Africa, global warming and aid

This Day (Nigeria): A group called The Africa Group whose spokes person is Ethiopian leader Meles Zenawi has made a demand for N30bn to be granted African countries to tackle environmental damages caused by climate change. According to the plan, the start up funding will span three years from 2010 to 2012 with yearly release of $10billion.

Mr. Menawi quite responsibly, as if reading the lips of his global audience, advised that the funding should be put in a trust fund to be administered by a group of trustees composed of equal number of donor and recipient countries. On long term financing, he proposed that this should start by 2013 to reach up to $50bn per annum by 2015 and $100bn per annum by 2020.

From the tone of the Ethiopian leader's address, African countries expect the Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change to open a flood gate of economic opportunities in terms of aid to finance their environmental ravages of floods and green gas emission.

In essence, the tap of aid which has hitherto been dry given the unfulfilled promises of G20 countries will now be plumbed to flow freely after the Copenhagen Climate Conference. This therefore means that African leaders need to be reminded of what Copenhagen Climate Conference was all about and be told in clear terms that relying on foreign aid and carrying the begging bowl at international summits, lower their human dignity and do not make for sustainable economic growth in developing countries especially in Africa….

Topographic map of Africa by Bamse, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License