any global region to fossil fuel emissions, yet it is already experiencing some of the world’s most dramatic changes in terms of drought, flooding, heat waves, and viable land use. In discussions of climate change, African countries are usually portrayed as victims of climate impacts, rather than as contributors to the crisis. But on their own, they will not be enough. The actions of countries in these regions-especially the United States, China, and India-are key to global success on climate. Much of the planet’s hope for maintaining a livable climate depends on that trend continuing, and the focus of emissions reductions skews heavily towards the actions of the world’s largest emitters, which are largely concentrated in North America and Asia. In 2019, for the first time, CO2 emissions in both the European Union and the United States declined.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |